If you have been a Windows 10 user, you have probably noticed Microsoft Edge. It is a sleek, fast browser, a far cry from the Internet Explorer of yore. And Microsoft was not shy at trying to convince you to give it a spin – especially if you were downloading Chrome on a newly installed system.
Open-source at heart
Coming as somewhat of a surprise, Windows Central has published an article that highlights the changes in the Edge browser. There is a new browser in the works – codenamed Anaheim (which is a cool name for a browser, hopefully, they keep it) – based on Chromium technology!
If you haven’t been following the browser scene much, Chromium is open-source, using a similar rendering engine to Chrome. This means that Microsoft is done with EdgeHTML. With Chromium technology as a base, websites should look and act the same as under Google’s browser. Opera and some other Android browsers are also based on Chromium.
Image credit: gs.statcounter.com
Complete overhaul?
The one thing that remains unclear is whether this means that the new Microsoft browser for Windows 10 will keep the Edge UI on top. They have already done this on Android and iOS where EdgeHTML has been replaced with Blink and Webkit. The other option is, of course, to re-brand it completely – perhaps keep Anaheim, it is a cool name – as Edge never really managed to get a foot in the door, despite being a much-needed improvement over IE.
Recently, Microsoft engineers have been seen helping out on the Chromium project trying to get Chrome working on Windows 10 on ARM. An interesting way to get familiar with Chromium for Anaheim/Edge on ARM, to be sure.
