Microsoft Says Edge is Now the 'Best Performing' Windows 10 Browser (engadget.com) 62
The next release of Edge will be the "best performing" browser available on Windows 10 when it arrives later this week, Microsoft claimed at its Build 2021 event. It said that version 91 contains new features, specifically "startup boost and sleeping tabs" that will push it ahead of Chrome and all other browsers. From a report: Startup boost was introduced in March and works by "running a core set of Microsoft Edge processes in the background," according to the post. At the same time, it supposedly won't use any additional resources when Microsoft Edge browser windows are open. That feature has boosted startup speeds by up to 41 percent, the company claims. In the upcoming build, Microsoft will introduce a "sleeping tabs" feature that immediately puts ads to sleep when you switch to another tab, allowing for "instance resource savings." That promises to boost browser performance and free up memory for other apps, as ads can be highly memory- and processor-intensive.
Should I switch from Chrome? (Score:1)
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Yes, switch to Firefox. It doesn’t send every move you make to the mothership.
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I make $70+ dollars per year in MS Points passively using Bing on my laptop, work PC, and phone.
Bing search is comparative to Google now for vast majority of topics.
If you want free Xbox Live thats a good reason to use Edge / Bing.
But will it (Score:2)
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Yes. Settings --> New Tab Page --> Customize
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I stand corrected. Thanks.
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I have the following snip-it from my Latex file on stuff I've learned and do not want to forget. I expect you could plunk down anything you like in the newtab.html file:
In a directory that you don't want deleted (I used my ~gtall/Applications/Google Chrome Hack/ plunk down the following two files titled manifest.json and newtab.html with the contents respectively:
\begin{verbatim}
{
"name": "Empty new tab page",
"description": "Override the new tab page with an empty page, for user
Well sure (Score:3)
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I have taken what Microsoft says with a warehouse of salt ever since their claim that it would take the lifetime of the universe to break their password encryption (admittedly in the 1990's), which was found to be based on known variables and can now be cracked in minutes.
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(1) Fast is nice. But fast is meaningless if the browser is an ugly piece of shit with a shit UI.
(2) "Microsoft will introduce a "sleeping tabs" feature that immediately puts ads to sleep when you switch to another tab . . . . . ." That promises to boost browser performance and free up memory for other apps, as ads can be highly memory- and processor-intensive.
Why are you "putting ads to sleep"? You should be blocking them. *THAT* is the proper way to boost performance and free up resources.
In summary:
Instant Spam! (Score:1)
...just what I always wanted! Nadella can like read minds.
"Microsoft says..." (Score:4, Insightful)
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**Single core performance only on certain benchmarks. Not faster on multi-core. Requires a huge increase in power consumption. Loses to all Ryzen 5000 processors in most benchmar
All we had to do was reskin Chrome! (Score:3)
Netscape use to the Top browser.
Then they kept on adding features and tried to maintain backwards compatibility to their old version.
Then IE Came along with slimmed down interface, so you can browse faster.
Then they kept on adding features and tried to maintain backwards compatibility to their old version.
Then Firefox Came along with a slimmed down interface, so you can browse faster.
Then they kept on adding features and tried to maintain backwards compatibility to their old version.
Then Chrome Came along with a slimmed down interface, so you can browse faster.
Then they kept on adding features and tried to maintain backwards compatibility to their old version.
Then Edge came along with a slimmed down interface, so you can browse faster.
Do you get the pattern?
Browser makers need to focus on better supporting the Current Web Standards. I haven't yet seen a fully HTML5 [html5test.com] complaint browser yet. Keeping their loading and rendering speeds fast. Having 99% of your load time, because of advanced Tab Management, or dealing with plugins that make your webpage seem like it was written by Jar-Jar Binks, isn't much of a help.
The Web Browser is just a thin client emulator that handles UI from a server. Much like how a VT220 or a 3270 Terminal works, Just with some more graphics stuff, and client side programming.
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Then they kept on adding features and tried to maintain backwards compatibility to their old version.
Backwards compatibility to what? Rendering HTML? That's not backwards compatibility, that's what a browser's supposed to do.
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Netscape use to have a Layers HTML Tag that was for Netscape only, It was kinda like a CSS Position type of statement, as Netscape pushed to have more HTML tags, vs creating an other sub language like CSS (which does make sense). However CSS was better implemented and could do more, so it won.
IE wanted to push ActiveX Technology, So IE Really Lagged in updating a lot of its features and pushed using ActiveX to perform them. I still have some running Code that when it does its Ajax call it determines if
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I remember that terrible time. Some websites weren’t bunches of HTML-files but just one exe-file. Dark times they were.
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Just sitting here, I have 31 copies of chrome in the task bar taking up 3 gigabytes of ram. I only have 25 open tabs. Most of them are not running. Most of them are text pages without animation. A few are text pages with a half dozen static pictures.
This is *insane*.
Best (Score:2)
A slower browser could be best for you, if it actually does what you need and the faster one doesn't. The "core set" of processes might be things I wouldn't touch with any length of pole, such as Office 365 or OneDrive.
Putting ads to sleep is interesting, however I normally just don't allow them in the front door, so I don't worry too much about where they will be crashing at my place.
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Ice Cream (Score:2)
'Sleeping tabs' (Score:2)
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No it will just do racist tweets.
no surprise (Score:4, Informative)
Of course Microsoft is going to say Edge is the best browser. Do you really think they are going to say "Edge is another one of our mediocre products and, yeah, it mostly sucks but please use anyway."
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They will only do that when they want to up sell you onto something better.
And Yet... (Score:1)
Microsoft still can't get S/MIME, their own product, to work with Outlook, also their own product, in Edge, again their own product. It worked in IE, it worked in the original Edge, but not he new one.
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They shouldn't have replaced Edge until their products actually worked in the new one.
Performing? (Score:2)
Performance isn't just speed. But it includes usability, stability, compatibility, cost, security, and aesthetics.
Edge might be fast from a benchmark standpoint. Don't know... haven't tested it.
Folks who work "in a browser" will make choices based on factors that effect their ability to do work comfortably.
So the browser I've chosen works best for me. The browser you use works best for you.
One has to remember that marketing statements like this from Microsoft are not aimed at the intelligentsia of the IT wo
Re:Performing? (Score:4, Interesting)
Too be fair, I would like to use a browser that put Security at the head of the list
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The funny thing is if you turn off things like JavaScript, the browser becomes more secure, but the websites all stop working/displaying properly.
It's almost like the 'net was designed to be insecure...
More background shit? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll start your shit when I'm damn well ready for it to run and not before.
Microsoft lies. (Score:2)
"Best performing" is a purposefully non-specific description. It could be the slowest browser but alas, if their criteria for "performance" is how browsers handles scenario X then it's the best performing. Dot it uses a fraction of the memory but the page has to load ever single time you switch tabs? Least memory memory usage with acceptable load speed.... BEST PERFORMING!
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It sounds like they're preloading some stubs for quicker loading of some of the processes. Not exactly a novel solution, and really any browser could do it if they had the opinion that they owned your computer and could do what they liked with your RAM and CPU cycles
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Yeah and "sleeping tabs" sounds like they are just unloading the page. See, uses less memory which makes better performance.
Startup boost... (Score:4, Insightful)
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So Microsoft says having open tabs won't take up additional resources because those additional resources are being used all the time? This is a feature, why?
It's a flagged as a feature 'cause "marketing".
Startup boost can be disabled: Settings->System->Startup boost (toggle)
(The Sleeping Tabs control is also on the Settings->System page.)
I don't see any Edge related processes running with it disabled and, as I rarely use Edge, don't mind any occasional start up delay. Not really sure why MS thinks this is such a big thing. Many people fire up their browser and leave it up so any initial delay shouldn't really matter that much and other people (li
Re:Startup boost... (Score:4, Interesting)
So Microsoft says having open tabs won't take up additional resources because those additional resources are being used all the time? This is a feature, why?
Because it's not 1999 when we didn't realize that unused RAM is wasted RAM. Fact is Windows is very good at releasing pre-loaded memory if it's needed for something else.
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Even if they're nothing more than some processes that allow rapid loading, for them to be effective, it means they always have to be sitting in RAM, can't be swapped out, and probably either soft interrupts or polling. Preloading is nothing new, it's not a magic solution, it just means more happens at boot up. It's a solution that works well enough with lots of processing power, RAM and SSD drives, but then again, on a system that has the resources, any startup boost is going to be modest anyways. I'm not s
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Because it's not 1999 when we didn't realize that unused RAM is wasted RAM.
Without context, this saying could have a lot of meaning, and be appropriate, or be as utterly meaningless as Optimum calling their internet "gig speed."
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Microsoft has a long history of half-baked optimizations in response to resource utilization problems, going all the way back to NT 3.5, which undermined the stability of the operating system to address the perception the system required an unreasonable amount of memory. Windows Vista was widely perceived as slow, but really it was something worse: it was inconsistent. I think that was the result of relying too aggressively on caching resources to solve performance problems and then running into hiccups w
Not saying much (Score:1)
Considering how unresponsive Windows 10 can be, how mouse clicks don't always register, how focus is wherever W10 thinks it should be, how Office products simply decide to not work for whatever reason, this isn't much to brag about.
It is actually really good (Score:2)
My main computer is Linux (Kubuntu 21.04). Firefox is my primary browser. Chrome is relegated to some school websites only, because not everything works well with Firefox (i.e. - Salesforce Chatter). A couple of months ago I switched to Edge (Dev channel) for all my work-related browsing. My work uses Office 365 as the main productivity suite, and for that use case Edge (Chromium-based) is excellent.
Damn near everything is now web-based for office and development work, and Edge is fast and works with everyt
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Anyway, we use Chrome primarily, so that we can push a bunch of browser policies via Google Workspace. But I need a second browse
Will never use Edge (Score:1)
I won't ever use Edge.
And frankly google/android has gotten pretty creepy too. Evidence from odd advertising that the phone is listening to my conversations. I'm not a particularly paranoid guy but it's pretty blatant.
Duckduckgo is my go to these days. Waiting to hear they've been bought out.
I'm happy for them... but speed isn't enough. (Score:3)
I will (naively) assume that they're being 100% honest. If they say, "Edge is faster in all high-integrity speed tests as performed by a genuinely independent organization," for the sake of argument, I'll accept it as genuine fact.
I will still stick with Firefox because it's an independent foundation whose robust add-on system helps protect my privacy per my own preferences better than Edge does. IF Edge were to have all the same usability and add-ons, I'd honestly consider a switch. But until then, it's Chrome for Google Apps (they just run better on Chrome) and Firefox for everything else.
Preferr Browsers Not Owned by Assholes (Score:2)
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The 30 or so websites under my belt were redone in a responsive way years ago, so that there is essentially one version of a page. While a design firm may think our websites don't look trendy on full size desktops, I think the user is appreciating that we chose function over artsy fartsy. Essentially, all the elements use the available space while considering their own importance - aka the copyright notice remains smaller so that on mobile the two buttons you would probably cl
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Many other companies could be designing just one page
Hint hint, slashdot. Responsive design isn't exactly cutting edge anymore.
why *keep* ads (Score:1)
Put ads to sleep .... damn guys, why not blocking ads instead ?
I mean : okay, google makes its money on ads, understandably chrome natively won't block them.
Reason why Brave rocks.
But... Microsoft could for once sort-of-innovate by copying the *right* features from concurrents.
Put ads to sleep, my f**g god. It clearly means identifying ads as such. Half the job done.
Sad (Score:2)
Nobody will ever know. :-)
Yawn (Score:2)
How about options like disabling autoplay videos/audio?
Anyway, speeding up the 1% just gets us closer to experiencing the 99%. Hooray.
Windows aint done... (Score:1)
Till everything not edge wont run....
Classic Microsoft "innovation"... Chrome and google? Pretty similar. Safari and osx? Hell, that one is even worse. We should ALL help and contribute to mozilla. Those other bastards are killing the net.
Only because it's a resource hog! (Score:1)
Short-lived hype... (Score:1)
Meaning (Score:2)
By best performing do they mean asks to become the default browser more than any others?