#Download edge for mac os free
#Download edge for mac os mac

I imported my Chrome bookmarks, passwords, extensions, personal info and more, but when I turned on sync using my Microsoft account, my bookmarks were replaced by a set of old bookmarks that I had not used in years. I didnвЂ™t care much for the way Microsoft has implemented sync. Not everything is lollipops and roses, though. It feels more Mac-like to me than Chrome.

#Download edge for mac os mac

Edge looks like a Mac browser, not like a Windows browser with a Big Sur facelift. Microsoft also has designed the Mac version to fit in with the macOS design language. (Microsoft has its own store for native Edge extensions as well.)

IвЂ™ve not found any among the 24 installed on Chrome that donвЂ™t work on Edge. This time around, theyвЂ™re much more stable. I tested Edge for Mac when it was first available and it was hit-or-miss whether Chrome extensions would work reliably. You can also set Edge to use Strict levels when you use InPrivate browsing, which is similar to ChromeвЂ™s Incognito mode.Д®dgeвЂ™s Chromium roots means it can use most of the extensions available for Chrome. Microsoft Edge offers users three levels of protection against tracking. (See Forbes contributor Zak DoffmanвЂ™s piece on ChromeвЂ™s privacy excesses.) Though Edge and Chrome are similar, they differ greatly on privacy.ДЇor example, Edge gives users three levels of tracking protection from which to choose вЂ“ Basic, Balanced and Strict, with Balanced the default. Of course, one of the many reasons both Mac and Windows users are wary of Chrome is because of the amount of data it harvests from users. Chrome doesnвЂ™t have this (though there are extensions that emulate it), but Microsoft Edge does вЂ“ and itвЂ™s a lot easier on the eyes, with a manila-colored background. Safari users enjoy an excellent Reader Mode feature that strips out ads and other distractions, providing you with just text. Chrome has this in a feature dubbed Tab Freeze, but with Edge you can control how long before tabs are suspended.

#Download edge for mac os free

As I work with the two, Chrome consistently uses significantly more memory than Edge when the same pages are loaded.ДЄnother example where Microsoft is ahead of Google on resource management: Sleeping Tabs, which suspend web pages after a specified amount of time to free up CPU and memory. When I launch Chrome on an Intel-based Mac running macOS 11.2.3, it takes around 900 megabytes once loaded. Although Edge is built on the same foundation, Microsoft has tuned it better.

Firefox was known as a memory and resource hog at the the time, a reputation that now dogs Chrome.

When Chrome originally launched in the late 2000s for Windows, it was touted as a leaner alternative to Firefox, which in turn was considered an alternative to Internet Explorer. But itвЂ™s not the only feature that makes it a great browser to use on a Mac, and certainly make it a better pick than Chrome. T took me about 10 minutes of using this new version before I was sold. Microsoft Edge for Mac with vertical tabs pinned open.