In 1998 I purchased a Windows computer for the first time in 14 years. My thoughts were "They've had 10 years. Surely they've worked their bugs out". As it turned out, Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4 actually did have some stability problems, to put it mildly. So I would say that releasing very buggy software without blinking is not a new concept to Microsoft.

> "They've had 10 years. Surely they've worked their bugs out".

That's quite a weird thing to think in 1998 with respect to a browser, given that they'd only had any sort of a browser for less than 3 years at that point.

The question was posed "I wonder how can Microsoft release such a glitchy browser and expect users to use it as their main browser."

To which I gave a related anecdote and responded

"So I would say that releasing very buggy software without blinking is not a new concept to Microsoft."

Since they released an entire OS that was massively unstable (win98), while claiming their browser was an integral part of it, it doesn't surprise me that they would release a buggy browser at a later date and expect people to use it.

I wasn't only addressing browsers, but rather my perception of the general quality history of Microsoft products at that time. It affected my perception of Internet Explorer, which at that time was not as popular as Netscape Navigator.

He clearly must have had a buggy experience elsewhere before.

Bear in mind, the previous default web browser was IE. ;) Raising the bar is not hard when the bar is lying on the ground.

When Edge actually works, it's wickedly fluid. That's IF it actually works though. I haven't been using Windows much lately to know the state of Microsoft Edge

It usually works. When it doesn't, it really doesn't though. And there's some annoying quirks: For instance, Edge always restores tabs after a crash, and you have to literally create nonexistent registry keys to disable that functionality.

The reason this is a problem is because when a malicious webpage hijacks your browser, and you have to forcibly close it to escape... Edge helpfully reopens the malicious webpage each time you relaunch Edge until you find out you need to hack on the registry to fix it.