14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge is here, some decided to adopt it as their daily drivers, giving up on the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox after using them for years.
Firefox appears to be the browser that’s more seriously impacted, as it recently lost the second position in the world’s top browsers chart, instead dropping to the third place in the favor of none other that the Chromium Microsoft Edge.
To be honest, Edge securing the runner-up spot is by no means surprising, as Microsoft’s new browser has the big advantage of being offered as the new default browser on Windows 10. And right now, Windows 10 is the world’s most popular desktop operating system, with a share that gets close to 60 percent. In other words, Edge is the recommended browser on six in ten PCs, so it really makes sense for Microsoft’s new app to benefit from such rapid adoption.
But on the other hand, there’s the big question: is the switch from Firefox to Microsoft Edge really worth it?
While the purpose of this article isn’t to compare the features of the browsers, it’s worth mentioning that Microsoft Edge is, in essence, a mix of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Legacy.
Since it runs on the Chromium engine, Microsoft Edge comes with a feature lineup that’s very similar to the one of Google Chrome, and it can even run extensions that are published in the Chrome Web Store. At the same time, it also got several features that were originally available in the first Edge version that shipped with Windows 10, and Microsoft is working on bringing even more capabilities from the old browser to the new one, including its scrolling system.
At first glance, the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge seems to be quite a mix of features, so the migration from Firefox to this browser is something that many people could have seen coming.
But on the other hand, with Edge being based on Chromium, others consider Firefox the only alternative to the total domination of Google and Chrome, and supporting Mozilla’s work is one way to resist this push. As a matter of fact, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome aren’t the only two browsers based on Chromium, but only the most popular, as other apps, including Vivaldi and Opera, use the same engine.
So overall, Chromium browsers accounts for an impressive part of the browser market, and this is why Firefox is considered the only way to go beyond the Google world.
Mozilla itself criticized Microsoft’s decision to switch to the Chromium engine, a move which the company described as “handing over the control of even more of online life to Google.”
“If one product like Chromium has enough market share, then it becomes easier for web developers and businesses to decide not to worry if their services and sites work with anything other than Chromium. That’s what happened when Microsoft had a monopoly on browsers in the early 2000s before Firefox was released. And it could happen again,” Mozilla said.
And with the adoption of Microsoft Edge improving and Mozilla Firefox dropping to the third place worldwide, you are the ones who can give us the best answer. Is the switch from Firefox to Microsoft Edge really worth it? What makes Edge so special that it convinced you to give up on Mozilla’s browser? How long as Firefox been your default browser before making the jump to Edge?
Let us know about all of these in the box after the jump.