Microsoft Edge is being rebuilt on Chrome
and coming to the Mac!

 

Big things are happening with Microsoft’s Edge browser! Plans to rebuild Microsoft Edge to run on Chromium, the same open-source web rendering engine that powers Googles Chrome, have begun. Edge will soon be powered by Blink and the V8 JavaScript engines. It’s a big move that means Microsoft is joining the open-source community in a much bigger way for the web.

Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Windows explains “Ultimately, we want to make the web-experience better for many different audiences. People using Microsoft Edge (and potentially other browsers) will experience improved compatibility with all web sites, while getting the best-possible battery life and hardware integration on all kinds of Windows devices.”

 

So, Why make the change now?

 

Microsoft Edge has fallen massively behind Chrome over the past years. Developers are optimizing for Chrome, and Google has been creating Chrome-only web services as it’s often the first to adopt emerging web technologies. Microsoft has struggled to keep its Edge rendering engine in stride with Chromium.

Consumers and businesses who have been pushing the company to improve its web compatibility have encouraged Microsoft to finally make the big move. Edge has been improving, but even small compatibility issues have caused headaches for users along the way. The move to Chromium will immediately solve these web compatibility issues, and it aligns Edge with Chrome and other browsers.

Microsoft has also made moves to support a modern Edge browser across all versions of Windows. Many businesses have machines running Windows 7 and Windows 10, in a mixed environment. As a result, Microsoft had also decided to bring Edge to Windows 7 and 8, so it will no longer be exclusive to Windows 10. Edge will become a downloadable across all supported versions of Windows, and it means Microsoft will be able to update it far more frequently than before.

The change will also benefit many web developers who use Macs to develop and text their websites. (Fortunately for us we have both Windows and Apple machines to test on!) Since Edge previously did not even exist on a Mac without duel booting Windows, bringing Edge to the Mac allows developers reliant on Macs to test how websites perform in Edge.

Ultimately this means the browser engine that powers Chrome will get better on Windows. Microsoft is committing to contribute web platform enhancements that will improve both Edge and Chrome on Windows, including things like touch performance, accessibility features, and support for ARM-based versions of Windows.

Microsoft Edge isn’t going anywhere. We expect to see Windows 10 move to this Chromium-based version of Edge sometime in 2019. If you already use Edge on Windows, then not much will change. All you’ll notice is that websites will load more consistently.