- A post about Microsoft Edge has ignited a fierce debate about X
- The post asked who runs Edge on Apple’s macOS platform
- Users both praised and criticized Edge, but I still prefer Firefox
Apple and Microsoft are known to be arch rivals in the tech world, so when X user Macfolio asked his followers “what kind of freak uses Microsoft Edge on a Mac?” they might have expected the debate to fall along partisan lines, with rival fans lining up to rail at each other’s products.
But while there was indeed a heated debate, it wasn’t the pile you might have expected. Instead, many users chimed in with reasons why they enjoy using the combination of Microsoft’s web browser and Apple’s macOS operating system.
X user @wiedymi, for example, described Edge as “the best browser for Mac.” User @secretised explained that when they used it, it was “the only browser that didn’t consume 4GB of RAM with four tabs,” while @osxdaily said “It’s actually pretty good!”
For others, the reason was more prosaic, with @asikunaa pointing out that “some internal government sites require you to use Edge actually because they don’t distribute the security certificates for Chrome.”
Meanwhile, user @tarekmohmd9 summed up what many people apparently felt, saying that Edge on macOS has “the speed boost of Chromium without the horrible RAM management of Chrome, it’s great (faster than Safari, uses less resources than Chrome, supports most Chromium extensions unlike Opera and Firefox).” They ended by saying “that’s excellent.”
Of course, not all responses were positive. User @rafalo claimed that “I just downloaded it and uninstalled it after [five seconds].” And @LansorHQ simply asked, “What kind of freak uses Edge in general?”
Why am I using Firefox instead?
I am a long time Firefox user and have been rocking Mozilla’s browser for over 20 years. I’ve dabbled with other browsers, from big dogs like Chrome and Safari to more niche offerings like Opera and Vivaldi. And yes, I’ve also spent plenty of time with Microsoft Edge.
But despite all that, I keep coming back to Firefox. There are a few reasons for that, and I have to admit a big one is inertia. After so many years of use, Firefox feels comfortable and familiar. I like how it works and switching would be a chore considering how many extensions and tabs I have running.
But there’s a lot more I love about Firefox. I use both a Mac and a PC in my daily life, and Firefox runs on both, unlike Mac-only Safari. I can also send tabs between all my devices, which is useful when I find something interesting on my iPhone and want to read it later on my Mac or PC.
As I’ve written about before, it’s also a true privacy-first browser that goes to great lengths to protect your data, which I really appreciate. It isolates cookies to prevent them from building a detailed picture of you, and Firefox restricts access to my data that can be used to create a digital ‘fingerprint’ of my browsing habits.
So despite the debate about X, I won’t be switching to Microsoft Edge anytime soon. But the discussion highlights that just because you use one operating system, you don’t have to be exclusively loyal to that developer’s own products – you can even switch to those made by their arch-rival.
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