Microsoft Releases First Preview Builds of Chromium-based Edge Browser

Apr 8, 2019

Microsoft today finally released the first new reborn version
of its Edge browser that the company rebuilds from scratch
using Chromium engine, the same open-source web rendering engine
that powers Google’s Chrome browser.

However, the Chromium-based Edge browser builds haven’t yet
entered the stable or even the beta release; instead, Microsoft has
released two testing-purpose preview builds for developers.

Both previews build—“Canary” that will be updated
daily, and “Developer” that will be updated every
week—are now available for download from the Microsoft’s new
Edge insider
website ^[1].

Here’s how Microsoft differentiates Canary and Developer builds:

“Every night, we produce a build of Microsoft Edge — if it passes
automated testing, we’ll release it to the Canary channel. We use
this same channel internally to validate bug fixes and test brand
new features. The Canary channel is truly the bleeding edge, so you
may discover bugs before we’ve had a chance to discover and fix
them. If you’re eager for the latest bits and don’t mind risking a
bug or two, this is the channel for you.”

“If you prefer a build with slightly more testing, you might be
interested in the Dev channel. The Dev channel is still relatively
fresh — it’s the best build of the week from the Canary channel. We
look at several sources, like user feedback, automated test
results, performance metrics, and telemetry, to choose the right
Canary build to promote to the Dev channel. If you want to use the
latest development version of Microsoft Edge as a daily driver,
this is the channel for you. We expect most users will be on the
Dev channel.”

Both the browsers can be installed alongside the old Edge and each
other for testing.

Currently, the Chromium-based Edge browser test builds are
only available for 64-bit Windows 10, though the company promises
to release builds for Windows 7, 8.1, Apple’s macOS and other
channels, like Beta and Stable in the future.

The new Edge browser also supports extensions from both
Microsoft’s own and Google Chrome extension stores.

Microsoft tried to reclaim its browser power by releasing the
modernized Edge browser over three years ago, but despite
substantial investment and continuous improvements, the software
giant miserably failed to compete against Google Chrome.

So, in late December, Microsoft
announced its plan to rebuild Edge using the Blink rendering
engine used by Chromium, instead of its EdgeHTML engine.
^[2]

Chromium is an open-source Web browser project run by Google
that’s popular among web browser developers and also powers a
number of third-party browsers including Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, and
Samsung Internet.

If you are unaware, Microsoft has been working with Google to
help push Chromium forward. The company is already using the
Chromium rendering engine for its Edge browser on Android and iOS
devices.

Microsoft also has plans to “work with the larger Chromium open
source community to create better web compatibility for our
customers and less fragmentation of the web for all web
developers,” said Joe
Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Windows.
^[3]

References

^{^}
Edge
insider website
(www.microsoftedgeinsider.com)
^{^}
Microsoft announced
(thehackernews.com)
^{^}
said
(blogs.windows.com)

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Microsoft Releases First Preview Builds of Chromium-based Edge Browser

References

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