SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10
Microsoft's Edge web browser has seen little success since its debut on Windows 10 back in 2015. Built from the ground up with a new rendering engine known as EdgeHTML, Microsoft Edge was designed to be fast, lightweight, and secure, but launched with a plethora of issues which resulted in users rejecting it early on. Edge has since struggled to gain any traction, thanks to its continued instability and lack of mindshare, from users and web developers.
Because of this, I'm told that Microsoft is throwing in the towel with EdgeHTML and is instead building a new web browser powered by Chromium, a rendering engine first popularized by Google's Chrome browser. Codenamed Anaheim, this new web browser for Windows 10 will replace Edge as the default browser on the platform. It's unknown at this time if Anaheim will use the Edge brand or a new brand, or if the user interface between Edge and Anaheim is different. One thing is for sure, however; EdgeHTML in Windows 10's default browser is dead.
Report: Windows Lite is Microsoft's long-awaited answer to Chrome OS
The success of Google's Chromebook hardware and Chrome OS software wasn't an inevitability, but the ease of use they afford ended up allowing Google to carve out a niche in a very crowded PC marketplace. Ever since Chrome OS entered the scene, we've been waiting for Microsoft to come out with its own pared down version of Windows, but its half-hearted attempts (Windows 10 S, Windows RT) have all fallen flat.
Those failures haven't stopped Microsoft though, as Petri on Monday reported that the company is working on "a new version of Windows that may not actually be Windows." Based on the documentation he has seen, Petri's Brad Sams believes that Windows Lite — the new OS — is Microsoft's answer to Chrome OS.
According to Sams, Windows Lite will only run Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, while removing all other functionality. He says that this is the first "truly lightweight version of Windows" – one which won't run in enterprise or small business environments, and may not even be available for purchase on its own. Just like Chrome OS, Windows Lite will have to be pre-installed by an OEM.
Microsoft ChromeOS: It's Linux-Free!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday December 04 2018, @08:23AM (8 children)
Web standards have become so ridiculously complex that it is nearly impossible to write a new rendering engine. We have what we have. As Google now pushed for ever more extensions, they are turning the web into a Chromium monoculture. This includes adding more and more complexity to the web standards - and even to the foundational protocols (quic, amp, http/3, etc.).
If MS gives up on Edge, this will be one more alternative down the drain.
A monoculture cannot be a good thing.
The - completely unrealistic - solution would be to take machete to web standards. Cut them back to a size that makes new implementations possible. Unfortunately, this won't happen...
CSS/2 was good enough, now get offa my lawn.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @08:46AM (4 children)
Indeed. MS sucks. Google sucks. It's better that they compete, rather than combining like Super Gundam into one giant hyper-mega-launcher of suckiness.
As for Windows Lite, I'm gonna guess their plan is something like this:
1) throw out compatibility with vast field of existing Win software
2) keep the DRM, spyware, adware, bloat
3) ????
4) PROFIT!
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday December 04 2018, @08:57AM (1 child)
It will probably be something like that. I guess they noticed that to many "normal" (or evil pirate) users downloaded the LTSB (or LTSC since they had to change the name to confuse some people). They have to keep the important things like running the apps and have all the UI bling-bling set to max. That said I wouldn't mind a Lite version of Windows. One without all the things in (2) -- the DRM, the spyware, the adware, the bloat, all the millions of services and I guess to some extent they could also probably stop being backwards compatible with win95 and such cause if I needed that I will probably not be running Win10 anyway or have whatever that specific software is stuck in a WM or some such.
Question might be Lite for whom and or what? Is it Home Lite, Pro Lite, Enterprise Lite, Education Lite, Pro Eduction Lite or LTSC Lite (that would be great btw) or is "Lite" just what they want to scale shit down to again so it can run IoT or Mobile devices? So many versions or editions of Windows these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @05:43PM
Mueller Lite for the DOJ.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday December 04 2018, @11:57AM (1 child)
ChromeOS sells pretty well. If throwing out compatibility with existing Windows software doesn't matter to Chrome OS buyers, then it won't matter to Windows Lite buyers either. Three problems will kill this product, though:
1. Windows Lite still has "Windows" in the name, so some people will purchase the product expecting it to run regular Windows products.
2. Even if it's every bit as good as ChromeOS, why should users care? Microsoft: "We're here! We have a good product in this market now!" End users: "What makes your product better than the existing options?" Microsoft: "Nothing, really, but we're just as good!" End users: "Remind me, how well did that approach work for you with Windows Phone 10?"
3. It's pretty unlikely to be every bit as good as ChromeOS. Microsoft still has a quality problem.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday December 04 2018, @03:35PM
I have zero inside information here, but seriously think this might be it. If you compare the hands-on-keyboard performance of a $200 PC vs a $200 Chromebook there is a painfully obvious difference. Big Windows suffers on tiny hardware. I hope they can fix it.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday December 04 2018, @09:17AM
I completely agree. Everyone remembers how IE6 defined web behaviour, and the only real saving grace was IE6 was a rubbish product.
Google is good at writing Blink and web standards, but that doesn't mean they should have free reign. Mozilla and Microsoft may not be your favourite organizations, but at least they provide alternatives to what is increasingly becoming the only option. I also trust them slightly more than Google: Google's business model is 100% about selling information.
Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for my above complaints. People prefer Blink browsers because they work and work well, so there is little motivation to switch away to an alternative.
(Score: 1) by pTamok on Tuesday December 04 2018, @09:56AM
So what is needed is some disruptive simplicity?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday December 04 2018, @03:18PM
True.
But a Microsoft Browser is not a good thing either.
Never forget: Microsoft's abuses of the 90's. Linux is a cancer. Killing Netscape and a decade of IE6.
Microsoft was all about monoculture long before Google existed.
But it's cross platform he protested! It runs on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.