Microsoft Edge, anyone?

cujo@sh.itjust.works to Linux@lemmy.ml – 106 points –

I recently discovered that you can get Microsoft Edge for Linux (🤢🤮) and am curious... does anyone here use Edge for Linux, or have you ever? What was your reasoning for using it?

EDIT: Well, you all have provided some interesting perspectives I hadn't ever considered. Including one which means I'll have to install Edge, so... thanks, I guess. 😂

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I run an awful lot of MS email for a lot of customers. My own company (literally mine) uses Exchange on prem and I pass all access through HA Proxy. My customers mostly use M365 but one is still on GroupWise (I have known GroupWise for roughly 25 years)

I've seen browsers come and go. My first one was telnet on a VAX through a X.25 PAD and a string of connections via the US (I'm UK) to CERN. First graphical browser was Mosaic on Win 95. I think Mosaic became Internet Explorer - MS don't really innovate - they buy it.

Edge is basically Chromium with knobs on. Chromium is Chrome with knobs removed (sort of!) I can exclusively reveal that Firefox works fine with all version of OWA and Exchange on-line, because that is what I personally use and so do many of my staff and customers.

If you have snags with your uni email then there is something specific there and not your browser choice. Edge doesn't do anything special for OWA it's just yet another Google browser.

Ironically NCSA Mosaic ( the first graphical web browser ) became Netscape which became Mozilla which became Firefox. Internet Explorer was mostly written from scratch.

Around IE5 or so, Microsoft pulled way ahead of Netscape and they basically put Netscape out of business. There was almost no competition for them and they had massive market share which is way IE6 became the anchor weighing down web standards for a decade.

Firefox eventually brought competition back to the browser market and in fact dominated for a while ( with close to 70% market share ). Most of the rest was Microsoft and, until the end, IE was home grown tech from Microsoft.

Then Google introduced Chrome which began a long, slow slide in market share for everybody else. Today, IE is gone and Chrome not only dominates like IE used to. Most of the alternative browsers use the Chrome engine ( Blink ), including Microsoft Edge. Firefox is down to low single digit market share.

At this point, the only real Chrome alternative is Safari which remains popular on the Mac ( and iOS of course ).

Google pays Mozilla to keep Firefox going so they can avoid anti trust lawsuits

@LeFantome @gerdesj I've found a few alternatives to #chrome & #firefox over the years, but most of them weren't all that great....