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posted by chromas on Monday August 26 2019, @03:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the finally-getting-bonus-Edge-points-in-Linux dept.

Microsoft Chrom... Edge hits beta as new browser prepped for biz testing

Microsoft has rolled out the first beta version of its Chromium-based Edge web browser.

The pace of development has been quick: Microsoft signalled its intent to rebuild Edge using the Google-sponsored Chromium browser engine in December 2018. In April 2019 preview versions were released, including a Dev channel updated weekly, and a Canary channel updated daily. By May, a download for Mac was added and in June a preview for Windows 7 and 8.

Now the Edge Beta channel has gone live, described by Microsoft Windows Experiences corporate veep Joe Belfiore as "the third and final preview channel which will come online before launch". The Beta release will be updated around every six weeks until general availability.

When will Edge Chromium be generally available? Microsoft insists that it is not date-driven but indicated the team would be pleased with a stable release early in 2020.

[Ed: You can download the preview versions of Chromiedge for Windows 7–10 and OSX here. There's no Linux version at the moment, but it runs in Wine 4.14 staging. The tab bar is chopped off at the top and it doesn't seem to like SoylentNews. —chromas]


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  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Monday August 26 2019, @12:20PM (3 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Monday August 26 2019, @12:20PM (#885607)

    This seems like a very strange thing for Microsoft to do. Back in the late 90s they would have moved the earth before placing third party software as a centerpiece on their OS.

    On the other hand, this probably means that Microsoft is taking more control of the Chrome code base.

    Either way, they are unwilling or unable to maintain their own browser(s), which says quite a lot about how current Microsoft has gone down hill.

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  • (Score: 2) by sgleysti on Monday August 26 2019, @02:12PM (1 child)

    by sgleysti (56) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 26 2019, @02:12PM (#885634)

    I'll bet that maintaining their own complete browser codebase does not provide enough revenue under their current business model to justify the cost.

    It is unfortunate; I was trying to save some capacitor characteristic curves from AVX's online tool using print to PDF, and chrome kept screwing up the graphs. Edge did great. Hopefully Firefox sticks around, but how many web developers will support it when almost everyone is using a chromium based browser?

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday August 26 2019, @04:04PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Monday August 26 2019, @04:04PM (#885685)

      but how many web developers will support it when almost everyone is using a chromium based browser?

      With the rate their devs are going, do you think Firefox will still be running on its own browser engine in another 5 years, or will they also be on Webkit or Blink or whatever it's called?

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 26 2019, @06:55PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday August 26 2019, @06:55PM (#885763) Journal

    I'm perfectly fine with Microsoft getting out of the Web Browser business. I just wish, they went with a choose your own browser option when installing. Instead of a Chrome based default.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"