Edge switches to Chromium

Edge. © Microsoft.

Microsoft will replace its current Edge browser, which uses its own EdgeHTML rendering engine, and Chakra JavaScript engine, with a new browser based on Chromium (a Blink rendering engine and V8 JavaScript engine). For now, the new browser’s code name is Anaheim, after a town in L.A.’s suburbs.

Since its launch with Windows 10, Edge has never been able to capture a 5% market share of web browsers. The software had a sluggish start with early iterations that were unstable, functionally crude, and it’s too closely coupled with the operating system. Despite later improvements, Edge never caught on. Microsoft made a last desperate attempt to hang on to its users. Some wryly described Edge as “the utility with which to install Chrome.”

With this last gasp, Microsoft pulls the plug on a technology that never won over its audience and was costing too much time and money. The choice of Chromium over Edge will also greatly simplify things such as bringing out Edge for Windows 7 and for macOS.

⇨ Ars Technica, “Edge dies a death of a thousand cuts as Microsoft switches to Chromium.”