Microsoft Edge is not going anywhere it seems; it will simply be rebuilt

Source: PC World

Just two days ago, we detailed Microsoft's plan for web browsing in the future which was scrapping Edge and replacing it with a Chromium-based browser. However, it appears that Edge is here to stay...sorta.

Microsoft Edge, the successor to Internet Explorer, has long struggled to get traction in the market. Despite a modern interface and relatively high benchmarks, Edge was plagued by website compatibility issues due to the use of their unique rendering engine, EdgeHTML, as well as Windows 10 exclusivity. With Chrome continuing to increase market-share, website designers ignored Edge and focused all of their efforts on Chromium compatibility, the rendering engine that Chrome is built on.

Despite reports that Microsoft planned to scrap Edge and built a new browser, Edge will be sticking around. The rendering engine "EdgeHTML" will be scrapped with Edge being completely rewritten around Chromium; this shift will occur over an update. Microsoft plans to work exclusively on the back-end of Edge while the front-end experience will remain unchanged. According to Joe Belfiore, via The Verge, users will not even notice a change other than better website rendering.

In addition to an under the hood change, Edge will also gain a much wider availability as Microsoft appears to have heard the pleas of the corporate world which is still very much Windows 7-centric. When Edge is ready to go live, those already using Edge will, as mentioned, see no visible changes. However, for those currently using IE (or Chrome) on Windows 7, Edge will now become an option. Much like IE and Chrome, Edge will be available as an executable file via download; it will also be available for download on Mac. Chromium builds are expected to hit the Fast Ring for Insiders towards the beginning of the year with downloadable files to follow when the software is ready for full release.

Along with the announcement that Microsoft is helping Google make Chrome for ARM, this is the most obvious sign that they are fully embracing the open-source community. Since Nadella took charge, Microsoft has not only opened its applications to other platforms (iOS and Android), but it has welcomed programmers to contribute to the very code of the applications themselves. With the shift to Chromium, Microsoft continues to show that it clearly focused more on customer need than it is on its own pride.