It’s official, folks! Microsoft has announced that it is adopting Chromium in its in inhouse Edge web browser, effectively killing EdgeHTML, the rendering engine that powered Edge.
Basically, Edge will now be based on the popular open source technology.
This is a blockbuster move, which maybe framed by Redmond as a way to make the internet less fragmented and more compatible for everyone, has far reaching consequences to the web and the software that powers it.
Including browsers like Google Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi.
For starters, Edge will be delivered and updated for all supported versions of Windows on a more frequent cadence, unlike twice a year now with each major feature update to the operating system. All supported versions of Windows being a clear sign that it will be coming to Windows 7 and 8.1 too.
The firm even said that it plans to bring its browser to macOS.
Secondly, the company also stressed on the fact that it is working to bring ARM64 support to Chromium, which means that alongside Edge we will be seeing other browsers on that platform too.
As for business that rely on Microsoft browsers, the technology titan will continue to provide backward compatibility with IE only sites for enterprise users. Which should come as no surprise, at all.
Of course, complete technical details are missing for now.
Example being, how Microsoft will handle things that are exclusive and specific to Edge like Netflix streaming for example. Only Edge gets you a 4K stream, everything else on Windows is limited to 720p, save for Internet Explorer that goes up to 1080p.
But answers are coming, and soon.
Microsoft is readying the first preview build for testing in early 2019, and the release should happen not too long after that.
