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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]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 26 2019, @06:02PM
Maybe for similar reasons to why it was good that Google made Chromium. Pretty much the entire browser world has benefitted from the existence of Chrome. Firefox has taken some ideas from Chrome, if not actually any code. Safari has likely done the same. Good ideas are good ideas, and when they are shared, a bunch of stuff can be improved.
Of course, all of that is based on the presumption that Microsoft would share any of their good ideas. Closed source is closed source, and boatloads of good ideas would only benefit Microsoft.