Microsoft Will Force Some Sites to Open in Edge and Not Explorer

[engine]

Microsoft's plans to push users to switch from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge with it's latest version Edge 87 which will force some sites to open in Edge instead of Internet Explorer.
Microsoft has been testing this in Edge since v84, and not that Edge is baked in to Windows 10, it'll start the change with the release in November.

[zdnet.com...]

[IanCP]

latest version Edge 87 which will force some sites to open in Edge instead of Internet Explorer

Not if Edge has been removed

[JorgeV]

I wonder if Microsoft is planning on making Edge a mandatory component of Windows, meaning, cannot be removed ...

By the way, Internet explorer just turned 25, last August. A quarter of a century, waow :)

[lucy24]

Internet explorer just turned 25, last August

How much is that in browser years? I know how to calculate cat years (also usable for small dogs) and rat years, but what's the formula for browsers?

[tangor]

Should Safari, Opera and Firefox folks have any concerns?

</chuckles>

[IanCP]

This is supposedly current [August 24, 2020]:

How to uninstall the Edge browser in Windows 10 using PowerShell

"...Microsoft says its new Edge web browser cannot be uninstalled but that is simply not true. The right PowerShell command entered in the right folder can accomplish the task.

Unless you or your company actively take steps to prevent it, Microsoft will roll out a new Chromium-based Edge browser to your Windows 10 PC by the end of 2020 (if they haven't already). This new version of Edge replaces the older Edge versions, which have been reclassified as deprecated legacy browsers. The installation of this new Edge browser also signals the end of Internet Explorer, which should please many cybersecurity experts.... Read on...

[techrepublic.com ]

[IanCP]

Microsoft will roll out a new Chromium-based Edge browser to your Windows 10 PC by the end of 2020

Oh Duh!

If you use Chrome - as I do among other browsers - why on earth would you need Edge?

Go way back to when Edge first surfaced, I tried it then and said: "OK it's just another Chrome, so what?"

End of Edge back to IE 11. OK they're going to kill off IE11 - so what?

[engine]

I suspect IE was built using Microsoft's bloatware devs, and that's why I really don't see the need to keep IE and would be happy to use Edge as a replacement. I have never particularly got on with IE, so i'm not at all disappointed when I say farewell.

25 years? Indeed, that is a surprise as i hadn't thought of it.
[en.wikipedia.org...]

[graeme_p]

I am worried about the lack of diversity in rendering engines though.

Chrome is the dominant web browser. A lot of the rest is other Chromium based browsers, and a lot of what is left after that are other Webkit (KHTML) derivatives.

Not long ago we had four usable and full featured separate rendering engines. Now we are down to two families (with numerous forks).

[MayankParmar]

I wonder if Microsoft is planning on making Edge a mandatory component of Windows, meaning, cannot be removed

Edge has always been a mandatory component and officially it cannot be removed, but we can use PowerShell to remove it forcefully. This is not recommended though.

[JorgeV]

Hello,

If you use Chrome - as I do among other browsers - why on earth would you need Edge?

Chrome collects user data and sends them to Google.

Edge certainly does the same, but sends it to Microsoft.

So you choose whom you want to give your data to.

[longen]

Internet explorer just turned 25, last August

How much is that in browser years? I know how to calculate cat years (also usable for small dogs) and rat years, but what's the formula for browsers?

1993 would have been the Stone Age.
The arrival of IE would have been when humans first learnt to grunt.

[graeme_p]

So you choose whom you want to give your data to.

Or you could use Iron or Firefox or Brave or Pale Moon or Falkon or Opera or Vivaldi..... or anything else that phones home less or not at all.

[IanCP]

@engine

I suspect IE was built using Microsoft's bloatware devs

Go back to the very olden days when a very young Bill Gates borrowed money off his dear old Dad to get the rights to DOS from Digital Research [fools] to set up a DOS system for IBM on their all new, all singing, all dancing personal computers [even bigger fools] -

Anything Gates touched with his brand spanking new Microsoft company then, and ever since has always had bloatware galore.

Then [even greater fools] gave him stacks, and stacks of money for the development of a new whole revolutionary operating system. I think they called it Macintosh. Gates kept that idea - with minimal changes - and called his version [paid for by Apple]... Drum roll please...

WINDOWS!

The very uncouth among us way back then - called it... "CURTAINS"

I know a lot of IT people who from way back then hadn't even started school - some not even yet born.

AND TO THIS VERY MINUTE - MICROSOFT BLOATWARE CONTINUES TO STILL REGURGITATE ITSELF LIKE THE MANY HEADED HYDRA

[Brett_Tabke]

> why on earth would you need Edge?

It is faster than Chrome - almost as fast as Opera (currently the fastest Chromium variants).

If you've not used EdgeChrome, it has a few cool features you wont find in other variants. I use it daily.

[JorgeV]

Or you could use Iron or Firefox or Brave or Pale Moon or Falkon or Opera or Vivaldi..... or anything else that phones home less or not at all.

The question was Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge...

[MayankParmar]

Edge is faster than Chrome and it'll be getting some exciting features in 2021.

Also, recent improvements to Chrome's battery, resources, scrolling, Devtool, accessibility is the result of the codes committed by Microsoft :)

[ronin]

I literally cannot... understand why anyone would be using Internet Explorer in 2020.

[IanCP]

Really?

With the exception of annoying Script notices, IE 11 [with Google Toolbar] does everything I want very efficiently.AND;

At this moment I have the following Tabs open:

IE 11 - 12 [All new today]
Chrome - 12 pinned and about 10+ others
Firefox - 27 pinned plus others open
Opera - 22 tabs open

My pick for what works best for me?

You know the answer.

[tangor]

Not concerned on which is the best ... just worried about how 73 open tabs will affect the brain! Whew!

(Maybe I'm a bit simple? My max tabs is like 3, maybe 4!)

[IanCP]

As my eldest son-in-law says:

"Ah! The perils of a 32 channel brain coping with six different projects simultaneously"

Did I mention the 27 Tb of hard drives? A few of which are now aging and causing angst... No, Mr Adsense no longer funds my aspirations in any significant way. At 78 back to being just an ordinary OAP [Old Age Pensioner].

[graeme_p]

Go back to the very olden days when a very young Bill Gates borrowed money off his dear old Dad to get the rights to DOS from Digital Research [fools] to set up a DOS system for IBM on their all new, all singing, all dancing personal computers [even bigger fools]

Actually he bought the rights to QDOS, an OS that imitated Digital research's CP/M, from Seattle Computer Products.

Digital research blew their chance. Gates out-negotiated IBM who licensed MS-DOS letting Gates then license it to their competitors too - that was his greatest achievement. If they had insisted on just buying the copyright the history of PCs would be very different.

Then [even greater fools] gave him stacks, and stacks of money for the development of a new whole revolutionary operating system. I think they called it Macintosh. Gates kept that idea - with minimal changes - and called his version [paid for by Apple]... Drum roll please...

Windows was something of an imitator of MacOS, but launched nearly three year's after Apple's first Windowing GUI machine, the Lisa. That itself was predated by the Xerox Alto by a decade.

I think what you have in mind is Apple and MS working together on MacOS apps or something similar?

[aristotle]

From what I've read, IBM was in a big rush to get their new PC to market but didn't have a usuable operatiog system for it yet. Gates had been working on a new operating system based on DOS and was able to quickly adapt it to IBM's needs.

[aristotle]

Or you could use Iron or Firefox or Brave or Pale Moon or Falkon or Opera or Vivaldi.

I suggest avoiding Vivaldi. I used to have it on my Windows 7 desktop, though I didn't use it much. But one day when I did use it, I saw something that made me suspect that it had some built-in adware, and I un-installed it.

[ronin]

Here's one useful reference when deciding what browser to use from a browser-capability perspective:

ES2016+ Features
https://kangax.github.io/compat-table/es2016plus//

The columns for Edge 18 and IE 11 stand out, particularly.

N.B. I get the argument where someone says:

But I really like my black and white television

That's an entirely fair preference.

Although, it goes without saying, that device will never be able to show television programmes in colour.

[graeme_p]

Gates had been working on a new operating system based on DOS and was able to quickly adapt it to IBM's needs

Not quite, Seattle Computer Products developed it. MS bought the rights specifically to relicense to IBM: [britannica.com...]

The really clever thing Gates did was that he bought the copyright but only sold IBM a non-exclusive license.

[aristotle]

DOS stands for Disk Operating System, a piece of assembly language code that was developed to enable manufacturers of small computers to transition from magnetic tape memory storage to floppy disc storage. Several different DOS codes were developed during this period.

What Gates initially bought could not have served (as it was) as a full operating system for IBM's PC because of incompatibilities with the PC's design and hardware. Gates adapted it to the IBM PC and expanded its capabilities.

[mcneely]

Chrome collects user data and sends them to Google.

Just like Microsoft collects from Edge and Internet Explorer and just like Canonical collects from open source Chromium (via snapd) on Ubuntu and just like Mozilla collects through Firefox.
You're never going to prevent a browser (any browser) from phoning home. The trick here is to use a browser that phones home the least.

I keep it pretty simple

Full course of open source Chromium (non snapd) with a bit of the Firefox on the side running on a Linux Mint 20 machine.

Quit using Google products about 6 years ago and Microsoft products 10+ years ago.
My last foray into the world of Microsoft browsers were Internet Explorer 5 and 6 - as I recall, they were much improved over Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 /chuckles
I gave up early on with Internet Explorer and just wrote straight HTML 4 (Internet Explorer be damned)

Netscape and Firefox were consistently my browsers of choice for literally years. (I liked Opera until they quit using Presto)
Firefox 1.x was a little light in the loafers at the time as I recall, but I rolled with it anyway

Edge is faster than Chrome and it'll be getting some exciting features in 2021

"Exciting Features" are usually code words for "Bloat" -- Soon, Edge will be just as much of a Chonki-Boi as Google Chrome is now.

I've got a Blink rendering engine and a Gecko rendering engine, and I'm fine with it.

I don't understand why Microsoft just doesn't quit Internet Explorer. Issue an update and "POOF" ... Internet Explorer automatically assigned to the rubbish heap thereafter.
No sense in maintaining a write that is obsolete and that no one really ever uses any more. (sort of like with Internet Explorer 6)