It almost pains me to say it, but Microsoft Edge is great on Linux – you should try it

It almost pains me to say that Microsoft Edge is a pretty good browser, but here goes… It is.

Edge is what Chrome should be, but isn’t. Edge is nearly as fast as Chrome, but has a much better UI and one particularly productive feature that Google doesn’t believe in: Workspaces. With Workspaces, you can better organize your tabs via category. 

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For example, let’s say you typically have multiple tabs open for work, personal, shopping, and news. Why keep all of those tabs in the same place? If you have 20 open tabs, it’s challenging to keep them organized. Instead, create a Workspace for each of those categories and move related tabs into them.

I’ve been using Workspaces since Opera first introduced them, and they make my browsing life so much easier.

There is one caveat to using Workspaces on Edge. You must be signed in with a Microsoft account to access the feature. If you’re not signed in to a Microsoft account, you won’t have the Workspaces feature. Once you log in, you’ll find the workspaces icon in the top-left corner of the browser window. Signing in is a small price to pay for such a handy feature.

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Edge also has vertical tabs, which have also become a must for me. Vertical tabs are easier to use. Instead of having to pick through tiny favicons to find the tab you’re looking for, vertical tabs allow you to see the title of the site. 

Although Edge is not my default browser (I’m currently bouncing between Zen Browser and Opera and trying to decide which one is right for me again), I do use Edge regularly.

If you’re interested in installing Edge on Linux, let me show you how.

How to install Edge on Ubuntu-based distributions

What you’ll need: The only things you’ll need for this task are a running instance of a Ubuntu-based distribution, a user with sudo privileges, and a network connection.

sudo apt-get install microsoft-edge-stable -y

The above command will install the stable version of Edge. If you’d like to install the beta version, the command is:

sudo apt-get install microsoft-edge-beta -y

If you want to install the developer version, the command is:

sudo apt-get install microsoft-edge-dev -y

How to install Edge on Fedora-based distributions

1. Download the installer

Unfortunately, Edge isn’t in the Fedora repositories. In fact, there is no stable release available in an .rpm file. Also, the commands for adding the Edge repository for Fedora-based distributions no longer work. To overcome that challenge, you have to download the installer for either the beta or dev options. You can do that from the official Microsoft Edge download page.

2. Install the necessary dependency

Once you’ve downloaded the package, you’ll need to install a single dependency with the command:

sudo dnf install liberation-fonts -y

3. Install Edge

With the dependency out of the way, install Edge with the command:

sudo rpm -i microsoft*.rpm

The installation should complete without any issues. You can then start Edge from your desktop menu.

How to install Edge on Arch-based distributions

With Arch distributions, you install Edge with the yay AUR helper, like so:

sudo yay -S microsoft-edge-stable

That’s it for Arch.

Congratulations, you now have a piece of Microsoft software installed on Linux. Enjoy.