Rumor: Microsoft stops Edge engine and builds Windows 10 browser on Chromium

Microsoft would have decided to pull the plug on EdgeHTML, the engine of its Edge browser in Windows 10. Instead, it would work on Project Anaheim, a browser based on Chromium.

The resulting browser should replace Edge on Windows 10, WindowsCentral claims to have heard from its sources familiar with the matter. The site has good resources within and around Microsoft. It is not yet known what the new browser will be called. There is a possibility that Microsoft will continue to use the Edge name. Also, details about the interface and functions are not yet known.

Microsoft introduced Edge and its engine EdgeHTML in 2015. The company wanted to make a fresh start in the browser field with the arrival of Windows 10. Edge was supposed to make Internet Explorer forget, the browser that had become obsolete and which, in terms of popularity, had been surpassed by Google’s Chrome. Edge had to distinguish itself as a lightweight, fast and secure application and offered additional functionality, for example, to take notes and display e-books.

However, the browser did not catch on with the general public in all those years and has a market share of less than 5 percent, partly because a lot of functionality was missing in the beginning and there were the necessary bugs. Microsoft would therefore make the switch to Chromium, the open source project on which Chrome is also based. WindowsCentral points out that Microsoft recently contributed code to the Chromium project. It is unknown when Project Anaheim will come to Windows 10. Microsoft is currently working on version 19H1, which should be released in the first half of 2019. Incidentally, the Edge browser on Android already works on Chromium, which can improve compatibility with that mobile browser.

Microsoft Edge