Microsoft Edge Development Will Be Based on the Chromium Open Source Project

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Microsoft has officially adopted the Chromium open source project for the development of Microsoft Edge. This will create better web compatibility for Microsoft customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers. This change will occur over the course of the next year. Microsoft also expressed a desire to port Microsoft Edge to macOS and ARM64 for future ARM-based Windows devices.

We will move to a Chromium-compatible web platform for Microsoft Edge on the desktop. Our intent is to align the Microsoft Edge web platform simultaneously (a) with web standards and (b) with other Chromium-based browsers. This will deliver improved compatibility for everyone and create a simpler test-matrix for web developers. Microsoft Edge will now be delivered and updated for all supported versions of Windows and on a more frequent cadence. We will contribute web platform enhancements to make Chromium-based browsers better on Windows devices.
 
cageymaru said:
Microsoft has officially adopted the Chromium open source project for the development of Microsoft Edge. This will create better web compatibility for Microsoft customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web developers. This change will occur over the course of the next year. Microsoft also expressed a desire to port Microsoft Edge to macOS and ARM64 for future ARM-based Windows devices.

We will move to a Chromium-compatible web platform for Microsoft Edge on the desktop. Our intent is to align the Microsoft Edge web platform simultaneously (a) with web standards and (b) with other Chromium-based browsers. This will deliver improved compatibility for everyone and create a simpler test-matrix for web developers. Microsoft Edge will now be delivered and updated for all supported versions of Windows and on a more frequent cadence. We will contribute web platform enhancements to make Chromium-based browsers better on Windows devices.
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Blows my fucking mind. Nadela knows what's good
 
{NG}Fidel said:
Blows my fucking mind. Nadela knows what's good
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Nah, he just does not want to spend any money re-inventing the wheel and has no qualms about dumping the old crap, along with some programmers in order to make more money by spending less time developing.
 
BSmith said:
Nah, he just does not want to spend any money re-inventing the wheel and has no qualms about dumping the old crap, along with some programmers in order to make more money by spending less time developing.
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Which Microsoft needs when it comes to browsers. They lost a long time ago. I don't see the incentive in them trying to win here.
 
the entire industry is paralysed.

moving to ARM devices from x86 when the leader of x86 (intel) has shit the bed and failed to make a proper embedded solution.

this is just not good.

they can keep churning out "new and shiny", but underneath it's "old and shitty".

there's money for 'gains'
no money for brains.
 
Unless it does something useful that no other browser does, its wasted time.

Edge is a fine browser (pretty speedy too) but has not a single feature that makes me want to even give it a chance.
 
BSmith said:
Nah, he just does not want to spend any money re-inventing the wheel and has no qualms about dumping the old crap, along with some programmers in order to make more money by spending less time developing.
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I think it is more about office 365. Now that this is key in their portfolio of products, they have effectively transitions form shitting all over web standards to shitting where they eat.
 
And while doing so please get rid of Word rendeing engine for HTML emails in outlook because you make our lives miserable when we build HTML Newsletters/E-mails since a lot of things come out like shit and a ton of workarounds are needed.
 
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Jovian said:
Edge is a fine browser (pretty speedy too) but has not a single feature that makes me want to even give it a chance.
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I liked what they were doing with Edge- would have been nice to see them bring it to parity with Chrome and Firefox etc., if they'd managed to keep it speedy and standards compliant in the process.
 
I'm still convinced the naming and branding are its biggest fault. I work with dozens of marginally PC literate employees that have no idea Edge even exists or what it is. It looks just like all of those other apps like "messaging" and "mixed reality portal" that nobody uses. Edge needs more than a nag screen after a major update to get any uptick. It needs a PR campaign and maybe some kind of way of differentiating it from their other mess of pointless required UWP apps.
 
I can only see this as a great thing - Microsoft wins in not needing to compete on the web front, while at the same time implementing their own frontend and tweaks to optimize the experience on Windows / MS Cloud Services. Web developers win, not having to re-write HTML/JavaScript to accommodate incompatibilities/quirks of Edge. MS domain administrators win by not having to push Chrome to client PCs, meaning not having to deal with additional complexity of Group Policy rules for Chrome (or dealing with people logging into gmail and Chrome auto logging into their personal gapps suite), nor worrying about website compatibility (especially important for Windows 7 clients that do not currently have access to Edge, if MS will actually let their new browser be installed on 7).

MS can potentially take back some browser market share - especially in the business sector, if they implement this well.
 
Watering a dead plant.

Seriously, even if they reboot this as a proper Win32 program now rather than a restrictive UWP/Win32 hybrid app like current Edge, disassociate plugins from the store, build a time machine set to 2015 and don't alienate half a billion Windows 7 PC's from (Chrome and Firefox don't), the problem would still be: what new or better does it bring to the table? They had access to the kernel team, FFS. They could've collaborated and made Edge the fastest browser on the planet.
 
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unfortunateson said:
MS can potentially take back some browser market share - especially in the business sector, if they implement this well.
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You must be the new heatlesssun. Welcome. But I think the mindshare ship has already sailed. Unless you also use 2 in 1's, sway, and inking, Chrome is king. :D
 
The point is - if Microsoft redesigns the UI (Edge is ugly IMO) and sprinkles in some GPU optimizations for Windows-based machines, while keeping the exact same chromium rendering engine underneath (and especially if they incorporate similar debugging tools that are built into chrome), there will be virtually NO reason to switch to Chrome unless you are already tied to Google through their services. Web developers will be able to debug within the Microsoft ecosystem, sysadmins will not have to maintain multiple web browsers. Without compatibility issues or performance deficits (which are what traditionally drove people to Chrome to begin with), the only uphill battle for Microsoft will be brand redesign/recovery.
 
Nice. So now EVERY browser uses WebKit. IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari... They're all ports of the same codebase.

edit: Nevermind, only IOS Firefox uses WebKit. Regular Firefox is still Gecko.
 
Bowman15 said:
The new Edge; "The most closed open source software in the world".
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You might want to look into the huge pushes MS has been doing in the open source arena before making silly comments like that..... They've released a ton of source code, and their developers have been contributing heavily to quite a few main open source projects..... vs code, .net core, electron are just a few big examples off the top of my head.

*edit* Here's their github repo: https://github.com/Microsoft
 
Jovian said:
Unless it does something useful that no other browser does, its wasted time.

Edge is a fine browser (pretty speedy too) but has not a single feature that makes me want to even give it a chance.
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The UI is annoying and it has way too many problems to even consider using it.
 
Shotglass01 said:
You must be the new heatlesssun. Welcome. But I think the mindshare ship has already sailed. Unless you also use 2 in 1's, sway, and inking, Chrome is king. :D
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No mention of 2-in-1's, Netflix app and Inking = it's not the real heatless.
 
I like Edge, pretty much, but I'm totally spoiled by (and chained to) the Google sync ecosystem. I have Chrome on Windows, Mac, Linux, my iPhone, and I recently was gifted a PixelBook. Every device seamlessly inherits all of my Chrome stuff and it all works nearly flawlessly. I can't reasonably use a browser that only syncs to one platform.

Outside of that, just like with their mobile stuff, MS tried to bring yet another horse into a pretty full race. It's really hard to enter in to the space this late into it and expect everyone to just start making extensions and whatever. Especially being MS, they have just that more unreliability in how well they back their own technologies for serious third-party investment. The phones were ok, but hey, no Pokemon Go (example). Deal killer. Platform killer.
 
Maybe they'll decouple it from the OS requirement so that they can push a notice patch via Windows Update to all the old machines to try the new "Internet Explorer EDGE."

IE8/9/10 needs to die, but won't because they tied the replacement to the OS and they won't advertise an alternative unless they make it.
 
TeeJayHoward said:
Nevermind, only IOS Firefox uses WebKit. Regular Firefox is still Gecko
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nothing on iOS is NOT webkit if it's a browser. Apple does not allow 3rd party rendering engines. they suck. Firefox on Android i've found to be pretty damn good
 
Linux isn't even on that list. Microsoft can't even catch up to Chrome and Firefox at this rate.
 
Messy said:
nothing on iOS is NOT webkit if it's a browser. Apple does not allow 3rd party rendering engines. they suck. Firefox on Android i've found to be pretty damn good
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Firefox under Android is awesome.
 
Microsoft's newest marketing campaign: "We're on Edge! And you can be on Edge, too!"

Seriously, though, Microsoft's best bet is to satisfy the needs of all the business parasites that made apps for Internet Explorer (and now refuse to rewrite their IE 6 applications) by offering a locked down pseudo-browser for their internal needs, and then shutting them off. With Edge they can win if they maintain speed and usability parity but compete heavily on security, something that they should have an advantage in. Edge would be cool if the average (dumb) user could easily sandbox it in a VM.
 
seanreisk said:
Microsoft's newest marketing campaign: "We're on Edge! And you can be on Edge, too!"

Seriously, though, Microsoft's best bet is to satisfy the needs of all the business parasites that made apps for Internet Explorer (and now refuse to rewrite their IE 6 applications) by offering a locked down pseudo-browser for their internal needs, and then shutting them off. With Edge they can win if they maintain speed and usability parity but compete heavily on security, something that they should have an advantage in. Edge would be cool if the average (dumb) user could easily sandbox it in a VM.
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When someone drives you to the edge, that usually doesn't have a positive echo.
 
Biznatch said:
You might want to look into the huge pushes MS has been doing in the open source arena before making silly comments like that..... They've released a ton of source code, and their developers have been contributing heavily to quite a few main open source projects..... vs code, .net core, electron are just a few big examples off the top of my head.

*edit* Here's their github repo: https://github.com/Microsoft
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Since you didn't get the semi serious sarcasm I'll spell it out for you and the others that think alike. I'm talking about the neww Edge browser only and how it will be incorporated and used within Windows 10 to lock things down. With the browser market share they had no choice to mix things up. I already know what they contribute.
 
Yep: Microsoft Monopoly = Bad! Google Monopoly = Good! This is one of the reasons the Windows Mobile platform died. (Watch someone come out and say that I claimed this is the real or primary reason Windows Mobile died, just watch.)
 
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