Living on the (Microsoft) Edge in 2018? (Premium)

With yet another Windows 10 version nearing completion, its again time to re-examine Microsoft Edge to see whether this browser can meet our needs.

To date, these comparisons have been somewhat lopsided, with Microsoft Edge consistently falling short of more popular and full-featured browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. But my ongoing efforts are often misunderstood too, and I'm routinely accused of "bashing" Microsoft Edge.

This isn't about bashing Microsoft Edge, or Windows 10, or Microsoft ... or whatever. The reality is that I'd like to use Edge, that I generally prefer native experiences over third-party apps on whatever platform. But if you look over my past three articles on this topic---from August 2017, April 2017, and June 2016, two items should stand out. One, the issues I've pointed out are reasonable. And two, Edge has gotten consistently better with each new Windows 10 version. And in doing so, it has become more and more viable. For mainstream users certainly. Possibly even for power users too.

In Windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft Edge is getting another boost, and I'm not just talking about new features in the browser. Starting with this release, Windows 10 formally supports Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). And the first major PWA to hit the Store, Twitter, has already eliminated the need for one of the web apps I normally pin to the taskbar from Chrome. That's one less instance of me using Chrome every day. And one more instance of me using Edge.

And to be clear, there is much to like about Microsoft Edge. It is a modern application with a clean and even pretty user interface, one that I like better than that of Chrome or Firefox. It renders text and graphics exceptionally well, and that is particularly noticeable on today's modern high DPI displays. It features better scrolling performance, for lack of a better term, with none of the lurching I see in Chrome, in particular. Too, Microsoft should be credited for enhancing this browser with non-web reading features---for e-books, EPUBs, and PDFs ---and it's now my preferred PDF reader. And in version 1803, Edge gets even prettier, I think, with an expansion of the Acrylic translucency effect that is part of the Fluent Design Language.

But I've had complaints. So let's look back at the issue I raised with the previous few Edge versions and see how things stand now in Windows 10 version 1803

Web apps. The additional of PWA support in Windows 10 is huge, but it doesn't directly impact the experience of using the Edge web browser. As I've noted many times, Google Chrome lets you pin any website or web app shortcut to your taskbar and then use it like an app. Edge still doesn't do this right: Yes, you can pin web pages to the taskbar. But the resulting icon is dead: When you select it, a new Edge tab opens in the web browser window. This couldn't be more confusing or less useful. Verdict: FAIL

General performance. Microsoft Edge used to be quite pok...