Cutting Edge technology, literally
Microsoft on Thursday said it intends to use the open-source Chromium browser engine in the desktop version of its Edge browser, promising the two per cent of global internet users who favor Edge an improved web experience.
Joe Belfiore, corporate veep of Windows, announced the plan, which was reported earlier this week. “Ultimately, we want to make the web experience better for many different audiences,” he said.
One of those audiences may be macOS users, who despite not clamoring for Edge should have access to Microsoft’s browser at some point: Belfiore said the company expects to bring Edge to other platforms like macOS.
Web developers have the most to gain. They can expect fewer incompatibility issues, which continue to bedevil the web ecosystem. As can be seen from caniuse.com, a website that shows which features are available in which browsers, there’s still a lot of fragmentation and quirky browser behavior.
As the same time, the emerging Chromium monoculture could have a downside. Vulnerabilities in the open source project may affect a broader set of browsers and innovations developed for Safari and Firefox may not be adopted elsewhere.
