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I used the web browsers Edge and Brave exclusively for 1 week each here are my thoughts

Andrew Baisden on May 15, 2021

For a few years Firefox was my web browser of choice. It was very popular and had very few competitors back then other than Internet Explorer. Thes...
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Matt Cobley

Hi, despite the existence of the Edge store, you can install extensions from the Chrome Web Store without any issues (in theory) on Edge, so you're not restricted to just those in the Edge store.

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Andrew Baisden

Not sure if you could always do that in Edge or if it was just recently added but that seems to be the case now.

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Lucifer Chase

It was right from the beginning. At least after the chromium edge came. In fact, earlier there was no Microsoft edge add-ons website, all extensions had to be installed from chrome webstore only 😉

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Patrick Tingen

Edge: settings > privacy, search and services > tracking prevention
Set it to "Strict" to block "the majority of trackers"
Add ublock origin from the app store (or google app store) for more protection

Edge has some extra's like collections. And if you use it on your phone as well, it can sync with that one.

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Peter Franken

Edge syncing is not available for $11/mo Microsoft 365 Business Premium accounts. Every other account type, even free Microsoft accounts can use the sync functionality. Ridiculous and frankly unacceptable.

Other than this major blemish, this is essentially a better version of Chrome and I highly suggest anyone give it a chance.

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Pontakorn Paesaeng

I just use Firefox right now because I like customization. I have to admit that it has fewer feature. I like send tab feature because it is really convenient when I have to send QR Code link from my phone to my Mac (Physics Quiz) so I can fill the form with university account.

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wkrueger

Since I had already tried those browsers, have a different vision but hadnt wrote about it, I just wrote an article about it.

dev.to/wkrueger/brave-vs-edge-vs-o...

TLDR

If you don't need to use profiles, Opera might be interesting.

Brave might be your case if you prioritize a lot leaner website loading (less tracker requests) and you want to help fighting the surveillance economy. Be wary, tough, that BAT increases your CPU usage fairly.

Edge is a straightforward replacement for Chrome, its unlikely that you will miss anything from Chrome on Edge, especially on the DevTools department.

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Lorre76

You can also install and use Chrome extensions via the Chrome web store in MS Edge, and there's even a direct link, however, you have to activate dev mode switch. After that, install all of your favorite Chrome extensions till your heart's content ! It works great, however I should say that I'm on Win10, so you're mileage may vary !

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jonprocter

You don't even have to enable Dev mode in settings - you just go to the Chrome extension store website and click the "allow extensions from this store" button it gives you the first time you visit it

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Vinay Hegde • Edited

Good post, Andrew! Even I switched to Brave recently from Google Chrome.

My primary reason was being signed into Google by Chrome automatically (tried disabling this to no avail) on using any Google services & being bombarded with ads thereafter (not popups as I block them via Adblock/Ghostery but search results relevant to my browsing history). Too much personalization for my liking 😅

Never looked back since.

PS: Ecosia, AdblockPlus, Opera are also similar to Brave + Vivaldi is a good alternative (lot of customisation available). And the outstanding Firefox, of course

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Vaibhav Arora

I too use Brave as daily browser for speed, privacy, and good features or UI/UX of chrome

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Atulit Anand

My choice

Internet explorer ->>> chrome ->> edge (couple of months back) -> Firefox Dev ->> Chrome Dev

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Andrew Baisden

Is that a progression or your order of preference 😅

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Atulit Anand

order of progression lol

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Prithvi Reddy

LMAO, that's ABUSE

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Charlie J Smotherman

No mention of vivaldi? I find it interesting.

vivaldi.com

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Andrew Baisden

This Web browser is new to me I did not know about it.

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Kevin Dillman

You can use the hrome web store on Edge too. I pelieve there is even a way to transfer all your extensionst from Chrome to Edge.

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Jean Mouloud

Any reason you don't give Firefox another chance? After a little downtime, it's back to being a great browser that doesn't have much to envy to the other ones.

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Andrew Baisden

So I switched to Chrome because it has the most marketshare on desktop and mobile. It made sense to make it my first choice browser for web development because the majority of users were using it. Firefox is still great though I still have it installed of course.