Edge Engineering AMA on Reddit tomorrow 11:30 am - 1 pm PST

[Elliot Kirk]

If you follow our Twitter handle, you might have noticed that we are going to host an AMA on Reddit tomorrow (June 13th) from 11:30 am until 1 pm.  We will be in the r/ama channel.  We hope to see you there!

[#2]

@Elliot Kirk 

Can you post MS attendees list?

[#3]

Hi @sambul95 - Sure thing! We'll have a group of folks including (but not limited to) the below in the room taking questions. Because everyone has busy schedules and we have team members around the world, we'll have a ton more folks participating remotely to contribute answers who aren't able to join in the room. We're looking forward to a great event!

• Ali Alabbas, Web Platform team
• Colleen Williams, Enterprise & Security team
• Jatinder Mann, Web Platform team
• J.T. Kimbell, Browser Experiences team
• Kyle Pflug, Developer Experiences team
• Olya Veselova, Browser Experiences team
• Shaun Kiedrowski, Edge Insider team
• William Devereux, Browser Experiences team

[#4]

@Kyle_Pflug 

Thanks, its an impressive list. Program Managers want to get feel of Edge insiders community. Would be nice to run it as audio or video conference though. Pls post the event recordings.

Collecting questions? Here we go:

1. Expected media playback improvements in Edge Chromium? HTTP & torrent streaming, M3U8 & codecs support, Media Devices control?

2. Browser efficiency: faster rendering, battery backup, tabs discarding, lazy page load, better RAM and cache control, improved GPU support?

3. Work flow: Timeline, Sync, make & export notes, search engine choice, Tabs management (groups, tree, switch & close & open order), webpage links handling (images, video, file download links, open in), save to MHT, New Tab controls?

4. International: richer English spellcheck vocabulary & better word suggestions, webpage translation with preserved format (Taobao.com CN as test target), translation tools choice (Google, MS)? Fix high CPU and GPU load on RU and EU region pages?

5. Chrome extensions and apps compatibility, themes support? PNACL & Arc Welder support for Google & Android apps?

6. IE ActiveX, enterprise security features, plans on ads and media blocking controls?

7. Edge Community forum moderation: less topics duplication, clear thread titles, community accessible feature development & bug tracker with vote option? Balancing user groups feature requests (old Edge vs Chrome fans), periodic WebRTC conferences with devs?

Since some insider folks might not be able to attend, pls answer the above questions anyway during the event. Happy biking! :smiling_face_with_smiling_eyes:

[#5]

Since I heard you guys are collecting questions, I have a few myself.

1. I have seen reports on other websites that IE mode now work with canary/dev, but that it only works with those on 20H1 insiders build. Is that true? Why? How long until you can use it in any windows 10 build?

2. When will an update to the UI be released? As many people have pointed out, it's too chrome like right now. The old layout and other UI elements like the blue inprivate icon have been highly requested.

3. When you start releasing edge chromium for other windows operating systems, will it be all at once for all the other windows like windows 7/windows 8/windows 8.1/ windows server 2008/windows server 2008 R2/windows server 2012/windows embedded/etc or will it be a once a month basis for each release? What will be the next windows release for edge chromium? Will it be windows 7?

4. There has been a very controversial change to chrome with regards to ad blocking limiting filters to 30,000. Will edge chromium keep supporting the old one? Because other chromium based browsers have expressed contempt for it and plan to maintain the old one or even breaking away from chromium. You would look very good keeping the old way that ads are blocked rather than adapting to the new one chrome wants.

[#6]

@He-Man84 Could you please post great Qs to the official Reddit AMA thread so others can see them as well?

[#7]

It looks like the AMA is over, all team answers are listed here. Overall not revealing much, but some answers were more informative.

Most attention was driven to the issue whether Edge will continue to allow blocking ads. The answer was not definitive, likely since Google may respond adversely, but it looks like full ads blocking will still be allowed through extensions. I think attention to this subject will subside once the browser starts enforcing "good ad" criteria. The reality is, without web developers fiscal motivation, we may not enjoy in the future rich informative and bright web it is today. 

As to other questions never answered on this forum, they were neither addressed at AMA. No Tab Management answers,  nothing about media features & codecs except DRM, nada about improving English spellcheck and whole page translation quality, nothing on PNACL & Arc Welder extensions support in Edge for Windows, no word on improving Edge forum moderation tools, or posting Edge Bug & Feature Tracker. I wonder if Edge team would be willing to address these Qs here? ;)

One thing I noted is answer about apps: "developers will soon have the option to run their new web apps on the Chromium engine which will make it easier for app developers that already build and test their sites and apps in Chromium-based browsers."

[#8]

@Kyle_Pflug 

I'm kind of disappointed that on this event many Edge team employees appeared unprepared. The Edge forum team does great job on continuously collecting user requests and sending to other teams. For the AMA expectation was Edge reps would concentrate on most requested on the forum features first, by posting prepared earlier comments. Then the discussion would proceed on topics what Edge team is currently working on or plans to work - to get users feedback.

Without such prep, it sound like most MS reps were just answering random questions without any depth or much content, caught unprepared to share any particulars, except you may be. As a result, users just discussed narrow set of issues with each other like ad blocking, rather than concentrate on exchanging variety of topics with Edge team. It looks like better prep coordination would much improve efficiency of such events.