Edge on Linux: Thoughts from a Linux user

faust82

@luetage: to be honest, Microsoft doesn't need to do anything to scuttle Linux as a viable desktop option. The Linux community manages to do that all on their own.
I used to be a dedicated Linux user, keeping only one Windows install for gaming, but preferring Linux for everything else due to it's stability and far superior UI. Then over the past 15 years, things changed. Or, more precisely, they didn't. Once again, Linux forked and fragmented, while Microsoft got their act sort of together with Windows 7. Another opportunity was wasted when Microsoft were fumbling about with Windows 8, but then the streaming revolution started to happen and Linux was left behind since DRM was an ideological no-no.
Windows 10.. a jumbled and fragmented mess at first, with it's settings spread across two different control panels. Frustrating, infuriating, but then again nothing I wasn't already familiar with from Gentoo, Debian and others. Remarkably, people forgave them that one too, because they still had better support for online services than Linux, and didn't carry the hefty entry costs that MacOS did.

Now, with Windows 10 in it's fifth year, things falling more and more into place (though still with two control panels) and ways to gimp the telemetry well documented, I don't see how Linux is going to pose any credible threat to the Windows ecosystem.

Also, Microsoft no longer cares. They're back to their initial business model. "We don't care what hardware or OS you run, the apps and services will be from Microsoft".

Edge is merely them testing the waters. Their presence on Android is already substantial, with their own launchers and lockscreens available. Sure, companies run Linux servers, but as long as they're in Azure instead of AWS it's all the same to MS. It's also why they're contributing code to the Linux kernel, to make it work better on their platforms than anywhere else.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a Linux version of Office 365 in the future.

Microsoft doesn't care about Linux in the desktop market. The desktop is merely the gateway to the cloud, and that is where the battle currently stands. MS, Amazon and Google duking it out, and remarkably MS looking as the lesser evil.

faust82

This article fails to address the single greatest feature of Edge, though it is unsurprisingly not too relevant for Linux-centric users.
Where Edge comes to life is if you work in a company that uses Office 365. Signing in with your AzureAD account instead of some other arbitrary account of your own gives you a fairly decent integration of the browser into the rest of your digital workplace. It also gives you a bit of separation between work and personal, since it'll be in it's own profile on Edge, while you do personal browsing either in a different profile or a different browser.

Catweazle

@RattleheadM , Whale certainly has many Vivaldi functions (Mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, screenshot, webpanel, clock, timer, etc). Not bad, but the translation is dire and many descriptions are only in Korean. But I'll give him a try.

Hadden89

@Catweazle Same. Is interesting to see projects clearly inspired from Vivaldi UI and feature sets.

ngp

Totally negative, if you're in Vietnam and you was using IE11 so longer since Windows XP or 7. But through, it's a good news when Netflix says no PlayReady for Edge, MS did it.

ngp

@catweazle: This would be negative to existing Vivaldi users since Microsoft was brutally made enemies from 1980s then no longer enemies since Windows 10 initial release (2015) and got became friends today. But as I was starting playing with a Windows XP PC too young, Edge, is totally not a wrost choice, while Vivaldi is so bloated to being. I would think Windows experience will just be better with a set full MS, Windows+Office+Edge.

ngp

Don't disrespect Microsoft for being unable to address a feature that was hit existing Windows users who was dual booting Windows with Linux. You can gonna use Office365 (Microsoft 365) like using Office 2019/2016/2013 on your Windows PC. Logging in a Azure account or a Office365 account will considerably integrate your workplace who using Office365 into your Linux PC, and you have no way to get out of that your integrated business unless you swap your work profile to your personal profile. Vivaldi has a big amount of bloat, however if you're using Vivaldi for using Office365 you're using it wrong.

npro

First it was that M$ cares for Linux (always had). Now the 24/7 spyware/ads OS cares for your privacy with its browser . What's next in the comedy line?

hlehyaric

@npro God endorses Edge ?

npro

@hlehyaric hahaha. I'm split here though, is Billy G our Prometheus, saviour and illuminator of our pathetic neanderthal lives or is he the true God, shepherd of sheeps, as his church (paid journalism and system's hyenas) claim?

hlehyaric

@npro As far as I remember, Prometheus ended up bound on a rock with an eagle eating his liver… Question: who will be the next Hercules?

Priest72

Looks like the sailors of the 32bit ship have been abandoned yet again,Us poor 32bit souls are running out of options.

LonM

@luetage I use Microsoft's VS Code on linux, and I don't think I'm mad.

Then again, one never notices when one has gone mad…

luetage

You’re both mad. VSCode is Electron bloat, which I can understand in a browser or an email client, because you need an engine for either anyway, but for a text editor? Nah. And using Wine is just admission of defeat lol.

luetage

@Gwen-Dragon ?
I know I forgot to put a smiley face there to make it obvious I’m not 100% serious, but you’re the one who should keep her calm…

Steffie

@Priest72 Maybe if a bunch of we 64bitters would each donate 1 bit to you, our V's might still run well enough, & you'd be able to move up also to a 63bit solution?

kahukura

@Steffie Sounds familar to me.

In 1983, IBM introduced 31-bit addressing in the System/370-XA mainframe architecture.

16patsle

@lonm: Wasn't that for 4K? Seem to recall only Edge on Windows supported 4K Netflix in the browser, because it required PlayReady.

16patsle

The conclusion in this article sums up my feelings about Chromium Edge pretty well. For me it's probably better than Chrome (which I do sometimes use as secondary browser), but can't really compare with Vivaldi.

LonM

@16patsle I just checked just now, netflix in vivaldi won't play 1080p even on windows. You need either edge or the app for that.