Rumor: Microsoft dropping Edge browser in favor of Chromium

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 4, 2018
Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge
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58

The rumors keep on coming. After yesterday's rumor that Microsoft is working on Windows Lite, the next attempt at conquering lost territory in the classroom and in education, Windows Central reports that Microsoft will replace Edge on Windows 10 with a Chromium-powered web browser.

Microsoft Edge was Microsoft's attempt at creating a modern web browser on the Windows platform; the company hoped that Edge would help it regain marketshare in the browser market that it lost to Google and the Chrome browser for the most part.

Microsoft integrated Edge as the main browser and Internet Explorer for backward compatibility in Windows 10. The company did not port Edge to previous versions of Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.

Developers who did not run Windows 10 had to use virtual machines to test web projects and services against Edge.

Windows Central reports that Microsoft is "building a new web browser powered by Chromium" and that this new browser, called Anaheim internally, will replace Edge as the default browser.

Chromium is the open source part of Google Chrome; it is a popular choice among browser developers, Vivaldi and Opera use it as the base for their browsers.

While it is unclear if the new browser will use the Edge brand or how it will look like, it is certain that EdgeHTML, the rendering engine used by Microsoft Edge, won't make it in the new browser according to Windows Central.

The decision has far reaching consequences if true. With Edge gone, and Internet Explorer not gaining any traction either, only two major browser bases are left: Chromium and Firefox.

Google Chrome dominates the market already and with Microsoft dropping its own EdgeHTML engine in favor of Chromium, Chromium's position would even be more dominating than it already is.

Microsoft would likely save development resources and money as it would not have to build things from scratch anymore.

It remains to be seen how well that transition sits with Edge users. Much would depend on whether import functionality is provided by the new browser, its looks, and whether it replicates Edge's most popular features.

The new browser could make an appearance on platforms that it is not available on yet: Linux, Mac OS X, and maybe even on older versions of Windows.

Microsoft's Edge browser is available for Android and iOS already, and it uses the native rendering engine on these platforms which means that Microsoft could continue to work on that version. Whether that is indeed the case remains to be seen.

Closing Words

I tried to use Edge in the past, I really did but ran into so many annoyances and issues, that I could not use it as my main driver. Microsoft moving away from Edge may introduce a default web browser that is more stable than Edge but it moves the web towards a monoculture that introduces new issues especially for competing products.

For now, it is just a rumor; we have to wait for Microsoft to confirm or deny it.

Now You: What is your take on this?

Summary
Rumor: Microsoft dropping Edge browser in favor of Chromium
Article Name
Rumor: Microsoft dropping Edge browser in favor of Chromium
Description
Microsoft might replace Edge on Windows 10 with a Chromium-powered web browser.
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Comments

  1. Russian Bot 289103284782171 said on January 22, 2019 at 4:56 pm
    Reply

    I actually hope they don’t. I don’t even have it on my win7 ultimate partition…not sure one can have it on win7 even, but IE11 for example has been my “i’m a noob and I don’t know what browser extensions are” for capricious websites. Haven’t tried Edge other than on friends computers and it’s fine for what it is, a bland browser that doesn’t have much customization possible which allows one to get to a website like say your bank without the whole site going nuts about your IP address/security add-ons that somehow still mess everything up even if turned off. Although I have Falkon in case, when win7 updates stop…god, please, if I have to keep a windows partition, extend win7, at least Ultimate, supported for at least a couple years, there’s no way I’m ever installing win10, it seems like MS didn’t follow their OK->Bad->Ok->Bad OS policies they used for decades where all the money made in selling an awful OS (ME,Vista) to make the next or the classic “oh Windows 2000 is only for businesses!, WinME is excellent for home use!” BS. We didn’t get to see Windows 9, maybe that was the good step after 7, but that was never really released, only used to build 10 on top of it if I remember well.

    I’ll have a hard time not having a dual-boot setup if win7 dies by June of this year, it’s still easy to break a good Linux Mint, for example of a good easy to use Linux distro, if one digs deep enough in their learning process or say, people like me who use Linux since the late ’00s but will try advanced stuff that doesn’t always turn out right. Damn AMD Proprietary drivers…

  2. Lord-Lestat said on December 5, 2018 at 2:21 pm
    Reply

    Now that are bad news. Even more bad news for the one’s who think Mozilla has a long-term chance against Google.

    If Microsoft is thinking about becoming a Google/Google Chrome minion – how big is then the chance that Mozilla can win against Google with their ever falling market-share and their Chrome imitation browser called Firefox?

    Sooner or later there will only be one engine left on the browser-market – Blink – this can not be avoided sadly, as Google with it’s heinous “influencer/advice” strategy towards Mozilla/Opera on the one side – their ruthless aggressive strategy and with the help of never-ending money resources they either persuade the competition to play their own game or simply force it with sheer power.

    What is left and which are ignored by Google are only minor flawed projects like Pale Moon and browsers based on the revived QT-Webkit.

    1. John Fenderson said on December 5, 2018 at 5:14 pm
      Reply

      @Lord-Lestat: “how big is then the chance that Mozilla can win against Google”

      I think that depends on how you define “win”.

      One thing that is so close to certain that I’d be willing to bet my life savings on it is that whoever is unassailable dominant force right now will, at some point, be dethroned. That may or may not be done by Firefox, but it will be done by somebody.

      1. Lord-Lestat said on December 5, 2018 at 6:50 pm
        Reply

        @John Fenderson i meant more like that Mozilla will fall more and more under Google’s influence – even more than they have done in the past already.

        Why should they be the only one resisting when Microsoft already is submitting most likely. Especially as Mozilla has stopped to be a thinker on their own years ago. They are just a follower these days. And this process will not reverse, it will only get worse over time.

  3. NotAnonymous said on December 5, 2018 at 8:22 am
    Reply

    More proof that Satya Nadella is the new Marissa Mayer.

  4. Supergirl said on December 5, 2018 at 12:10 am
    Reply

    I was thinking.

    I like how Linux treats me like a respected human being…
    As opposed to MS,Google & Facebook.

    What if someone made a browser that didnt try to scam us
    didnt try to Chump us..
    Just ASKED us what ads we wanted to see that session..?

    Strip & block ALL Malware, Maybe even run it thru a VPN so that
    websites would get false return info to display troublesome ,sketchy sites?

  5. BM said on December 4, 2018 at 11:55 pm
    Reply

    Then it seems a future MS browser may well be supportable in Sandboxie.

  6. Scargy said on December 4, 2018 at 6:59 pm
    Reply

    They should buy original Presto version of Opera which was very good and the browser everyone copied from before Chrome.

  7. AnorKnee Merce said on December 4, 2018 at 5:59 pm
    Reply

    Quoted from the above news article: ……. “The new browser could make an appearance on platforms that it is not available on yet: Linux, Mac OS X, and maybe even on older versions of Windows.”
    .
    Linux users can already install the Chromium browsers since the beginning of “time”. Why would they want to install M$’s forked version of the Chromium browser.?

    Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi are also forks of the Chromium browser. The open-source Chromium browser development project is sponsored by Google Inc as a base for her proprietary Chrome browser, similar to the Fedora/CentOS and RHEL of Red Hat Inc/IBM.

    The original Chromium browser runs superbly on Linux. Most computer users only need 2 to 3 browsers.

  8. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 5:05 pm
    Reply

    “What is your take on this?”

    I’m deeply skeptical of this. Microsoft and Google have been at each other’s throats for so long now that it’s hard to see them adopting Chromium. But you never know, we live in very strange times.

    Either way, it doesn’t affect me as I won’t be using a Chromium-based browser, no matter where it comes from.

  9. John G. said on December 4, 2018 at 2:18 pm
    Reply

    IE11 is more useful for certain purposes than Chrome (e.g. to visit Java sites, Silverlight sites, Shockwave sites). Edge is unable to render efficiently heavy load of flash content sites.

  10. Sebas said on December 4, 2018 at 2:05 pm
    Reply

    ‘If Mozilla, Apple and MS would also exert their influence over the Open-Source Chromium project, Google wouldn’t be able to dictate everything”.

    Google, MS and Apple together. I don’t know. Or like Brave does for example, with their own shield. mmm, could well be they use disconnect for that or easylist.

  11. Yuliya said on December 4, 2018 at 1:49 pm
    Reply

    I found it! 👌😂
    “While we’re talking here, I’m gonna go install Chrome.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELI2J-CpZg&t=36m40s

  12. user17843 said on December 4, 2018 at 12:59 pm
    Reply

    When Google forked Blink from Apple WebKit, some Firefox employees were deeply offended. That was in 2013. WebKit laid the foundation for Chrome’s success.

    But no one wanted to hear that the Gecko engine was already dead in 2013, and impossible to fork due to it’s complexity. Trident/EdgeHTML is also dead. Microsoft has a kind of lazy attitude to their software, because they can force it onto their users. But this is changing, because Chrome is increasingly gaining more power over Windows Software.

    MS will probably fork Chromium to build into their products, in order to keep up with the evolving web. Otherwise there’s no way for them to compete with Google’s products.

    Interpreting the web should be done by a single core engine ideally, in my view. Not necessarily backed by Google, but there’s no point in wasting the time of thousands of people with doing all the work someone else already did.

    If Mozilla, Apple and MS would also exert their influence over the Open-Source Chromium project, Google wouldn’t be able to dictate everything.

    1. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 5:14 pm
      Reply

      @user17843: “Interpreting the web should be done by a single core engine ideally”

      I could not disagree more. Monoculture is always bad, adversely affecting the user experience, software quality, and security.

      1. Anonymous said on December 5, 2018 at 4:55 am
        Reply

        @John Fenderson
        I agree with user17843. I still remember years ago where a website can look really different in different browsers. We need a standard engine to process something. Same engine but different implementation is ideal. Reinventing the wheel is usually not a good thing, just like Mozilla is doing with FireChrome

      2. John Fenderson said on December 5, 2018 at 5:11 pm
        Reply

        @Anonymous: ” I still remember years ago where a website can look really different in different browsers. We need a standard engine to process something. ”

        I remember that, too, but the problem there wasn’t that there were multiple engines, it was the lack of good standards. Now we have (relatively) good standards, and all engines should adhere to them.

        If that’s done, then having multiple engines wouldn’t result in the same page being rendered differently by different engines. They would be rendered according to what the standard says.

        The value of multiple engines is that it avoids monopoly, and monopoly is always bad, especially in the tech space. With monopoly comes stagnation, reduced software quality, and an increased amount of abusive behavior.

      3. Anonymous said on December 6, 2018 at 5:15 am
        Reply

        @John Fenderson
        We already have Web Standards, they’re made by W3C. The problem was IE did not follow the standards and didn’t want to update for years. Many developers couldn’t afford to develop multiple versions of same site, the result was many websites were ‘IE only’.

        Chrome is following to W3C standards but they developed some features that are not in W3C standards yet. W3C is really slow to approve a standard while Chrome is really fast in development. The result is there’s some website that use Chrome’s technology, other browsers that do not have the technology can’t process it.

        If you want to blame about ‘Chrome only technology, blame the W3C, they’re just like IE in the past, really slow to move. Just look at the MHTML specs that were proposed since 20 years ago.

        Monopoly is not always bad, monopoly is bad when users get lower quality product because of it. Chrome keeps on improving(not stagnating) while IE was stuck in its glory. That’s why Chrome is not IE.

  13. JR said on December 4, 2018 at 12:40 pm
    Reply

    I’ve used Iron 64-bit for several years. I see no reason to stop.

  14. Sebas said on December 4, 2018 at 12:12 pm
    Reply

    Google Chrome is a great browser for me. And it is a privacy nightmare. I throw lots of extensions like Ublock origin in it, they seem however less capable as in Firefox, I could be mistaken.

    Oh and the standard flag strict site isolation breaks more sites then in Firefox. And for Firefox you have this nice extension to dis- /enable First Party Isolation: https://github.com/mozfreddyb/webext-firstpartyisolation

    Hmm, Chrome a great browser…

    1. John Fenderson said on December 5, 2018 at 5:44 pm
      Reply

      @Sebas: “Google Chrome is a great browser for me. And it is a privacy nightmare.”

      For me, something can’t be both a privacy nightmare and great. If it has serious privacy issues, then it’s worthless junk. This is precisely why I don’t use Chrome or Chromium-based browsers. I can’t trust them at all.

  15. Anonymous said on December 4, 2018 at 12:05 pm
    Reply

    So most of browsers are Google Chromium based, and Firefox is a Google puppet. Google owns the web.

    1. AnorKnee Merce said on December 4, 2018 at 5:44 pm
      Reply

      More than 50% of the world now use mobile browsers, instead of desktop browsers.

      Mobile browser world marketshare has Chrome at 63.03%, Safari at 26.66% and Firefox at 1.20%.

    2. Anonymous said on December 4, 2018 at 1:17 pm
      Reply

      Yep, Google owns the web. Microsoft used to own it and lost it by Chrome. Microsoft tried to take it back with Edge and failed. If you can’t beat them, join them.

  16. Michael said on December 4, 2018 at 11:03 am
    Reply

    Good news. The only non-multiplatform rendering engine is going to die. Time for a party.
    3 rendering engines left, not 2, all of them multiplatform.
    WebKit (Apple), Gecko (Mozilla), Blink (Google)

    1. Tom said on December 4, 2018 at 12:45 pm
      Reply

      It’s very bad for the web to see another web engine die, Michael. If you really think it’s time for a party the only possible conclusion is that you don’t know what this means. No, that’s a really sad day for the web.

      1. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 5:11 pm
        Reply

        @Tom: “No, that’s a really sad day for the web.”

        My default instinct is to agree with you. In this case, however, I think it’s a neutral thing.

      2. Michael said on December 4, 2018 at 2:51 pm
        Reply

        Tom it’s not bad losing a single platform web engine, it wouldn’t have a future anyway if its platform stopped for any reason supporting it in the future. This is exactly what happened with EdgeHTML. Let’s hope more multiplatform web engines to be created in the future, and evebody to learn their lesson and stop developing single platform web engines. I am not even going to the fact that it’s not only single platform, it’s proprietary too. So yes, I am partying when a single platform proprietary engine dies.

      3. gwacks said on December 4, 2018 at 4:00 pm
        Reply

        @Michael

        I have to agree with @Tom, even it’s a proprietary product of M$. At least we won’t have one joke like this anymore:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rL_Lnt6kA

        Then who’s the next? Firefox? Maybe Safari? Whatever.

      4. Michael said on December 4, 2018 at 8:09 pm
        Reply

        @gwacks
        There will be no next my friend.
        Safari.. WebKit is opensource, Gnome use it in its default browser. In fact Gnome runs Apple’s WebKit everywhere.
        Gecko is open source and it is used by many browsers right now.
        Gecko, Blink, WebKit are all open source, if the companies that are behind them stop updating them, they will be forked.
        Can we say the same about EdgeHTML? No Microsoft pulls the plug, game over. The web is not benefiting from engines like EdgeHTML, the only one who get benefited is Microsoft.

    2. Yuliya said on December 4, 2018 at 11:25 am
      Reply

      There is Trident too. It’s used in IE, which is still the default and the only browser on Enterprise/Server Windows, and many Win32 programs rely on it as well.

      1. Michael said on December 4, 2018 at 12:07 pm
        Reply

        Yes, I forgot about Trident. I hope they keep Trident, mostly because of the possible issues that would arise in many win32 programs if they drop it. But for EdgeHTML I am happy, it made the lives of many web developers who don’t use Windows miserable.

  17. Harro Glööckler said on December 4, 2018 at 10:36 am
    Reply

    Nice, now we won’t be ever able to get rid of that malware (aka Chromium). Yeah, it’s the “most used” browser, but no one asks why…you try to install an antivirus or other software, guess what you also get if you aren’t careful? Chrome. This high usage percentage is mostly from “next-next-next” clickers that are forced to use it after it sets itself as default and they don’t know how to revert that change.

    It’s literally everywhere…I needed to uninstall it from my cousins computer multiple times per month after he got it bundled with Farming Simulator mods. Worse than Real Player and Quicktime in late 90s/early 00s.

    1. noemata said on December 4, 2018 at 12:03 pm
      Reply

      dito. and another of these (soon) countless “chromium-powered web browsers”.

      something new. yes, that really changes everything.. .

      ms has delivered a _potentially good_ browser with edge, but he was/is too much interlocked with windows ( = windows – updates).

      consequence: the update frequency of the browser suffers as far as new necessary functions are concerned. and so you are always miles away from the competitors.

      and now this, instead of actually tackling the actual reasons concretely and knocking out one amazing build after the other; independent of windows – updates (which has been demanded often enough by edge – users, but ms always hears after years or even decades of hearing loss).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)#Other_browsers_based_on_Chromium

      1. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 5:10 pm
        Reply

        @noemata: “ms has delivered a _potentially good_ browser with edge”

        “Potentially good” means not actually good.

      2. noemata said on December 5, 2018 at 12:39 am
        Reply

        john f: potentially good ……t……… not actually good

        @john f .. as you can see, for me there is “time” resp. “experience” (and partial delusion) in between. my expressed perspective starts at the beginning (probably because i was surprised by ms – it burned into my mind) and in the beginning everything is (or appears to be) possible (within the bounds of the possible).

        before any distinction (laws of form) is always “potentiality”. in the course of time it decreases context-dependently (_very distantly_ related to “entropy”; in a metaphorical way).

        edge: the user – interface immediately inspired me (imho). finally something new at all. i found it _thoughtful_ and i thought to myself: “if they continue to improve all of this.. wow”.

        and the perfect – smoth – scroll – behavior on my previous (again) “ancient system”. no comparison to the sluggish chrome – behavior at that time (on my system). and certainly no comparison to firefox minus quantum or opera minus presto.

        i still remember very well. and the concentration of the edge team on (web – ) essentials and their announced big plans (which could be followed explicitly and clearly listed).

        in the beginning. except “security” and other more important “little things”. but what’s not yet, could still be – i thought/hoped.

        but what took it half an eternity until this australian actor came along with an ublock origin fork for edge, which was updated every 1-2-3-4-x months. so i had to use adguard before and during that time (sluggish experience; sorry adguard – team).

        and the disadvantages and their stupid decisions became clearer and clearer. major updates only every six months. and just regressing. and the interlocking with windows and f.. cortana. and the users are whining and ms isn’t listening again. and then the _general breach of confidence_ with microsoft (again, the 2nd time – the first time when it was fashionable to write “m$” and when you were proud to have logos called “made with notepad” and “optimized for xy” on your homepage with a lot of ” ” and other “cool stuff”), which has now reached its peak for me.

        but then… firefox 57 came around the corner. surprised. the suffering had an end. in retrospect, the suffering meant : “en attendant godot”.

        and now, this decision. how sad (as tom said).

        so many visions. so many _wasted_ potential. so many wrong decisions. so much ignorance. so much bullshit over the time.

        and as it seems, even more bullshit for the future. and at this point, i could start with the first post again.

        so, yes, you are right, _now_ your perspective applies to mine, too: “not actually good”. but not “necessarily” (in the logical sense), from my expressed perspective.

        “the world” (and especially brains) seems to be not “calculable” at its core (gödel, penrose, j.r. lucas).

        good night. it is what it is. bullshit. “imho” (i’d almost forgotten).

      3. John Fenderson said on December 5, 2018 at 5:07 pm
        Reply

        @noemata:

        I have nothing of substance to add to your comment here, I just wanted to say how very much I enjoyed it! Thank you.

  18. Sophie said on December 4, 2018 at 9:26 am
    Reply

    I occasionally use Edge when I want a complete “no ad blocking” solution….a “one off” kind of occasion, if you will, where my regular setup is not rendering something quite right. Then I’ll leave Edge for ages, until the next such occasion.

    I would not touch Edge otherwise. It’s a horrible experience, lacking in so much and completely the kind of rubbish I’ve come to expect from Microsoft.

  19. Johnny said on December 4, 2018 at 9:06 am
    Reply

    If it’s a new UWP app, it will fail as miserably as edge did.

  20. Yuliya said on December 4, 2018 at 9:00 am
    Reply

    I remember at the beginning of 2017, the team responsible for Edge got a big budget allocated and two years of time to make something out of Edge. I guess they have failed to deliver.

    1. John G. said on December 4, 2018 at 2:14 pm
      Reply

      Also MS development team are failing to deliver a good W10 version.

  21. John C. said on December 4, 2018 at 8:59 am
    Reply

    It is to wonder what threat or bribe either Google or the NSA has used to coerce all browser makers into basically turning their programs into Chrome-clones. Brought to you by Amerika, formerly the land of the free.

    1. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 5:08 pm
      Reply

      John C.: No need to posit a bribe or extortion. The market forces of oligopoly are more than adequate to explain it.

  22. ilev said on December 4, 2018 at 8:49 am
    Reply

    Why should Microsoft be “building a new web browser powered by Chromium” ?
    Just use Chrome as default browser as I am sure Microsoft will screw its new browser as well.

    1. AnorKnee Merce said on December 4, 2018 at 5:33 pm
      Reply

      Soon, M$ will be building a new Windows OS powered by Debian and trademarked by Nadella as Windian. *sarcasm*

  23. Luke said on December 4, 2018 at 8:19 am
    Reply

    Late 2019 headline: *Mozilla Announces Scraping Gecko In Favor of Chromium, Citing Declining Userbase and Revenue*

    1. Straspey said on December 4, 2018 at 1:56 pm
      Reply

      Microsoft scientists, technicians and developers have just released news of this important and critical discovery —

      “Before putting lettuce in the refrigerator, place your head in a paper bag.”

      The Devs will be rolling this out to the inner circle sometime next month as a critical update.

      Good luck :-O

    2. Weilan said on December 4, 2018 at 12:47 pm
      Reply

      If that happens, I will laugh my ass off. Firefox is already trying all it can to copy Chrome. The UI is the same, the removal of add-ons… it’s a joke.

  24. Supergirl said on December 4, 2018 at 8:17 am
    Reply

    I Laughed when I saw this in the List on the Main Page..

    Im still Laughing ….I will probably Laugh for Days & weeks &…….

    What did the Idiots expect..? They wouldnt even let their own Customers use it!!!!

    I have Never used it..
    I will never use it.
    I have never & will not ever use win10.

    Microsoft seems to be a Very Foolish & Nasty company,to me.

    1. Marc75 said on December 4, 2018 at 4:38 pm
      Reply

      ”Im still Laughing ….I will probably Laugh for Days & weeks &…….”

      me too when i look at linux market share so a lot of us will never use linux….

      1. John Fenderson said on December 4, 2018 at 11:48 pm
        Reply

        @Mark75:

        Which market? In the servers space, there are twice as many Linux machines as Windows. In the supercomputer space, Linux has 100% marketshare. In mobile, Linux has an 85% marketshare.

        On desktop, Windows is king — but speaking as a desktop Linux user, I actually prefer that. I don’t want Linux to be dominant in that space, I just want that space to have a large enough number of users that quality development remains healthy, which it does.

      2. Supergirl said on December 4, 2018 at 10:33 pm
        Reply

        I Came back to laugh some more…..

        Marc75 No one Cares …..Linux is NOT a Product. Its not for sheep….
        Its…Exclusive…

        Besides …have you got an Android phone?…Linux Kernal runs it.

    2. Anonymous said on December 4, 2018 at 12:04 pm
      Reply

      You’re a supergirl.

    3. cryohellinc said on December 4, 2018 at 8:33 am
      Reply

      And yet you use their products on a daily basis. How foolish can that be?

      1. Supergirl said on December 4, 2018 at 1:02 pm
        Reply

        Sorry…I use Linux Exclusively

  25. ShintoPlasm said on December 4, 2018 at 7:32 am
    Reply

    Maybe they’ll buy Mozilla…. and rebrand the browser as MS FoxPro :D :D

    1. cryohellinc said on December 4, 2018 at 8:32 am
      Reply

      Whatever they do, it can’t be worse than Edge / Explorer.

      1. AWSs said on December 4, 2018 at 11:05 am
        Reply

        cryohellinc: Whatever they do, it can’t be worse than Edge / Explorer.
        Microsoft: Hold my beer.

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