By William Gallagher
Wednesday, May 08, 2019, 08:58 am PT (11:58 am ET)
Feature
There are solid features in Microsoft's new Mac browser - and significant ones still to come - but for Edge to be a compelling browser for Apple users, it's got to offer you more than you're getting with Apple's own Safari.
Microsoft has announced that the Microsoft Edge browser will be coming to the Mac platform natively, meaning you won’t have to run Microsoft Edge in a Windows 10 virtual machine if you don’t want to, instead Microsoft Edge will run as a regular app on the Mac. Microsoft Edge for Mac is built off of Chromium and is actively under development, and while in beta there will be two builds available to try out for users who are interested; a nightly changing Canary build, and a weekly changing. Apr 18, 2019 However, even on a Mac, there are a number of other browser choices available that you can use should you wish for a different experience, or have a need that is not catered to by Safari (more on that later). So, here are our picks for the best browsers for macOS. Unlike Microsoft’s default Edge browser hasn’t been able to get out of.
On Monday, Microsoft announced that it officially released a test version of Microsoft Edge for the Mac. It's a remarkably, surprisingly solid app even in this pre-launch edition. Even that we already know that its missing a couple of key features, still you can get a feel for whether Microsoft Edge is worth replacing Safari as your main browser. A key reason that this early version is so robust, though, is the same reason that Microsoft has made this move at all. The company didn't set out to make a Mac browser, it set out to convert its existing PC Edge into using Google's Chromium system. That gets it a solid base that happens to also give it a Mac version. And it's what makes the Mac version of Microsoft Edge look very like the Mac version of Chrome. If you were thinking of moving from Safari and didn't want to risk a pre-beta developer version of Microsoft Edge, you could download Chrome and you would get pretty much the same feel. Not measuring specsThis is about how Edge feels in comparison to Safari, it's not about benchmarking or measuring anything. That wouldn't be either fair or even all that useful given how unfinished this release of Edge is. That said, you can make some broad comparisons that are interesting. For a browser that looks like Chrome, for instance, Microsoft Edge currently takes up around a third less disk space than Google's offer. But then if you're tight on space, Safari is a head-scratching is-that-really-right ten times smaller than Edge. Safari is also less CPU intensive than either the currently-shipping Chrome or this developer Edge. We all tend to describe our preferred browser, whichever one it is, as feeling light and responsive and fast compared to the others. The key word there, though, is feeling. If you were checking out Activity Monitor while running these browsers or if you are on a MacBook with little space, you'd unquestionably say that Safari was the lightest. Microsoft Edge showing AppleInsider's front page. You're supposed to say that Edge is the fastest. That's a key promise from its Windows version, that Microsoft Edge will be faster than any of them. So far, we're not seeing that. We have no complaints about how quickly it loads any website we tried with it, but we haven't been knocked out either. That speed, along with the final disk space requirement, is something we'll have to come back to when this ships. There's good reason to hope that a final release will be quicker, but there's also reason to expect that it will be bigger, too, because this version of Edge is missing a couple of features. What's missingMicrosoft Browsers For Windows 7There's nothing missing that you actually need in a browser, nothing that isn't working. What's missing are some extra features —but these could be what makes you decide to move to Edge. Arguably the most appealing is a feature called Collections, which will help you save and organize material that you find on the web. It's going to be like Safari's reading list, but rather than that bookmarking kind of feature, Collections will be a research tool. You'll be able to drag images and text into it, and then share some or all with others. Less thrilling, but possibly needed for people in corporations, is IE Mode. This will be the whole, horrible, long-forgotten Internet Explorer built into Edge so that, if you need it, you can use in-house sites that require the old standard. TasteEven before we get any of these, though, there is a feature that might tempt you away from Safari, and it isn't Bing. While that search engine is, unsurprisingly, promoted on the startup page of Edge, if you scroll down, you also get news. A collection of headlines and stories from Microsoft News is right there in your browser's main page. Microsoft News is fine. We've compared it before to both Google News and the basic, non-subscription tier of Apple News. Here it's just a little extra touch, and ultimately it's the little things that make the difference. Features are great, and are also easy to compare, but it's the feel of a piece of software that matters. That's got to be more so with browsers than with just about anything because you will spend so much time using it. In theory, every browser should render every website perfectly, but you know they don't. This isn't a reason to switch browsers, but it is a reason to always have two on your Mac, and on your Windows box too. Beyond that, though, every browser does render every website in a different way. The buttons and controls are different and if you're used to seeing a site in Safari, it is noticeably different when you try it in Firefox. Microsoft Edge displays its settings in a web page. Separately, you can always see the source code for any site you visit. We would never argue that the color of a button or the shape of a slider is vital, but we will always maintain that overall this look and feel is extraordinarily important. In which case, the look and feel of Microsoft Edge gives away its origins. This is a very Chrome-like browser, but it's also a rather Windows-like one. Where every Mac app has its preferences in a separate kind of window, Edge —and Chrome —have all their settings on a web page. It looks like a web page, it takes up a tab, it is shown in the main window of the browser. The only difference is that instead of beginning with http:// and being a remote website, it's a local one whose name begins edge://. You're not very likely to type edge://settings/appearance into your browser tab, but you could. Maybe if you're a more technically-minded person, maybe if you're spending a lot of time adjusting settings, you'd find that faster and friendlier than clicking through buttons and tabs. And you can easily imagine a situation where you create TextExpander snippets to make entering them fast and convenient. We did get a peculiar issue when we wanted to search the web having just been in a settings window. Edge attempted to search for 'local curry restaurant', but prefixed it with edge:// for no reason that we could fathom —or, actually, reproduce that often. This is a very early beta, after all. SafariThis look and feel makes Edge seem about the same as Chrome to us. It's lighter than Firefox, though we just tend to get exasperated by how we launch Firefox because a site isn't working just right in Safari and we have to schlep through its constant updating. Edge feels more full-featured than Safari, yet that's just an impression we get from how many settings are thrown at us. In another very Windows-like move, Edge comes with choices for how your tabs look and because the options are there, you must be shown them and you must be shown them immediately. Unable to really judge how the different tabs look until we used them in anger, we picked one in a shrug and haven't gone back. There are more useful, and oddly less in your face, options to set up profiles where your Office 365 account is linked to your browser, but we've muddled through with Outlook online on Safari without issues. Then Edge, and Chrome, also make more of a meal about downloads. It's as if Safari expects you to download something now and then, where Edge thinks you're in this to do a lot. So where Safari has a download icon, which only appears when you've actually downloaded something, Edge presents a download manager. To swap or notIntellectually, we know that it's going to be the forthcoming Collections feature that should sway us. That's the part that has the most use, that makes Microsoft Edge the most different from Safari. And yet those of us who happen to prefer Safari to, for instance, Chrome, already know that we aren't really that likely to make the move to Edge, either. It's good that we have the option, though we have to be aware that it's practically an accident of birth that means we get a Mac version of Edge only because there's a Mac version of Google's Chromium system. Keep up with AppleInsider by downloading the AppleInsider app for iOS, and follow us on YouTube, Twitter @appleinsider and Facebook for live, late-breaking coverage. You can also check out our official Instagram account for exclusive photos.-->
Microsoft Teams has clients available for desktop (Windows, Mac, and Linux), web, and mobile (Android and iOS). These clients all require an active internet connection and do not support an offline mode.
Note
Effective November 29, 2018, you'll no longer be able to use the Microsoft Teams for Windows 10 S (Preview) app, available from the Microsoft Store. Instead, you can now download and install the Teams desktop client on devices running Windows 10 S mode. To download the desktop client, go to https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads. MSI builds of the Teams desktop client are not yet available for devices running Windows 10 S mode.
For more information about Windows 10 S mode, see Introducing Windows 10 in S mode.
Desktop client
Tip
Watch the following session to learn about the benefits of the Windows Desktop Client, how to plan for it, and how to deploy it: Teams Windows Desktop Client
The Microsoft Teams desktop client is a standalone application and is also available in Office 365 ProPlus. Teams is available for Windows (7+), both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, macOS (10.10+), and Linux (Debian package
.deb , Red Hat Package Manager .rpm ). On Windows, Teams requires .NET Framework 4.5 or later; the Teams installer will offer to install it for you if you don't have it. On Linux, package managers such as apt and yum will try to install any requirements for you. However, if they don't then you will need to install any reported requirements before installing Teams on Linux.
The desktop clients provide real-time communications support (audio, video, and content sharing) for team meetings, group calling, and private one-on-one calls.
Desktop clients can be downloaded and installed by end users directly from https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads if they have the appropriate local permissions (admin rights are not required to install the Teams client on a PC but are required on a Mac).
IT admins can choose their preferred method to distribute the installation files to computers in their organization. Some examples include System Center Configuration Manager (Windows) or Jamf Pro (macOS). To get the MSI package for Windows distribution, see Install Microsoft Teams using MSI.
Note
Distribution of the client via these mechanisms is only for the initial installation of Microsoft Team clients and not for future updates.
Windows
The Microsoft Teams installation for Windows provides downloadable installers in 32-bit and 64-bit architecture.
Note
The architecture (32-bit vs. 64-bit) of Microsoft Teams is agnostic to the architecture of Windows and Office that is installed.
The Windows client is deployed to the AppData folder located in the user’s profile. Deploying to the user’s local profile allows the client to be installed without requiring elevated rights. The Windows client leverages the following locations:
When users initiate a call using the Microsoft Teams client for the first time, they might notice a warning with the Windows firewall settings that asks for users to allow communication. Users might be instructed to ignore this message because the call will work, even when the warning is dismissed.
Note
Windows Firewall configuration will be altered even when the prompt is dismissed by selecting “Cancel”. Two inbound rules for teams.exe will be created with Block action for both TCP and UDP protocols.
Mac
Mac users can install Teams by using a PKG installation file for macOS computers. Administrative access is required to install the Mac client. The macOS client is installed to the /Applications folder.
Install Teams by using the PKG file
Note
During the installation, the PKG will prompt for admin credentials. The user needs to enter the admin credentials, regardless of whether or not the user is an admin.
If a user currently has a DMG installation of Teams and wants to replace it with the PKG installation, the user should:
IT admins can use managed deployment of Teams to distribute the installation files to all Macs in their organization, such as Jamf Pro.
Note
If you experience issues installing the PKG, let us know. In the Feedback section at the end of this article, click Product feedback.
Linux
Linux users can install Teams using a Debian
.deb package or as a Red Hat package .rpm .
Note
The Teams on Linux client is available in limited preview. Submit bugs using
Report a Problem from within the client. For known issues, see Known Issues.
Install Teams using DEB package
Microsoft office for mac student discounts. You can launch Teams via Activities or via Terminal by typing
Teams . https://omegaever874.weebly.com/drawing-software-for-mac-free.html.
Install Teams using RPM package
You can launch Teams via Activities or via Terminal by typing
Teams .
Web client
The web client (https://teams.microsoft.com) is a full, functional client that can be used from a variety of browsers. The web client supports Calling and Meetings by using webRTC, so there is no plug-in or download required to run Teams in a web browser. The browser must be configured to allow third-party cookies.
Teams fully supports the following internet browsers, with noted exceptions for calling and meetings.
Note
As long as an operating system can run the supported browser, Teams is supported. For example, running Firefox on the Linux operating system is an option for using Teams.
Microsoft Browser For Mac Os
The web client performs browser version detection upon connecting to https://teams.microsoft.com. If an unsupported browser version is detected, it will block access to the web interface and recommend that the user download the desktop client or mobile app.
Mobile clients
The Microsoft Teams mobile apps are available for Android and iOS, and are geared for on-the-go users participating in chat-based conversations and allow peer-to-peer audio calls. For mobile apps, go to the relevant mobile stores Google Play and the Apple App Store. The Windows Phone App was retired July 20, 2018 and may no longer work.
Supported mobile platforms for Microsoft Teams mobile apps are the following:
Note
The mobile version must be available to the public in order for Teams to work as expected.
Mobile apps are distributed and updated through the respective mobile platform’s app store only. Distribution of the mobile apps via MDM or side-loading is not supported by Microsoft. Once the mobile app has been installed on a supported mobile platform, the Teams Mobile App itself will be supported provided the version is within three months of the current release.
Client update management
Clients are currently updated automatically by the Microsoft Teams service with no IT administrator intervention required. If an update is available, the client will automatically download the update and when the app has idled for a period of time, the update process will begin.
Client-side configurations
Currently, there are no supported options available to configure the client either through the tenant admin, PowerShell, Group Policy Objects or the registry.
Notification settings
There are currently no options available for IT administrators to configure client-side notification settings. All notification options are set by the user. The figure below outlines the default client settings.
Sample PowerShell ScriptMicrosoft Edge Browser For Mac
This sample script, which needs to run on client computers in the context of an elevated administrator account, will create a new inbound firewall rule for each user folder found in c:users. When Teams finds this rule, it will prevent the Teams application from prompting users to create firewall rules when the users make their first call from Teams.
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