We all know...

Drew1903   I was an insider (Fast Ring) for 1803 and 1809, then Skip Ahead for 1903, electing to step out a month or two into that testing so someone else could have the Step Ahead seat because W10 was focused on developing  features/functions I don't and probably never will use, and I offered no real value testing that build.  I've tested builds of a non-derivative Linux distro (that is, designed from the ground up except for the Kernel) for the last several years.  And now I'm testing the new iteration of Edge.  I mention that to give context to what I'm going to say next.

I realize that many testers use VM's for testing, and that makes sense for those unable/unwilling to dedicate hardware to the task, but VM testing has a flaw.  VM testing (even Hyper-V which uses a level of hardware interation, but most certainly Virtual Box and VMWare) won't catch OS/hardware interaction bugs, and VM's won't catch OS/software interaction bugs, either, unless the tester is careful to load all software that is used on the core machine to the VM machine.

MS has been having a horrible time of late with releasing faulty builds and updates.  1809 is infamous, of course (and will not, apparently, be released to most users at all, moving them directly 1803 into 1903), but I can't recall a monthly (Patch Tuesday) update recently that hasn't run into trouble with some hardware or software upon release, almost always because of hardware incompatibility or incompatibilities with deep-dive software like AV.

I know that it is impossible to catch everything.  I know that from experience managing development and deployments during my working days.  And I don't claim to have a grasp of the complexity of development/deployment for a billion computers, spread globally, and running everything including Aunt Sally.  The largest development/deployment I helped manage was just under 500,000 seats in 37 countries, within a relatively controlled enterprise environment, which is piddling in comparison.

I don't dismiss the value of VM testing (every pair of eyes on is a pair of eyes on, and every pair of eyes helps).  But VM-testing has limitations.

This particular testing situation is interesting, because I suspect that most users are installing Edge Chromium on their primary computer(s), running it alongside Edge Classic.  The only thing that I've found that breaks because of direct deployment on my computers is that Edge Classic no longer syncs across the three computers on which I've deployed Edge Chromium.  But otherwise, Edge Chromium seems to be no different than adding an additional unrelated browser, like Firefox, to the mix.

I've noticed, too, that Edge Chromium seems to be getting positive comment.  That's a good thing, because Edge Chromium is a stable, solid product with real potential as MS brings it up to speed and adds the features/functions that distinguished Edge Classic from the pack.  I'm here because I want Edge Chromium to become a stand-out in the browser world, and I suspect that you are, too.

Well, that's my soapbox entry for the week.  Enough said.