How successful will the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser be?
Microsoft is working on a new Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge that will replace the current version of Edge that uses Microsoft's own rendering engine in the near future.
The move is a double-sided sword for Microsoft and the Internet community as a whole. It certainly has advantages for Microsoft such as better web compatibility, faster integration of new technologies or features, and an option to shift or free up development resources.
Downsides are that it benefits Microsoft's rival Google, as Google is more or less in control of development, and that it could lead to a web that is focused on Chromium features and optimizations.
How successful will the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser be?
One question that is of interest to a lot of users and companies is how successful the new Edge browser will be.
Bogdan Popa over at Softpedia thinks that the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser could be bigger than Google Chrome based on feature-parity with Chrome, cross-platform availability of the browser, and that Edge is backed up by Windows.
Let's take a look at these quickly:
- Feature-parity with Chrome -- Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium just like Google Chrome is. While that means that both browsers have the same base, it is not certain that all Chrome features will land in Edge or vice versa. Microsoft Edge will support Chrome extensions and Edge-specific extensions, a huge advantage over the current Edge browser. Feature-parity may not be enough to convince Chrome users to give Edge a try or even make it the default browser, especially if they are invested in the Google ecosystem.
- Cross-platform availability -- The current version of Microsoft Edge is only available for Windows 10 and Android / iOS. Availability for other platforms, Windows 7 and 8.1, Mac OS X, and Linux, will make the browser more attractive to cross-platform users and users on these platforms; this certainly has the potential to improve Edge's market share.
- Windows platform -- Windows is the most widely used desktop operating system. The old Microsoft Edge could not really benefit from that and it is questionable if the new Edge will do better. Microsoft could push it more vehemently and that would certainly help.
My take
One of the main advantages of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser is better web standards compatibility and faster integration of new features thanks to the Chromium source. Users who try Edge will run into fewer issues when using the browser compared to the classic Edge version and that may have a positive effect on user retention.
Support for currently unsupported operating systems should have a positive effect on the browser's market share especially on the Windows platform. Customers can sync data between different operating systems and mobile applications finally.
Microsoft could use, or abuse, the Windows platform to push Microsoft Edge and increase the market share that way. It seems likely that users of Windows will be informed about the browser change in one way or another.
Closing Words
It is almost certain in my opinion that the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser will do better than the current Edge browser. It seems very unlikely, however, that the new Edge will surpass Chrome any time soon unless Microsoft is pushing the browser forcefully on the Windows platform.
Microsoft may have Firefox in sight as its first goal so that Edge becomes the second most used browser on the desktop platform.
Now You: Where do you see the Chromium-based Edge browser one year after release?
Once Microsoft pushes out new Edge as the default OS browser for Windows I figure more will at least try it. I am skeptical that it cause a large exodus from Chrome given that so many use Google products and probably will just stick with Chrome. Enterprise might get interested once Edge chromium becomes more mature and gets more features. I generally think Microsoft focus or target user of new Edge is enterprise. Home users probably won’t give two thoughts to switching browsers because almost any browser out there will work fine for them. When you consider how many users sync data between devices these days I think many are reluctant to switch to another browser.
will print work better?
Well, I just hope this won’t bring back the days when everyone used the non-standards-compliant Ineternet Explorer (except this time it’s Chrome) and just thought all the other browsers were garbage, while it was actually the opposite.
Firefox is still better than most of the others thanks to its features in my opinion, I hope it won’t fail again like its ancestor Netscape.
i’ll use it ………. to download firefox :]
Last week I entered the world of Windows 10, coming from 7. Every day usage is quite nice, especially with the 1809 update. But when viewing the firewall entries I was kind of shocked.
If you see how much entries there are for Edge alone… I fancied I was kind of a sociologist and saw in one moment the change of society when it comes to privacy and integrity :-). The difference with Windows 7 is stunning.
I expect the Chromium based Edge will be as bad as Edge in this regard. So, all in all, that leaves only Firefox for best privacy for me.
I do use Brave too, but read that it opens up connections with Twitter and Facebook at start up, according to Security.nl, a Dutch website about privacy and security. They refer to this tread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19129309
Quite a dishonesty to their promises.
Can you share the download link?
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Microsoft-Edge.shtml
If all it is is Chrome with a shiny paintjob, it’ll do fine. Chrome runs fine now.
Edge is deeply embedded in the OS however, it’s not an app installed in windows, so if this beast is somehow supposed to merge with edge and not wreck the OS, good luck. MS can’t even update windows without trashing it.
If edge as it is remains operating as it does and this Chromedgium browser is just an app, no problems. That’s how I believe it will be implemented. I have edge and IE disabled on all our windows machines and 3rd party browsers and there’s no issue. Edge continues to do its thing in the background.
Does not work on Windows 7! Black screen when opened!
Edge? It works for me on 7: imgur.com/Szx9vCz
You must use the Aero theme, as the Classic theme seems to break it, at least this pre-release version.
I am using the Aero theme, and still a black screen.
Looking at this from a perspective of browser history and the many Chrome clone’s that have gone nowhere. I think Edge chromium will just be yet another one of those. At least Microsoft could implement some sort of connection to its ecosystem but if your all in with Google services you’ll be sticking with Chrome. But honestly I don’t think Microsoft cares now if Edge succeeds with chromium or not. They will have reduced development costs, added more compatibility and offer a Microsoft version of Chrome. Given Microsoft commitment to cross platform compatibility now. I don’t think they need Edge to be that successful and it certainly won’t depend on it being much more then another browser offering if you choose to use it.
For me, the main killer of Edge (and IE) is lack of available extensions. Microsoft seems to have worked around that limitation by switching to Chromium code. Add some extensions to control the advertising, frames, images, cookies, scripts, frames etc and it may be not be necessary to install another browser.
ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
Much depends on how intrusive and annoying the first startup of the browser will be. I doubt that you click on the Edge icon and you arrive at bing.com, and nothing more. In a perfect world you click on Edge the first time, it asks what search provider you want to use. You choose Google and Edge will never ever nag you about your decision again. The next step is what startpage to use and after that it will ask if you want to install some extensions, you can choose between Google Web Store or Microsoft, you choose Google and Edge will never ever nag you about your decision again. You install your favorite extensions and set up all options to your liking and Edge will never ever nag you about your decisions again. THAT’S how Edge can get users. Get out of my way and stay out of my way. This is of course just a dream and reality will be far from pleasant..
If Microsoft Edge supports Edge-specific extensions and those extensions are inconsistent with the ‘normal’ usage of the underlying Chromium code then developers will ignore it, much as happened when Microsoft implemented so many IE specific extensions that web site developers jumped on the more standards based Chromium and eventually gave up supporting IE.
Well I see we have known-unknowns and unknown-unknowns here…
What I think {and I’m NEVER Wrong} is that M$ is trying their Embrace,Extend,Extinguish policy here and on Linux.
If they were interested in going head to head against Google they would have adopted the Firefox browser,no?
Its at least as good and more flexible.
They snidely think that they can reap all the Chromium/Edge data &
their own stolen info & beat Google at its own game.
There is a problem with some younger nitwits today,
they think that if they side with a gigantic super-rich corporation that some how that ‘glory’ is reflected on them.
They feel like “Im not doing anything wrong” so nefarious surveillance is OK with me.
They do not understand how this is working against the greater good.
They do not understand why their future only holds degradation and poverty.
In that light…The android fan-bois will stay with Google.
The Microsoftys will limply follow their leader and we will all be the worse for it.
And TOR along with Firefox will slip into irrelevance.
Thats how the internet and personal freedom dies.
Yours Drooly,
Dummy
@Ronald Dumsfeld: “And TOR along with Firefox will slip into irrelevance.”
How do you figure? TOR does not rely on a browser at all, let alone a specific one, so it’s hard to see how its fate is tied at all with Firefox.
The TOR browser is a convenience, nothing more. It is not required in order to use TOR (and, I argue, it isn’t the best way to use TOR as it only covers your web use that way rather than all of your internet activity).
@ John Fenderson
Haha… Thanks.
I think Ive discovered/stepped in a known unknown…
I was merely thinking of how much less secure the web browser could make TOR users.
Which is something Im not well versed in.
I doubt it. MS never has put much effort into edge, it still looks like a beta. One thing for sure, this new improved browser is going to be almost impossible to stop from sending data all over. Chrome is plain awful in that regard and Chromium (please, people, quit using the terms interchangeably!) has been impossible to make reasonably private since ver. 68. Without extensions, you can’t even clear the cache on close. Everything you did online just sits there waiting to be mined while closed and reviewed on open, then deleted.
Google calls chrome, in their words, browser based user advertising data collection software or similar in their quarterly reports. Chrome’s a data collector, period.
That’s the game; the warm fuzzies we want are only there if we take them.
Tor won’t become irrelevant because the internet is dominated by ad companies. The usual Tor browser is based on FF ESR which is not the same as the glitchy release channel browser. None of those dumb ass containers for one thing.
The web hasn’t fundamentally changed in almost two decades, hardware and software are mature, everything has been commoditized. The big guys turned into ad brokers; their real work was done long ago. They won’t work on infrastructure, which still sucks, seriously (google fiber?) so they serve ads.
I think the whole ad company thing will be legislated into submission. May take a long time but it has started.
The Onion Router (TOR) does not need mozilla’s shite browser to exist. Here is the objectively superior browser, Chromium, on the TOR network: imgur.com/B6JxciT
Probably the TOR Browser Boundle (TBB) will eventually switch to Chromium. Firefox has been irrelevant for a while now, but it does not affect the TOR protocol one bit.
I doubt Chromium dominance will be the IE era all over again. IE is a closed source browser available for one platform. Chromium on the other hand is open source and cross platform. Abusing it is a lot more difficult.
“Here is the objectively superior browser, Chromium, on the TOR network:”
Firefox in Tor browser is highly modified to prevent de-anonymization when using the Tor network. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to use a random unmodified browser on Tor, Chromium or anything else.
Microsoft.
’nuff said.
I mentioned this on the other Edge thread. I wish they’d release Edge for Windows RT 8.1. That would improve the user experience a LOT.
You can download and play with the “leaked” beta, Edge 75. https://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Browsers/Microsoft-Edge.shtml
@seeprime:
Right, but I was hoping for a Windows RT release (for the Surface RT tablet). We’re stuck with Internet Explorer 11. :(
Maybe the current IE-based Edge. The Chromium based Edge I doubt, Chromium had the code required to be a WUP removed once it was clear that 8.1’s METRO UI failed to attract any usage.
“feature parity” with chrome is the weakest link
we need not yet another useless browser but THE browser, one to replace Opera and Firefox (may everlasting light shine upon their souls) that got brutally murdered
The new Edge will continue to gain users over time, as long as Windows continues to be the prominent OS, and Edge becomes an OK browser for the masses.
* New users are likely to stick with the default installed Edge.
* Other users are likely to check out the new Edge when they upgrade OS and hardware.
“* New users are likely to stick with the default installed Edge.”
Edge is the default installed browser now with ~zero usage.
Almost everyone is using Chrome.
But Edge won’t have Google’s spyware as the default options.
It will keep having Microsoft’s own spyware as defaults, like Bing.
No matter if we like it or not, people use and like all Google’s spyware, search, gmail, youtube etc.
They will open Edge, they will see Bing, where is Google?
They will search Google and click on install Chrome.
>people use and like all Google’s spyware, search, gmail, youtube etc.
Mainly because there are sadly no alternatives to most of them, at least alternatives as good, if not better than them.
“One of the main advantages of the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser is better web standards compatibility and faster integration of new features thanks to the Chromium source.”
I think this may turn out to be the other way around. Some site don’t play nice with Firefox, and when asked about it, the programmers state “It works great in Chrome. Just use Chrome.” While it may work better in Chrome that doesn’t mean it’s a better web standard browser as Firefox may be better at standards, but since “everyone” is using Chrome, that’s what the web is build around. Having Edge go that way means less of a chance for other rendering engines that are better at web standards to gain market since most people will think Firefox is broken, and Chrome is the way it should be. But in reality it’s the opposite. Just like in the days of IE6 and its “awesome” web standards.
In everyday use I will not give up Firefox and Safari – Chromium is finally a popular shit
Microsoft is pushing the browser forcefully on the Windows platform has nothing to do with usage, just as IE is installed on Windows platforms with ~0 usage.
Edge-Chromium won’t do better than the other 10s of browsers build on Chromium.
Except it is based on Chromium, already installed with windows when it releases, and supports chrome extensions. The plus is that it shouldn’t have Google spying on you, not that it matters since Microsoft does spying of their own but with all the other features and the advantage of it being installed by default it limits most needs to download any other Chromium based browser.
As I understand, the new Edge-Chromium will be a stand-alone browser, not pre-installed, and will get its own updates like Chrome does, not bundled with Windows 10 monthly updates.
Well MS already includes Edge-Chromium on Windows 10 insiders build 18865 so maybe the plan is to be as pre-installed.for the next and each Windows 10 update from now on.
https://news.softpedia.com/news/microsoft-quietly-includes-chromium-microsoft-edge-in-latest-windows-10-build-525510.shtml
Edge exists for 1 reason today, the ship to get back the control of internet has sailed after switching to chromium. So it has now only 1 reason of existance, to promote Microsoft’s spyware like Bing. Most people prefer Google’s spyware, so no, they won’t change the default search engine to Google in Edge, it easier to click to install Chrome.
I think it will get traction, especially in the business world. Chromium is what eveyone wants and third party programs is what everyone avoids. Having Chromium available as a first party program eliminates the need of installing a browser on the system. If it’ll get the ability to also use the Trident engine then it will be the go-to browser in these scenarios.
@Yuliya
And it will have that ability. Given that business use probably makes up a decent part of browser use, Edge use will probably explode. It all depends on how MS deals with replacing it with IE on older machines.
If MS pushed Edge more or less aggressivelly, I guess we will see around 15-20% desktop market share long term.
Agreed. If Edge is 99% the same as Chrome then it will be very easy for the it people at businesses to tell employees to use Edge and stop installing it. One less thing for them to worry about managing.
I think you hit on the key point, the business world. Outside of that I expect it’ll be anywhere from so-so to lackluster.