Microsoft Edge Embraces Opensource Chromium Code, Plans Move To Windows 7, 8, And Macs

This move holds major implications for the World Wide Web.

- Brad Chacos

Microsoft is overhauling its struggling Edge browser in pretty much every way over the next year. The proprietary EdgeHTML engine underpinning the browser will be abandoned in favor of the Chromium code used by Google’s Chrome and several other browsers. After the shift, Microsoft plans to end Edge’s Windows 10 desktop exclusivity by bringing it to Macs and older versions of Windows.

How Chrome-like will Microsoft’s version of Chromium be? Enough that Chrome extensions will run on top of it, Microsoft Edge project manager Kyle Alden recently wrote on Reddit (go.pcworld.com/mkwb). Existing Progressive Web Apps (web apps that feel like Win32 apps) will continue to run and be downloadable from the Microsoft Store, he added.