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.
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’t keep up with other popular browsers.
As the new engine change requires significant testing, Microsoft has opened beta sign-ups for everyone willing to help with the development of the new Edge browser. It’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.
The first builds of the completely reworked Edge browser are expected in early 2019. Even though the new builds of Edge browser shouldn’t be tied to Windows OS, Microsoft still has to announce terms and requirements for the beta testing program.
Microsoft promises that your voice will help them to shape the next generation of Microsoft Edge, so your feedback is very much appreciated!
And while the Edge browser is switching to Chromium and therefore will gain full access to Chrome’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.
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.