Microsoft Is Ditching Edge, Creating Their Own Chrome

Well, this is interesting: The Verge reports that Microsoft will be replacing their Edge browser with a new Chromium-based browser.

The software giant first introduced its Edge browser three years ago, with a redesign to replace Internet Explorer and modernize the default browsing experience to compete with Chrome and others. While the modern look and feel has paid off for Edge, the underlying browser engine (EdgeHTML) has struggled to keep up with Chromium. Microsoft is finally giving up and moving its default Windows 10 browser to Chromium.

The Verge understands Microsoft will announce its plans for a Chromium browser as soon as this week, in an effort to improve web compatibility for Windows. Windows Central first reported on these plans, which are codenamed Anaheim internally. We understand there has been a growing frustration inside Microsoft at Edge’s web compatibility issues, and businesses and consumers have been pushing the company to improve things.

On the one hand, I understand why Microsoft did this: Chrome has effectively won the latest round of the browser wars and Microsoft simply hasn’t been able to keep up with Chrome’s development, embrace of new technologies and standards, etc. As such, it makes a lot of business sense to use Chromium (the open source version of Google Chrome). On the other hand, competition is a good thing and it’s sad to see one less browser in the market. Soon, there will really only be three major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Also, I find it fascinating that Microsoft, whose Internet Explorer once dominated the browser landscape in darker days, has admitted defeat in today’s browser market. Via

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