An Apple user on X posted a screenshot of the Microsoft Edge download page for Mac and asked, “what kind of FREAK uses microsoft edge ON A MAC???” The post got more than 380,000 views. What normally follows a post like that about a Microsoft product is a pile-on. None of that came.
The replies turned into something closer to an accidental defense of Edge, with Mac users laying out real reasons for running it on Apple hardware. Microsoft’s Edge account noticed, quote-tweeted the original post, and replied: “Best freakin’ browser.”
Yes, Edge calling itself the best browser is the kind of casual, confident response Microsoft almost never pulls off. However, this time, it feels as though the confidence was fuelled by a set of Mac users who defended the arch enemy of the company that never gets affected by bad press.
Why Mac users are running Microsoft Edge on Apple hardware
A user with the handle @aidancwest says something that most of social media is unwilling to accept:
“Edge is probably one of the best Chromium browsers out there simply due to speed and performance. It’s incredibly lightweight, has great RAM management, very few bugs, and is even faster than Chrome. Pretty solid browser, just horrible marketing.”
And as someone who has been using Edge for a long time, I feel that the last line is what this whole story is about. The browser itself gets consistent praise, but nobody outside of enterprise IT talks about it. Microsoft made a genuinely good browser but completely failed at marketing it. Of course, calling itself the “Best freakin’ browser”, doesn’t qualify as good marketing.
Multiple users pointed to RAM efficiency as the main draw on Mac. @peter_cheng called it “the most ram saving browser across all of the browser on Mac.” @secretised said it was “the only browser that didn’t consume 4GB of ram with 4 tabs.” @tarekmohmd9 pointed out it gets “the speed boost of chromium without the horrible ram management of chrome.”
Enterprise and government use came up several times. One user noted that internal government sites often require Edge because certificates are not distributed for Chrome, even though both are Chromium-based. Others cited Microsoft 365 integration and Intune or GPO browser management as the reason it ends up on company Macs.
@AjitKumar made a very obvious point: if Mac users are already running Microsoft Office, VS Code, and Teams, Edge is not a stretch, which essentially means that Office apps still work well with Microsoft products, despite Apple trying to lure in customers with Office app logos in their MacBook Neo ad video.
For people switching from Windows, continuity was the reason. Profile sync across devices, saved passwords, and extensions that carry over made it easier to keep Edge on a new Mac instead of starting over in a different browser.
And yes, someone mentioned Bing Rewards. Microsoft has been running points programs and sweepstakes, including a $1 million Bing giveaway, specifically to get people to use Edge and Bing. Apple users are not excluded from that.
Microsoft’s Chromium contributions are the comeback to “it’s just a reskin”
One user under Microsoft’s reply shot back, saying: “You’re just a reskinned Chromium, calm down.” While it’s a fact that Edge runs on Chromium, we mustn’t dismiss the fact that Chromium got better because of Microsoft.
Microsoft has been one of the largest contributors to the Chromium project since switching Edge to the Chromium engine in 2020. Some users defended Edge, noting that Edge is better than Chrome and that Microsoft’s contributions have made Chrome itself better. The merged contribution history at chromium-review.googlesource.com shows a ton of commits from Microsoft engineers across rendering, security, accessibility, and performance.
Edge on Mac also added things Chrome did not have at the time, like vertical tabs and the sleep tabs feature. Apple later copied Edge’s AI tab organizer for Safari and wrapped it under Apple Intelligence, months after Microsoft shipped it. We tested Edge’s AI tab organizer when it launched, and it delivered more than what Safari announced at WWDC.
Microsoft is making it easier to use Edge on Mac without a Microsoft account
Owing to Microsoft’s infamous reputation, Mac users weren’t keen on picking up Edge because of its Microsoft account requirement for sync and features. The wall is now coming down. Microsoft is removing account lock-in across its products, and Edge is getting Google account sign-in support from July. For a Mac user who switched from Windows to escape Microsoft, they can now use Edge without having to deal with MSA.
Truth be told, Edge’s cross-device sync and extension support, along with the ability to sign in with Google, make it a more practical everyday option for people who don’t want to use Chrome or Safari on their Mac.
However, not everything is sunshine and roses with Microsoft Edge.
Edge keeps losing features while Microsoft defends it on social media
As a long-time Edge user, there are a few unique features in Microsoft’s browser that make using it worth it. But the sad part is that Edge keeps losing features even when Microsoft says it’s the “Best freakin’ browser”.
Collections and Sidebar were removed in Edge 149, both features that Microsoft had spent years pushing, and both features that I have been using since their launch.
Then Drop, the file-sharing tool, got killed off too. Microsoft said it would simplify Edge by removing features in order to win back users, which is not a sentence that ages well when the removals keep coming. The replacements in all three cases are more Copilot!
The AI-driven redesign confirmed for Edge is meant to make it look more like Copilot and Bing. Users have been vocal about not wanting that. Microsoft even had to deal with users brutally rejecting Copilot in Edge for work.
None of that stopped Microsoft from auto-opening Edge on some PCs after a mandatory Windows 11 update.
That said, Edge on Mac is a good browser surrounded by frustrating decisions. The Mac users defending it did so despite the brand, not because of it, which essentially means Microsoft still has what it takes to get a meaningful place in the browser wars.
