<p>Microsoft has recently announced their plans to completely rework their Edge browser that will now be based on open source Chromium instead of currently used EdgeHTML.</p>
<p>The company has been lately clearly promoting positive sides of the Open Source code and the Edge change was somewhat expected as Microsoft just couldn&#8217;t keep up with other popular browsers.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2892" src="https://www.wincert.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/edge_chromium.jpg" alt="edge browser based on chromium" width="640" height="365" /></p>
<p>As the new engine change requires significant testing, Microsoft has opened <a href="https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/">beta sign-ups</a> for everyone willing to help with the development of the new Edge browser. It&#8217;s worth saying that this program is not associated with the Windows Insider Program, so anyone who is willing to be part of it can sign up.</p>
<p>The first builds of the completely reworked Edge browser are expected in early 2019. Even though the new builds of Edge browser shouldn&#8217;t be tied to Windows OS, Microsoft still has to announce terms and requirements for the beta testing program.</p>
<p>Microsoft promises that your voice will help them to shape the next generation of Microsoft Edge, so your feedback is very much appreciated!</p>
<p>And while the Edge browser is switching to Chromium and therefore will gain full access to Chrome&#8217;s extensions, Safari, and Firefox will rather stick with their current engines (Webkit and Gecko) and thus will stay as the only major browsers that are not using Chromium.</p>
<p>Once Edge steps out of beta it will be interesting to see how many people will choose to download and use the new Edge instead of the Chrome browser.</p>