Microsoft confirms that Edge will switch to Chromium

Microsoft confirmed today that the company's Microsoft Edge web browser will "move to a Chromium-compatible web platform" on the desktop.

Rumors emerged last week that Microsoft was done with developing and maintaining its own rendering engine and that the company would either move Edge to a Chromium-based core or create a new browser based on that.

Today's article on the Windows Experience blog confirms the rumor. Microsoft Edge won't die but it will be moved from its own platform to Chromium to become a Chromium-based browser.

Google Chrome is the dominating Chromium-based browser but there are others such as Vivaldi or Opera.

Interesting from the perspective of a Windows user is that the new Edge won't be Windows 10 exclusive anymore. Microsoft plans to release Microsoft Edge, the new version that is based on Chromium, for all supported versions of Windows. There is also a possibility that Microsoft Edge will be launched for Mac OS X or other platforms in the future.

Edge will be updated more frequently; that means, likely, that Microsoft won't include Microsoft Edge updates with updates for the Windows operating system anymore.

Microsoft Edge will evolve according to Microsoft.

[..] we will evolve the browser code more broadly, so that our distribution model offers an updated Microsoft Edge experience + platform across all supported versions of Windows, while still maintaining the benefits of the browser’s close integration with Windows.

Microsoft plans to contribute to the Chromium project to improve the platform further. Edge users will benefit from improved compatibility when using the web browser.

Microsoft invites developers to join Microsoft Edge Insider to test preview builds of the new Edge when they become available.

Just visit the Microsoft Edge Insider website and sign up there to receive information about upcoming builds. Microsoft expects to have a first preview build ready in early 2019; this suggests that Microsoft started work on migrating Edge to the new code-base for some time already.

Closing Words

I never understood why Edge was not available for other supported Windows versions; it felt like a huge oversight on Microsoft's part. The moving to a Chromium-base changes that and that is a good thing. Whether the move will convince many Windows 7 and 8.1 users to switch to Edge remains to be seen; my initial guess is that some will try Edge when it first comes out but won't probably switch to it unless it offers something spectacular that other Chromium-based browsers don't offer.

Lots of questions remain unanswered: will there be feature changes? what about Edge's interface and design?

Microsoft has some things to sort out as well. Universal Windows Platform uses EdgeHTML and the team needs to find a way to move all of that to Chromium as well.

Source: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/12/06/microsoft-confirms-that-edge-will-use-chromium/