Now you can have a twist of 2019 in your 2012: Microsoft goes back to the future with Edge on Windows 7/8 The Edge gang has finally grafted versions of Microsoft's take on Chromium into Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. The release, which follows an official macOS build, comes the same day as competitor Vivaldi released version 2.6 of its own Chromium-based browser, which also supports Windows 7 and 8. Unlike Edge, however, Vivaldi also …
Remember how they said it as all far too advanced to work on an ancient OS like Win7??
Next week, DX12.
The things they will do to boost market share levels; any bets that it will tell all the internet monitors it is Win10 and not Win7, to "Prove" that it is fine to switch off Win7 support, and not have to extend it??
So, windows 7 is a work horse that isn't rubbish, the world has been using for a while so runs everyones software, is stable and as a result people are not shifting to windows 10.
Windows 10 is rubbish if you look at the birth, when telemetry suddenly became a known word outside NASA and military circles. Where privacy became a joke (remember the hidden No and invisible sliding scale when asked if Cortana can read everything on install) and the whole thing is killed by many releases that just bring woes to users.
Windows 8 wasn't very good, didn't know what it was and has already gone.
So enter the Edge browser. Like All M$ it is only on the latest platform, which no one liked, doesn't do what people want it to on that new platform and you can only get its great features (whatever they were) if you upgrade to the data mining platform that could at any future update, delete all your data when M$ moneys beta test again.
So they realise it is rubbish and tell the world they are getting rid of it. - Great bring on the Chromium version.
Then they decide that actually people want it and they will back port it to the operating systems that no one is meant to be using as they should have upgraded by now. But people won't because windows 10 is garbage and has serious issues around patching and M$ beta testing attitudes. In an effort to make people move across.
However M$ are still pushing ahead to get rid of the browser and platform in favour of another browser because like everything, the world has moved on to stuff that works and M$ are losing market share again.
Or have I missed something? Are the great unwashed actually crying out for Edge?
After consistently using Firefox for over 20 years, I think that edge is actually quite cool.
When working on websites, edge does not cache website contents or DNS entries for days, so it is way easier to test website changes in edge than it is in firefox or chrome.
Also edge does not constantly nanny change http into https in url's, it is fast, snappy and clean.
One of the best products MS made in recent time, way to go MS :).
No you don't. Face it - Apple and Microsoft made the only successful GUI and related application ecosystems - which is what matter to users. All others failed - how to you explain the utterly failure of Linux as a desktop systems? A conspiration among the Devil, aliens and an Underground Empire?
Sure, I know you all would want MS to add a real working GUI on Linux.... keep on dreaming.
Linux an utter failure as a desktop?
Seems to be working quite well for me, actually. No failure here. I don't really care what anyone else uses... that's their choice. It's by far better than Windows 10 or anything from Apple, and it does what I want, so call it a failure all you wish-- it won't make it any less of a success on my end.
I was going to ask the very same question. Unlike all the cynics and sarcastics here, I would really welcome Edge for Windows RT as the abandonware version of Internet Explorer hardly lumps, nevermind runs. However, RT is the devil child at Redmond, and I might as well ask for an ME version
Am I deluded in thinking that MS will never have the balls to can Win7? It does everything most people need an OS to do, and is built for a PC rather than a phone.
As for browsers, I use normally Firefox, but that's borking an ever-increasing number of must-have websites (like my bank's) so Vivaldi would be next on the list.
Just change the useragent for the bank site, or consider getting a bank that doesn't have its head up its ass. Useragent sniffing in 2019? What's next, a "Best viewed with Internet Explorer 6.0" tagline? A link to a site on GeoCities? ActiVEX?
BTW, a message to Microsoft and various banks: Please consult your nearest dictionary and look up "supported." Then look up "permitted." Learn the difference, and apply what you have learned in your business.
I use Waterfox in Linux, and one bank (Bank of America) warns me that my browser is unsupported, but it doesn't block access like one other bank that was chasing its tail not long ago. B of A apparently understands the difference between those two terms I suggested that other banks and MS look up. If I want support, they want me to use one of the specified browsers, but I can still get in.
What's funny is that the version of Firefox B of A thinks I use is one of their supported browsers, but only in Windows. Their site tries to get me to go to Google to get Chrome (don't bet on that happening) or to Apple to get Safari. Apparently, I can run Mac software natively in KDE Neon now! I guess all POSIX operating systems are interchangeable at the binary level. Who knew??
Apparently, Firefox is only any good on Windows. It's not "supported" for Mac, and nothing is "supported" on Linux, even though the only difference between Linux Firefox and Windows Firefox is that the options are under Edit (because you edit options) and not under tools (because you tools the options in Windows, apparently).
If your bank wants Chrome, give it Chrome... in the useragent, which is all it really cares about anyway.
Windows 7 EOL will be at the start of next year. There will be some holdouts and "exended support" for companies and governments willing to pay for it but, basically the date has been known for years and after the clusterfucks of Windows 8.*, the market has accepted that, if you want a Windows desktop, it's time to move on.
From a practical perspective, as long as you're not using Internet Explorer and related stuff, I suspect you'll be able to keep using Windows 7 for a few years for personal use. But any company has to be advised to make preparations to migrate.
Windows 7 EOL may be next January but the OS will linger. XP was EOL in 2014 but it took years to fade away and there is still a hard core of users that can't or won't move. Compare that to the death of Vista.
The Windows 7 EOL has major difference from XP that could lead to an even slower death: XP users had the option of Windows 7. The UI and UX were largely the same with a classic desktop and significant compatibility. Those interested in personal information security, control of updates, etc had few extra concerns with 7 over XP. The same cannot be said for 10 over 7.
Windows 7 users changing to 10 have to change the way they work and accept a lot of Microsoft intrusion and control that they didn't have before. Those people and enterprises wiling to accept this will probably have moved already. The remainder are probably more militant.
Let us put a reminder in our diaries for January 2021 to see how the EOL programme is going.
The people stuck on 7 or 8 have no use for Edge.
On one side you have those with a remotely legitimate need to remain on their outdated, unsupported ship that's slowly rusting away under them for "reasons" like a 16bit subsystem, or other weird requirements legacy software may have, including "web" applications slash liabilities based on "Javascript" only old versions of IE can speak or ActiveX.
On the other side you have paranoid nutcases like the FLOSSers or gamers who hate the guts of anything Microsoft and refuse to go with the times, while obediently shoveling money and data down the gullets of Google, EA, Ubisoft, or whomever. Those would never in a thousand years even consider looking at Edge.
All in all, it's wasted money and effort.
All in all, it's wasted money and effort.
Maybe the Edge group want to keep themselves in a job. We'll know for sure if they come out with an OpenBSD version.
Gamers want Windows precisely because it runs their games and lately paranoid FLOSS nutcases are the section of users proven right about once a day.
On the other side you have paranoid nutcases like the FLOSSers or gamers who hate the guts of anything Microsoft and refuse to go with the times,
Oh, you're right that I won't go with the times. If they want me to embrace a smart phone interface on my desktop OS, telemetry I can't turn off, being forced to beta test software I paid for, and having my PC conscripted into the Microsoft army, I want no part of "the times."
Gamers are the most devoted Windows users... they led the way upgrading to 10 to get DX12, even when there were no games that used it.
I use Linux, but it's not because I am devoted to the ideology of free software. It's because it's the only option left. I used Windows for 25 years, from 1990 until the last bit of 2015, but that's over. MS has destroyed Windows, and it's no longer fit for purpose. I never did like Apple, and as long as I have to use their crap hardware to use their OS, I'm never going to know if I even like the OS.
Google? They're worse than Microsoft, and Microsoft is terrible.
Ubisoft and EA make games. Not sure why those get a mention alongside OS manufacturers... they make toys, not tools.
So does that mean I would not even consider Chredge if it was made available on Linux? Not at all... but there'd be some concerns that have to be ironed out first. I'd have to be confident that it was 100% telemetry-free, and given how MS operates, I'd have to assume that it does have telemetry until proven otherwise, to the extent that one can reasonably prove a negative.
Beyond that, if it's anything like the old Edge, it's not going to be something I would want to use Who needs another minimalist browser with a terrible, unfixable UI? Chromium with its default interface would give me that, without MS having to tack their own front-end on it.
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