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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: 3, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday December 04 2018, @07:15AM (19 children)
So we've got a bunch of Linux-based services, a Chromium-based browser, and SaS (Software as Sabotage, your OS breaks every time MS pushes out new bling, advertising, and spyware updates). Why would anyone go with their stuff any more? The bits that aren't from borrowed from someone else who does it far better are crap SaS stuff, apart from vendors bonded to the MS servicing stack what's the point of having Microsoft any more?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @08:19AM
OEM pre-installed LOCKOUT of "other" OSes (read "Linux whom Microsoft FEAR").
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday December 04 2018, @10:01AM
The same reason why people have stuck with microsoft for over 30 years now...
They are sheep and follow the herd. They do not know any better and stick with what is pre-installed on the machine.
Now, you can mention that their is more software available for windows, and that is true, but almost everything has something equivalent running on Linux or Mac now (even games.) So what if there are only 100 web browsers on linux when there are 1,000 on windows... when 95% of them suck or are no better than the 1 or 2 that you would actually use.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2, Disagree) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 04 2018, @11:42AM (15 children)
MS Office has captured the corporate market. LibreOffice is way too unstable to suit anyone except a few niche users.
Games. SteamOS is a flop with not much market share. Games on linux (and iOS) are still a fail. There are no serious games on Android either, although they seem to be doing well with the candycrush/flash games level stuff.
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Tuesday December 04 2018, @11:54AM (5 children)
Ah, good point. Mind you no matter how much LibreOffice may suck, it at least continues to partially work rather than go catatonic every time Microsoft's MFA [theregister.co.uk] shits itself [zdnet.com].
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 04 2018, @02:18PM (3 children)
I never used Office362 so can't comment. My work PC has regular MS office installed, which doesn't seem to be crippled, (except that the GUI is still terrible since MS updated it 5 years ago).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @06:31PM (2 children)
Is this riffing on them, as in, 3 days a year I can't get it to work?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday December 05 2018, @12:31PM
Grandparent simply factored in the time lost in updates.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:51PM
Look at el reg article in GGGP
(Score: 2, Informative) by zzarko on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:16AM
As a every day heavy user of LibreOffice at work and at home, for many years (since 1.0 version), I can say that early versions were crash prone, but I didn't get a single crash for more than 2-3 years now, so I do not understand this "unstable" argument that often pops up (very often by people who do not use the software, they just know it) . On several occasions I have found bugs, reported them and they were fixed in next version.
C64 BASIC: 1 a=rnd(-52028):fori=1to8:a=rnd(1):next:fori=1to5:?chr$(rnd(1)*26+65);:next
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @03:43PM (1 child)
I've never has a stability problem with libreoffice, so I would like to know what you are doing to break it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @05:16PM
I second that question.
In normal daily use over the past eight years, over a number of versions, running on both Linux and Windows boxes, I've had no stability issues (and recently I've tested opening up some of the larger files I've generated on the copy installed on my test Haiku box and messing around with them there, it worked without issues as well).
Largest document?, A WIP currently sitting at 500 pages replete with graphics and images, If I feel masochistic (screen size) I can even work on it 'on the go' using the Eee PC 1005 Netbook I've got kicking around to run Kali.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @04:12PM
there is nothing unstable about libreoffice. i guess by "unstable" you mean "they want me to download new binaries for my slaveOS all the time because those bastards keep updating it"?
(Score: 1) by NateMich on Tuesday December 04 2018, @04:28PM (2 children)
I'm sure that's still largely true (especially outside of the tech industry itself), but honestly I haven't encountered anything but Google Docs in the past few years.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday December 04 2018, @06:13PM (1 child)
I know of no-one who uses Google Docs. I work with scientists in the government sector. Maybe it's a US thing?
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:21PM
Maybe US-centric, but it's also a matter of size. I don't think many Fortune 500 companies are using Google Docs (mine sure isn't...the site is banned entirely on our network). But I know a few small businesses and local organizations that use it for absolutely everything. If the people working there tend to be younger, and those younger people actually have some authority over the tech they use (usually because nobody else understands it) then they'll tend towards Google Docs. If they've got thousands of PCs and a fully-staffed IT department and fifty years of history, they'll be using MS Office.
(Score: 3, Touché) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 05 2018, @04:16PM
The only compatibility issue I've ever seen with LibreOffice that would not ALSO replicate on Microsoft Office itself is when users can't find the goddamn icon because it doesn't say "Microsoft Office". I've had numerous people pay hundreds of dollars to fix that one particular issue, but haven't seen any others in at least a decade...
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:29PM (1 child)
LibreOffice unstable? Seems rock solid on Linux and Windows 7. Windows 10 is locking up on me I haven't had a chance to notice instability in any of the programs it's trying to run.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday December 05 2018, @05:47PM
I use Impress all the time and it crashes *all the time*. Multiple crashes per day. It is virtually unusable, except I can't drive windows in any reasonable way. FWIW I am using 5.3.6.1 under Scientific Linux 7/KDE and 5.0.3.2 under linux mint.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 04 2018, @12:59PM
You could say that GNU/Linux is the operating system people choose without needing millions of dollars in persuasion.
But you have to say Micro$oft is doing such nasty deeds one after another in rapid succession that they really are the GNU/Linux marketing campaign.