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Microsoft's Edge roadmap reveals history sync coming this summer, Linux support coming


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Microsoft's Edge roadmap reveals history sync coming this summer, Linux support coming

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Recently, Microsoft updated its public roadmap for its still-new Edge browser, which is based on Chromium. There's quite a bit on there, from minor fixes to major things like support for Linux.

 

Two specific things are new. The ability to navigate a PDF via a table of contents is now under review, and the tab preview feature from Edge Legacy is now in discussion. As 'in review' and 'in discussion' suggest, neither is a commitment to actually building out the features.

 

But there's a whole bunch of stuff on the list that Microsoft is committing to. There are four features listed as coming in February:

  • Favorites sync issues, including sync not working, deleted favorites reappearing, and favorites being duplicated
  • Enable sync of installed browser extensions between devices
  • Option to set a custom photo as the New Tab Page background photo
  • Need for better handling of links when there is more than one profile

There's one feature planned for the summer:

  • Enable sync of browsing history between devices

It's no surprise that extension syncing is coming this month, since it's already in testing in the Canary channel. It's a bit disappointing, however, that we'll have to wait until the summer for history syncing.

 

There are also a bunch of features that are listed as planned, but without a timeline:

  • Edge cannot find devices to cast media
  • Make Edge available on Linux
  • Support read aloud of PDF files
  • Provide option to keep specific cookies when choosing to clear browsing data on close
  • Provide an option to add a share button to the tool bar
  • Add the ability to ink on web pages
  • Touchpad two-finger scrolling is sometimes triggering a right click instead
  • Provide different options for sorting favorites
  • Support themes from the Chrome Web Store
  • Provide an option to prevent auto-play of video and audio when you open a website

This is actually the only place where you'll find mention of Linux support for Edge. This is something that was teased at Build in May, and confirmed at Ignite in November, but people on the Edge team have always been a bit cagey on the subject.

 

Finally, there are a whole bunch of features that are in discussion and in review, and you can check out the full list here.

 

 

Source: Microsoft's Edge roadmap reveals history sync coming this summer, Linux support coming  (Neowin)

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Edge roadmap reveals user requests – and work undone

Among other tweaks, Microsoft intends to roll out two syncing features – including one that link up browser add-ons between copies of Edge on multiple devices. User comments, however, reflect frustration at features that have not yet appeared.

Microsoft's latest roadmap for the Edge browser spells out when developers will tackle some of its many not-yet-coded features, but most remain in the planning or even in-discussion phases, leaving users uncertain when functionality would be implemented.

 

Typically, Microsoft refreshes a "Feedback Summary" for Edge once a week, when it lists what impending features have met the "Planning" milestone and when - as in which month - each will supposedly make it into the browser.

 

Microsoft solicits feedback from participants in the Microsoft Edge Insider preview program, which, like its Windows equivalent, asks users to test early versions.

 

At the top of Edge's roadmap are a pair of sync issues, both set as "Planned for February." One is dedicated to cleaning up existent problems, including duplicate bookmarks (still called "Favorites" in Edge, a term long used by Microsoft for its antique Internet Explorer); the other will enable synchronization of browser add-ons between copies of Edge on multiple devices.

 

Chrome has long offered sync for add-ons, also called "extensions."

 

Another sync feature available in Chrome - syncing the user's browser history - is also listed in the Edge roadmap, but that item comes with the timetable of "Planned for summer."

Although Edge is based on Chromium, the same Google-dominated project that produces the core code for Chrome, the two browsers, not surprisingly, rely on different sets of services. Microsoft did not want, for example, to depend on Google's own synchronization service for Edge (as if that was even available to the Redmond, Wash. company) but instead needed to craft the links between its browser and its own sync service.

 

Other bits and pieces that may make it into Edge range from porting it to Linux to supporting Chrome's browser themes. None have been slotted into a timetable, though.

Customers also used the roadmap posting to gripe about Edge's development. "This is a joke. Browsing history syncing delayed again until summer," panned cazafurcias42. Probably the most important feature gets delayed several months again. I'm done with this. Switching to Firefox."

 

"Warn on Close (ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window) has been 'Under Discussion' for 21 weeks now, which is one of the most ridiculous things ever," lamented krameshk. "All we want is an option to turn it on, and it's a simple flippin' warning dialog box! Just what exactly is there to discuss for months about this simple feature that many of us consider to be crucial (and really ought to have been present from the very beginning)?"

 

That feature - in the roadmap, it was described as "Ask users if they want to close all tabs when they close a browser window" - has been "In Discussion" for several months. A brisk online back-and-forth about the feature remains ongoing, with little sign of resolution. (To be fair, Microsoft would have to start from scratch on this, as Chromium/Chrome does not provide this functionality either.)

 

There were also numerous requests that Microsoft bring some of the old, legacy Edge - the one the company launched in 2015, the one that ran only on Windows 10, the one that only a small fraction of that audience used regularly - to the new, Chromium-based Edge. "Make tabs more square and less rounded, like the current version of Microsoft Edge," for instance, has been on the In Discussion list for 25 weeks. "So, has "Bring the tab preview feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge."

To keep tabs on the Edge roadmap, users should bookmark this site.

 

 

Source: Edge roadmap reveals user requests – and work undone (Computerworld - Gregg Keizer)

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