If you’re like me, then the idea of using Internet Explorer for everything makes you feel ill. It’s slow, clunky, nothing looks right. Microsoft agreed, and in Windows 10 they threw away all the old code and made a completely new browser named Edge. If you’re using Windows 10, it’s the default (until you install Firefox or Chrome and switch it). IE is still there, but they’ve done everything they can to hide it. Now, Edge is WAY, WAY better than IE. It’s faster, websites look more normal, and it feels like software from this century. Microsoft even promised that it would get plug ins and tracking protection, just like every other modern browser!
But last year, Microsoft announced a shocking change that didn’t get a ton of news at the time: they are giving up. Users aren’t using IE, they are sticking with Chrome and Firefox. And Developers aren’t making Edge versions of popular plugins like Microsoft hoped. So they made a very radical decision: Chromium.
Open Source-ish
Chromium is the open source version of Google’s Chrome browser. Or rather, Chrome is the closed source version of Chromium. Google develops the application and makes it freely available for anyone to modify and use. They then add their own secret stuff and it becomes Chrome. Amazon Silk (if you have a Kindle Fire, this is your browser), Brave, Vivaldi, Torch, and Opera are all based on Chromium. Each adds their own tweaks and features.
And now, so has Microsoft. They’ve taken the Chromium codebase and used it to create a new version of Edge. One that will work with any Google Chrome plugin and have a new IE mode that allows you to load all those ancient websites that ONLY work in IE. This is an amazing turn for Microsoft, a company that faced an antitrust lawsuit for basically forcing IE on people who bought Windows. Add in their decision to build Linux support into Windows, and you have a Microsoft that is rapidly moving away from the monolith who was the antagonist of the movie Antitrust (Tim Robbins plays a Bill Gates type who literally has people murdered) and one who seems focused on actually making good software again, even if they’re building on the backs of other companies.