Sidebar for Favorites is a step in the right direction!

martinnn
Iron Contributor
Sep 29, 2020
And might I remind you that the question was simply about what advantages Firefox has over Edge. Firefox has many things that Edge doesn't have yet and a few things Edge is probably never going to get (like the iOS features, better customization, touchscreen support, and unintrusive sidebars). All I was saying was that Firefox does these things better--and I was saying no more than that.
- HotCakeX
  MVP
  Sep 29, 2020
  I can say all of that about Edge as well. so let me remind you of that as well.
  Firefox is slower than Edge and Edge because of using Chromium is more compatible.
  
  if Firefox was that good, they would keep their userbase instead of losing them to Chrome.
  
  Edge's features were the reason I don't use Firefox as my main browser anymore.
  
  I suggest you to see the whole picture, try insider Edge channels, explore the flags and upcoming features. many of them are missing in Firefox.
  - martinnn
    Iron Contributor
    Sep 29, 2020
    Plus, it doesn't matter whether Firefox is "slower" or not. Nobody has ever noticed a real difference in browsing speed based solely on the browser engine. The only thing that impacts how quickly a page loads is your internet speed and tracker blocking (which both browsers offer).
    
    I would argue that Firefox has overall faster browsing because higher customization lets you pin commonly used commands to the toolbar to access them more quickly.
martinnn
Iron Contributor
Sep 29, 2020
HotCakeX

I don't think you read the part where I said "And I know that Edge will supposedly get some of these features at some point, but I'm talking about what's better now."

Edge's toolbar isn't very customizable at all. The only things you can pin to Edge's toolbar are Favorites (which is redundant because of the Favorites toolbar), Collections, Feedback, and Share. Firefox lets you pin things like Downloads, History, Edit controls, New Window, New Private Window, Synced Tabs, Print, Zoom Controls, etc. And they aren't limited to only being to the right of the URL bar. I have, for example, put "new window" buttons in the topmost toolbar (next to the tabs) because that's where it makes sense for me--a great way to browse the web faster.

Integrating Edge tabs into Alt+Tab will show tabs alongside open windows. This clutters the Alt+Tab view and therefore makes it inefficient. Keeping tabs and windows separate makes much more sense.

History sync isn't coming "soon." It's been "planned for summer" for months now and summer is over. (Again, you didn't seem to read the part where I said "And I know that Edge will supposedly get some of these features at some point, but I'm talking about what's better now.")

Container tabs are more efficient for privacy than using multiple windows. Extensions like Firefox's own Facebook Container (which I think they have now integrated within Firefox and included by default) will open Facebook-owned sites within its own container automatically.

Downloads/history/favorites make perfect sense to group together for me as all of them are menus for accessing features of the browser. Especially since they all use sidebars in Firefox, and Firefox uses a common toolbar for any commands (or extensions) that can access it.

Firefox for iOS has buttons above the keyboard that, with one tap, let you search that specific website for whatever you typed in the URL bar. For example, if I use Google as my default search, I can type "Microsoft Edge" in the URL bar and then click the Wikipedia icon above the keyboard to automatically search Wikipedia for Microsoft Edge (and because of the way Wikipedia's search works, I will automatically be taken to the article for Edge).

URL autocompletion isn't a feature in Edge for iOS.
- HotCakeX
  MVP
  Sep 29, 2020
  Edge is a new browser so I consider upcoming features as well.
  
  there is no clutter in task view, there is granular settings to control number of tabs shown in there,
  
  Firefox has a lot of redundant features, not all of Firefox features are "advantages". maybe for you personally they are, but not generally. if Firefox was that good, Chrome wouldn't have that much market share.
  
  again about the library thingy it's your personal opinion. in terms of data, they have no correlation. history is web history, bookmarks/favorites are things that user saves and so on.
  when I wanna open a site i added to favorite, i don't need to see my web history, or downloads history.
  
  I don't talk about IOS.
  - martinnn
    Iron Contributor
    Sep 29, 2020
    HotCakeX
    
    Let's take take away the upcoming features then.
    
    Firefox desktop:
    unintrusive sidebars instead of fullscreen menus
    The sidebar can also be accessed by extensions
    much much better customization
    This not only allows for personalization through themes, but also faster web browsing by pinning commonly used commands to the toolbar!
    Send webpages to iOS
    touchscreen support (it's like Microsoft forgets that they make touchscreen devices)
    Ctrl+tab switcher that takes you to your last used tab (if you want it--I'm personally not a fan, but the more options the better!)
    container tabs
    tab scrolling to be able to manage more than 10 tabs in one window
    One common "Library" for history/downloads/bookmarks/synced tabs (the way Classic Edge had)
    
    Firefox for iOS has:
    Easily search other websites
    Type in part of a URL and it autofills the rest, from which you can quickly add on to it—e.g. I can type “r” and Firefox will complete the url for “reddit.com” and then I can tap the end to add “/r/microsoftedge”
    The question was about what advantages Firefox has, and here they are. This is the answer you wanted!
    
    What Firefox features are redundant?
    
    Even if you don't talk about iOS, there are people who use it. Both browsers have iOS apps, and there is a clear winner.

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Sidebar for Favorites is a step in the right direction!