Microsoft yesterday released the first version of its Edge browser that the company rebuilds from scratch using Chromium engine, the same open-source web rendering engine that powers Google’s Chrome browser, the new Brave browser, Vivaldi, opera and Samsung Internet.
They shared a few more details on their official blog. The browser is expected to still be called Edge but it will replace the current old Edge on Windows 10 as default browsers.
One big change for Windows users is the new Edge won’t be a Universal Windows Platform app anymore. This means it will be a standard Win32 desktop app that can run on Windows 8 and Windows 7. This is a big change for Microsoft, but it should result in a better browser and browsing experience for everyone.
Microsoft made Chromium-based Microsoft Edge available for testing in dev and canary builds. The dev channel will be updated weekly, while the canary channel will receive daily updates as stated on their website. Neither is expected to be used as daily browser at this point because it is still under development and testing. The beta channel is listed as “Coming Soon.”
At the moment, the Chromium-based Edge browser builds are only available for 64-bit Windows 10, though the company promises to release builds for Windows 7, 8.1, Apple’s macOS and other channels by listed them as “coming Soon.”
As for Linux users, they might have to wait longer as Microsoft didn’t state anything regarding Linux users and the Chromium-based Edge browser test builds.
The new Edge browser also fully supports extensions from both Microsoft’s own and Google Chrome extension stores.
Try out Chromium Edge for Windows 10 by visiting the Insider website.
