sgv

My understanding is that the same JavaScript code minified by different minifiers will produce different performance results across any browser. This is because minifiers often introduce code patterns that are very different than the JavaScript code that the devs write. The point being made is not about being non-aware of the web, but more about ensuring the web runs faster across different code patterns that are encountered by the JIT compiler while running the web.

While I completely agree that regular releases and an evergreen browser are extremely important in today's world (and that is the direction that Microsoft Edge is moving towards), I am not sure what point you were trying to make by saying that comparison against competition should be with a grain of salt.

All three blogs that you point to talk about SunSpider benchmark (from Apple), and since IE9, or the day the first blog was published, the story holds true. Across platforms (32-bit or 64-bit), Microsoft Edge and IE remain as leaders in that benchmark across all competing browsers. The nearest competitor is around 40% slower. Here are the nos. across major browsers on SunSpider

MSEdge: 103 FF Nightly : 176 Chrome Canary: 171

It's a choice for the developers. They can use Node standalone or inside a Universal Windows application with access to the underlying platform using JavaScript.

Yes, this works on Raspberry Pi 2 and MinnowBoard MAX, running Windows 10 IOT Core preview - http://ms-iot.github.io/content/Downloads.htm