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Microsoft Chromium Linux

Reactions To the News That Microsoft's Edge Browser Is Coming to Linux (msn.com) 194

Posted by EditorDavid from the crossing-platforms dept.
"Microsoft is bringing Edge to Linux, for all the Microsoft fans running Linux," jokes the headline at the Inquirer. ("We can just imagine the amount of bunting and party poppers that the Linux community has just ordered. After all, why wouldn't you want a browser from the company that you joined Linux to get away from?") And the headline at Liliputting quips that the Edge browser "is coming to Linux (whether you want it or not)," calling the move "the latest evidence that Microsoft's relationship to Linux has changed a lot in recent years.

But TechRadar had an even more sardonic headline. "Hell freezes over as Microsoft Edge comes to Linux." One other thing to consider is that the introduction of Edge to Linux is something of a thorny subject in that the folks who choose a Linux distro often do so to break away from the chains of Microsoft and Windows (or indeed Apple). So certainly some of the more fervent open source types out there may not welcome a Microsoft browser with open arms, and doubtless it will be regarded with suspicion in some quarters. No matter how much Microsoft has been banging the open source drum in many different ways in recent times.

That said, there will doubtless be Linux users who are curious, and may want to pick up a mainstream alternative to Firefox on Linux which, when compared to Chrome -- with its famous memory hogging antics -- makes a far preferable choice in some respects. Edge will also do streaming better (by default Chrome limits you to 720p when you're trying to watch a spot of Netflix). All the testing feedback about Edge has been pretty positive in the main thus far, too, so maybe that will persuade even doubters to at least consider it.

One thing's for sure: it will certainly be interesting to see the reaction Microsoft's browser gets when it is deployed to Linux.
Edge may face a rocky reception. "I am not feeling a tingling all over at the thought of Edge coming to Linux," posted one commenter on Beta News. "It's not really necessary to bring Linux down to the level of Windows 10."

But how do Slashdot's readers feel? What's your reaction to the news that Microsoft's Edge browser is coming to Linux?
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Reactions To the News That Microsoft's Edge Browser Is Coming to Linux More

Reactions To the News That Microsoft's Edge Browser Is Coming to Linux

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  • IE for Unix (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:01PM (#59401456)
    It will go over about as well as IE did on Unix.

    • Re: IE for Unix (Score:5, Interesting)

      by simpz ( 978228 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:25PM (#59401536)

      Yup, some of us were pushed by management to deploy this as the standard company wide browser (IE on Windows and Unix). Also remember Netscape wasn't free for corporate use, technically.

      As soon as IE had a monopoly on browsers, they dropped it.

      Some of us need a lot of trust building to see MS as having changed.

      Still waiting for my Linux Skype for Business, now Teams client. My Office for Linux client. Or any MS Linux product without massive compromises (SQL server).

      • They did the same thing to macs. Back in the pre OsX days you had a choice between Netscape and IE. For some corporate type things you had to use IE due to all the stupid IE only technologys , notably VB script, as well as their..... curious.... implementation of CSS/HTML. I cant remember if ActiveX made it over to the mac, but I highly doubt it.

        So when they dropped IE, it was pretty chaotic. Thankfully Netscape was pretty adequate , and even during that chaotic time between Netscape and Firefox since micro

        • I use linux at work because it does what i need there very well. And win 10 at home because it does what i need there well too (inc. games). My team uses visual studio code on a combination of win, lin and mac - we love it. FF is my main browser but chrome does do a better job of webrtc. I'll accept the option of edge on linux at work if its well packaged and if its more slick to use than the other two maybe it will grow on me. I dont use edge on win, but i have tested various things with it and its good. B
      • Some of you indeed need a lot of trust building to see MS as having changed, most users don't care and just want one thing from Edge for Linux: Video to not tear (or render on software) and Netflix to work well. And it's unfortunate that, even if Edge for Linux does all that, many "impartial" bloggers out there will persuade users out of it regardless.
    • Coming soon to Linux, Microsoft's "Tits on a bull" web browser port! Every bit as useful as a bicycle for a fish! As practical as a chocolate teapot! The greatest idea since ashtrays on a motorbike! Don't miss out, sign up now! You won't know how you've lived without it!

    • Re:IE for Unix (Score:4, Funny)

      by scdeimos ( 632778 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @12:38AM (#59401680)
      On the other hand if, unlike its Windows counterpart, it's telemetry-free we may see the creation of LINE (Linux Is Not an Emulator) to run the Linux version of MS-IE back on Windows.

    • Laugh, but who expected Apple to switch to a unix based system back in the day? And MS have form - they used to have Xenix before their idiotically binned it (well, sold it to SCO, same thing).

      Perhaps they realise the Windows kernel with its poor process model and generally clunky 1990s architecture has reached its limit and they're looking around for something else and in the meantime getting their popular apps to run on Linux. What better way to go that use the linux kernel, put some Windows lipstick on

    • Having never had a virus in decades of using Linux, this is the way to really boost its security. Linux needs closed source software with a reputation of patching never-ending security vulnerabilities. To protect us, I sure do hope it forces upgrades and requires a good clean reboot. I need something to break me of the habit of only rebooting a workstation monthly.
      • You mean Firefox never patches never-ending security vulnerabilities? Or X.org? Or -heck- even the Linux kernel? Especially considering that most of the Desktop Linux stack is written in god-forsaken languages like C and C++ which don't do automatic bounds checking, allow random pointers and pointer arithmetic, and have array boundaries disappear when arrays gets passed to functions.

    • The sad part was at the time IE for Solaris actually ran better than Netscape.

  • Choice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Scutter ( 18425 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:03PM (#59401466) Journal

    Another browser for Linux is another choice for Linux users and Linux is all about choice. No one is being forced to use it if they don't want to, but any Linux user who has a problem with more choices is a hypocrite. It's time to put aside your blind hatred.

    • Re:Choice (Score:5, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:23PM (#59401530) Homepage Journal

      It's time to put aside your blind hatred.

      What does blind hatred have to do with Microsoft, which is distributing one of the most offensive pieces of spyware ever produced as an operating system, with a EULA that gives them the right to snoop all your data and activity and share it with anyone they want?

      any Linux user who has a problem with more choices is a hypocrite.

      I don't have a problem with more choices, I have a problem with Microsoft. Wake me up when they give back the money they stole by illegally abusing their monopoly position in the market (as determined by the USDOJ.)

      • offensive pieces of spyware

        Offensive to whom? I'm sorry to say this but privacy is of interest to only a select few. If you want to see who is interested in privacy you can just openly in a crowded area say "OK Google, who is concerned about their privacy" and watch as the Google borg responds with a resounding "no one".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Holi ( 250190 )
        "with a EULA that gives them the right to snoop all your data and activity and share it with anyone they want?"

        Well that's not true in the slightest.

    • Re:Choice (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zero__Kelvin ( 151819 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:39PM (#59401572) Homepage

      "No one is being forced to use it if they don't want to"

      Bullshit. The world is full of moronic Windows System Admins and IT upper management idiots who might declare that Edge is the standard for all systems in the company, forcing the Linux admins who know what a stupid idea it is to install Microsoft's spyware on their otherwise secure systems. Your naivety in believing everyone has a choice is exactly that ... phenomenal naivety. Calling it "blind hatred" makes you the one who is blind. Those of us who can see Microsoft for what it really is have a very legitimate reason to avoid their software like the plague. We don't have "blind hatred", you have blind Microsoft acceptance.

      • Re:Choice (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kenh ( 9056 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @12:30AM (#59401674) Homepage Journal

        "No one is being forced to use it if they don't want to"

        Bullshit. The world is full of moronic Windows System Admins and IT upper management idiots who might declare that Edge is the standard for all systems in the company, forcing the Linux admins who know what a stupid idea it is to install Microsoft's spyware on their otherwise secure systems. Your naivety in believing everyone has a choice is exactly that ... phenomenal naivety.

        If your work environment is defined by "moronic Windows System Admins and IT upper management idiots" you never had a choice, and the release of Microsoft's Edge browser on Linux doesn't change that one iota.

      • I see a lot of Firefox and Chrome (like, both) on "better managed" desktops and it turns out to be driven by third party web apps who have made them "preferred" options and basically won't provide much in terms of tech support unless you're running their preferred browser.

        IMHO, these days the "blind acceptance" for MS products is Office 365 and aspects of Azure. People seem to just not care they are getting locked in forever and losing all negotiating power.

    • Re:Choice (Score:5, Interesting)

      by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:51PM (#59401606)

      It's time to put aside your blind hatred.

      It isn't blind. It's hard-earned.

      Blindness is not seeing the spots on the leopard, or the stinger on the scorpion, or not learning from history.

      Every time Microsoft has extended an olive branch, it has been solely to use it as leverage to pull its victims onto the sword.

      Microsoft can not be trusted. Ever.

      • Re:Choice (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AntiSol ( 1329733 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @02:38AM (#59401956)

        Microsoft can not be trusted. Ever.

        I wouldn't quite say "ever". That's a bit unfair. Particularly when we're talking about blind hatred.

        If they were to open source some stuff we might actually give a crap about, like DirectX and Windows and Skype, and they were generally nice and good and kind and didn't screw anyone over, and they kept all that up for...say...35 years, then I'd start thinking about trusting them. A little bit. Maybe even enough that I'd consider running some of their non-critical software on actual physical hardware.

        If they wanted to make an actual meaningful step towards building some trust and goodwill from the people they've burned in the past, my suggestions would be to release the Windows XP source under a BSD license, and open source the current version of DirectX..

        Microsoft, I wish you luck in this endeavour. Let's talk in 2054.

      • Every time Microsoft has extended an olive branch, it has been solely to use it as leverage to pull its victims onto the sword.

        Are you suggesting that after Microsoft extends an olive branch, and embraces a third-party technology, it then tries to extinguish it?

      • Microsoft can not be trusted. Ever.

        Who is Microsoft? Best anyone can tell the entire senior management is now made up from people who were not a part of Microsoft in the past, mostly poached from other companies without these bullshit practices.

        Corporate culture and strategy comes from the top. "Microsoft" wasn't evil. "Bill Gates, and Steve Balmer" were the evil ones, and neither had the opportunity to groom current management.

        Always looking to the past to determine the future implies that nothing in the world can ever change, which is just

      • I take it you don't own a cell phone?

    • Informed hatred (Score:5, Informative)

      by swm ( 171547 ) <swmcd@world.std.com> on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:54PM (#59401618) Homepage

      It's not blind hatred.
      It's informed hatred.
      I've spent much of my career using Microsoft products (because my employers use them), and I know exactly why I hate them.

    • It's time to put aside your blind hatred.

      I don't hate them at all, they make a good keyboard, but this is pretty funny stuff. Like, what is their browser better at?

    • That's true. Linux is a world of choice and after years of attempts by Microsoft to redefine standards to their liking, extort money from people who have no need to pay it, etc. I choose to keep my blind hatred. It's part of what defines me.

      • I choose to keep my blind hatred

        No, that should be blind dislike. Blind HATRED needs it's target to be examined closely, and frequently to see if it's spreading / getting any worse / or far-be-it actually attempting to get any better.

        If you don't see what you're hating, it might morph and suddenly surprise you.

    • I think my choice is to give it a pass. That being said, I can see 1 use case for it. If you have a web app that needs to run against Edge, you could use this to test with and not have to have a MS-Windows machine; you could test from a Linux desktop.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by kenh ( 9056 )

        you could use this to test with and not have to have a MS-Windows machine; you could test from a Linux desktop.

        Assuming the Edge browser is 100% functionally the same as Edge on a Windows machine.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      Another browser for Linux is another choice for Linux users and Linux is all about choice. No one is being forced to use it if they don't want to, but any Linux user who has a problem with more choices is a hypocrite. It's time to put aside your blind hatred.

      Linux users do have a choice and if people are interested, the following discusses 33 web browsers [slant.co] so we could add one more to the mix. Still to be fair if you have been a Microsoft OS user it would make it so much easier to transition to a Linux distro if you could have applications that you are familiar with such as MS Office, Edge Browser and third party products such as Photoshop, just to name a few.

      Of course, a person who is a dedicated Microsoft ecosystem user would have a difficult, if not imposs

    • Edge is a Chrome-based browser, but one which does not report back to Google. On the face of it a reason to install Edge.
      Opera is a Chrome-based browser, one which does not report back to Google or Microsoft. I believe there are others.
      Me? I installed Chrome recently to see if videos on mlb.com [mlb.com] were generally broken or if they were just broken on the browsers I use. It turned out that the POS site broke videos between the ALCS and the World Series, either deliberately or through incompetence. Having a

    • >"Another browser for Linux is another choice for Linux users and Linux is all about choice."

      Edge is Chrom*. Chrom* is Google. So you have Google controlling the web and MS reinforcing that domination. That doesn't seem like a productive choice at all. All multiplatform browsers now are Google, with the exception of Firefox. Choosing Google is not in our best interest. They are starting to make their own "standards" and sites are starting to code to Chom*-only. It is IE all over again.

      So yes, we h

  • I am still shocked how quickly vscode at my brain on every platform I use, including seamless remote sessions. I started programming on punched cards in the early 1970's and since then I've used pretty much every editor and IDE, where I count emacs as the first true IDE (sorry, VIM). And I spent well over a decade being conflicted about Eclipse.

    I'm willing to give MS another shot at making another truly usable tool. My hopes are not high, but they earned great cred with me for vscode. Secretly, I'd like

    • I'm willing to give MS another shot at making another truly usable tool.

      If you're willing to give MS a chance to fuck up your Linux system, you're a truly usable tool. People don't even use this browser on Windows.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by BobC ( 101861 )

        I don't use Windows Edge! I'm hoping the Linux Edge will be cleaner, and am willing to take a look to see.

        Similarly, I don't use MS Visual Studio for anything anywhere on any platform. But I do like vscode.

        Anyway, I'd first run Linux Edge under WSL, and not on a "real" system until after it proves itself.

        • I don't use Windows Edge! I'm hoping the Linux Edge will be cleaner, and am willing to take a look to see.

          It won't, but have fun.

          Anyway, I'd first run Linux Edge under WSL, and not on a "real" system until after it proves itself.

          That's not a real test. At least run it in a VM.

    • > where I count emacs as the first true IDE (sorry, VIM)

      It's okay, vim wants to be a text editor - not another Lennart Poettering OS.

      vi is the visual mode for ex. Ex is the extended version of ed. Ed, for those unfamiliar, is sed minus the stream - it's designed for sed-like operations on fixed files. So one can accurately say "vi is extended to be a visual interface for sed-like text editing". It's not SUPPOSED to be an IDE. If you choose to, you can configure it to use other programs such as compi

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by BobC ( 101861 )

        Developers have always hammered tools into the forms needed to maximize productivity and quality. For me, carefully integrated tools let me kick ass on folks trying to keep a manual string of unrelated tools working together. It's just not where or how I want to spend my time, nor is it what I'm being paid to accomplish. I also like being able to use whatever tool is best for the task at hand, and not be bound to any particular environment.

        Feel free to adhere to your flimsy philosophy: I'll just go do mor

        • You've been around a while. What do you think about the maturity of this comment?

          "Feel free to adhere to your flimsy philosophy: I'll just go do more, do it better, and get paid more for it."

          I'm actually a little surprised that you've not only been around the industry for as long as you have, but also been on Slashdot as long as you have, yet tried to come at me "I make more money than you". That would be a pretty silly thing to say to anyone, of course, but I can only guess you didn't notice who you wer

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by BobC ( 101861 )

            And you clearly have no clue who you were replying to. And I choose to keep it that way. I tend to restart my online identities every so often, giving me maximum freedom to change and grow. I don't want people to care who I've been, but who I am. I can throw down a nice deck of history cards, but I'm not doing that stuff anymore, and it doesn't really matter to me today.

            Philosophies tend to be inherently flimsy unless they are repeatedly tested. Which means stepping outside of them now and again. And

            • > I did notice that you rant against Poettering using "we". Who gave their independent voices to you? Or was that the "Royal We"

              Those of us who choose vim don't want to be using something like Visual Studio - if we wanted to do that, we WOULD! Just as you would use ed if you wanted to be using ed.

              It's actually pretty much a tautology - those who choose X over Y, are people who prefer X to Y. That is why I can comment on what people who choose vi want - because they've demonstrated it. Much as Porche bu

  • Hilarious waste of effort (Score:3)

    by BevanFindlay ( 1636473 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:13PM (#59401510)

    I almost never use Edge, and I'm on Windows almost 100% of the time. It's either Chrome (because I'm at work and they won't install anything else) or Waterfox or Firefox. (I use Waterfox because when FF was slow, I wanted something faster, so went with the 64-bit native, and now stay there because of the legacy addons support).

    I fail to see what Microsoft plan to achieve here. They have a browser that is, at best, not better than anything else available, and arguably worse (from someone who loves configurability; Edge lost me at the start by launching with no addon support – the web without at least Adblock is an awful place).

    It reminds me of Safari on Windows. Yes, because I want to install an inferior product.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Locutus ( 9039 )
      Maybe they are planning to do things like make Skype only work in Edge.

      Yes, something doesn't smell right here.

      LoB

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Getting more people to "see" the ads is never a wasted effort.

    • Re:Hilarious waste of effort (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dracos ( 107777 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @04:56AM (#59402120)

      Edge on Linux wasn't a deliberate plan. Once MS discovered the Chrome build process is cross-platform they figured, "What the hell, let's put out Edge for Linux." Someone on the team probably thought it would be funny. Eventually they'll push out Edge for Android for the same nominal effort.

      If anything, this is another feeble, transparent ruse designed to make MS seem FOSS-friendly.

  • Everyone relax, get back to your stations. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:33PM (#59401550) Homepage

    Hell doesn't freeze over until they release MS Office for Linux.

    • Hell doesn't freeze over until they release MS Office for Linux.

      Hell freezes over every winter. I visit 2 or 3 times a year. Nice place to visit. They even have an ice cream parlor.

    • Hell doesn't freeze over until they release MS Office for Linux.

      Make that Visio for Linux, or even Visio for Mac for that matter....

  • Funny! (Score:3)

    by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Sunday November 10, 2019 @11:36PM (#59401558)
    Yawn Whatever ;) Just my 2 cents ;)

  • ... and may want to pick up a mainstream alternative ...

    ... Microsoft's mainstream browser is a little to close to the edge.

  • Microsoft's build of the Chromium browser with Edge branding is.
  • If Edge is available as a cross-platform Chromium-based browser with available cross-platform adblocking software (e.g. the port of uBlock Origin available for the current version) then it may get some love, because it'll be a large enough target/user base on Windows to be worth developing for and Linux can get the benefit of that.

    Sure there's Brave, Chromium, etc. but once Chrome switches to Manifest V3 and ad-blockers as an oh-so-unfortunate side effect get crippled in Chrome, will development fragment?

  • Years ago, I caught a ton of flack from my peers for applying for a job at Microsoft. I was accused of joining the "Death Star". More recently, but still pre-Nadella, I worked with a number of Microsoft teams and found them sadly, highly dysfunctional and full of infighting. I was told it was partly due to the stack-ranking system that would actually make people glad to have a dumb ass join the team. Since Nadella really took over, I've seen significant strides in the right direction in terms of Linux and A

    • If you have to compare the work environment to Amazon to make it look good, it's a shitfest. Period.

  • Perhaps the best thing that will come out of this is Microsoft eating their own dogfood when it comes to building and deploying a substantial app for Linux. For all the anti-MS sentiment here, they usually create pretty good development tools (not always, but usually). But historically, for obvious reasons, those have mostly been Windows-only tools.

    Whatever pain points this development team runs into will encourage improvements of their own improved tooling and systems or even to help improve open source s

    • Re:Well, it can't hurt, I guess... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Gavagai80 ( 1275204 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @01:50AM (#59401856) Homepage

      I still don't know what another Chromium-based browser is supposed to bring to the table, other than for Microsoft to say "yep, we ship a browser too".

      1) Release a poorly-optimized Edge for Linux
      2) Send out press releases comparing benchmarks of how fast Windows runs videos/websites in Edge vs. how fast Linux does it in Edge
      3) Profit

      Alternatively, a longer-term plan:
      1) Release a browser identical to Chrome for all platforms
      2) Wait for Google to mess up Chrome in a big way
      3) Fork Chromium
      4) As the 2nd biggest Chromium browser just by virtue of being pre-installed on Windows, Edge is now the obvious choice for Chrome refugees and you've gained a web browser near-monopoly
      5) Make some popular websites things stop working in the Mac and Linux versions (like IE6-only sites or Netflix's Silverlight days)
      6) Profit from the new competitive advantage you've given Windows

      • Ah, the cynicism runs deep here. I'd agree with you, say, fifteen years ago. But these days, Microsoft doesn't really care that much about tooting Windows' horn, or locking out other platforms. The desktop wars are long over, and MS won. Even with the royal cock-up that was Windows 8, they didn't lose any significant marketshare. People just stayed on Windows 7 for a while longer. But the world moved on to other platforms, and as it turns out, Microsoft also lost the war on those platforms. So it's n

    • It's to give them control over the support process. This is especially important since more and more of their services either run on or can run on Linux.

      Imagine one of Microsoft's bigger customers encounters a major problem accessing some Microsoft service in the browser. If they use the Microsoft-supported browser, Microsoft can escalate the issue, get it fixed quickly, and commit the changes, all without the process ever leaving Microsoft. Then they feed the changes back upstream so that the bug gets f
  • Or maybe the "open source" Visual Code editor will be made to only work with the Edge browser. What other tie-in do you expect from Microsoft to justify them even doing a Linux version of their Edge browser?

    Is there a sell-out, I mean a partnership getting announced soon which would warrant this?

    LoB
  • At first it was hilarious, then it was just funny. Now that's confirmed, it's worrying.
  • The ancient entangled Windows kernel reportedly may be replaced with a Linux Kernel for better security and to modernize the OS. Microsoft doesn't want to work on an OS that is running out of steam. They already own the API's to make this a reality and keep backward compatibility for many desktop programs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zekica ( 1953180 )
      For this to happen, they will have to create a windows driver model compatibility layer on top of Linux which is no small feat. That would also mean that they would have to release it under GPL v2.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dracos ( 107777 )

      I buy that. They said 10 would be the "last version of Windows", not the final Microsoft OS. They're moving away from Windows as a core product, it makes sense that they would want to leverage other people's work to keep their brand going.

  • Are we still there? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostMyBeaver ( 1226054 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @01:27AM (#59401790)
    Ok, the year is 1999 and I am speaking at a booth Tucows rented at Linux Expo. I was working for Opera and I had just released the first version of the Opera Web Browser as a technical preview for people to try out. The audience goes wild! I mean really, I barely made it out of there alive. I was pretty sure someone would throw a rotten egg or maybe an axe at me for talking about a web browser which would not be open source. People were so angry because we had the audacity to want to support Linux.

    Fast forward a few years. Opera was running on hundreds of millions of Linux devices which would have ended up running something else if it the companies supporting Linux for their projects did not have access to a company to support custom web browser development for their projects on Linux.

    It could have been another company and another browser, but IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Nintendo, Sony, and many other companies invested VERY heavily in companies like Redhat, Suse, Monte Vista, and more because they could hire a web browser company to support development of a web browser on their platforms.

    Microsoft has done a massive amount of great things for Linux over the past few years. If you visit places like the Microsoft Build Conference, the magnitude of projects Microsoft supports on Linux is mind blowing.

    Microsoft has developed VS Code as a first class citizen on Linux for some time. It is a totally open source editor that has amazing tool support for everything from remote Linux kernel driver debugging to LaTeX editing with preview. Among other things, it is very good for web development including amazing tools for things like Angular.

    Edge which is basically a skin for Chromium (which MS contributes heavily to), has excellent integration for design and debugging in VS Code on Windows.

    This move by Microsoft cannot possibly for anything other than increase interest in Linux.

    I think ElementaryOS or Deepin combined with VS Code would actually make Linux a real desktop contender in time.

    • >"Fast forward a few years."

      Yep, please do. And discover that now Opera is basically a skin for Chrom* and Google control.

      >"Edge which is basically a skin for Chromium"

      Yes. And so are all the other multiplatform browsers that are not Firefox. So what did we learn?

      "This move by Microsoft cannot possibly for anything other than increase interest in Linux."

      You are very trusting. I see it as a move for MS to drop the expense of fighting to make a useful browser and handling control over to Google, who

  • It uses the WebKit Chromium engine

    If it were to use the Microsoft EdgeHTML engine, this would be notable. Since it's just using WebKit Chromium, why bother?

    • Embrace.

      Extend. ...

      Hey, our new Azure based widget farm only works with Edge!! Thank God it's on Linux, amirite? /s

  • Why? (Score:3)

    by mwvdlee ( 775178 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @04:03AM (#59402052) Homepage

    There are literally dozens of chromium-based browsers available for any OS.
    Why would one additional browser that I don't use bother me?
    Does it offer anything the other major browsers don't already have?

  • ...I'd download Chrome. Or Opera. Or... well I'm sure there are quite a few other Chrome based "alternatives".

    Why in the world would I choose the variant from the company that forever could easily have made their browser only provide a handfull of urls to go to: It was once Netscape, these days more like Chrome download page or Firefox.

  • Or more a "Huh? I thought Chrome already exists for Linux?"

  • Is meh except I hope this makes automated testing easier.
  • .... Meh. Wake me up when they run it from ring 0 ... on Linux.

    Now that would be something, wouldn't it ?
  • Future versions of Edge are based on Chromium, so how is this adding any choice?

  • Well ms.... (Score:3)

    by MitchDev ( 2526834 ) on Monday November 11, 2019 @08:08AM (#59402420)

    ... I don;t use Edge on my Windows systems at home or at work, I sure as hell wouldn't use it on linux either....

    Is there an iPhone version of Edge I can ignore too?

  • Why not bring more of Windows to Linux? systemd made Linux look a lot more like Windows (not a compliment), so why not just continue that effort?

  • Sold! I'd rather use WebKit/Blink over Gecko. The only thing I ever launch Firefox for is Netflix, and it sounds like this works with Netflix so I'm sold.

  • Didn't we have the headline not too long ago saying Edge for Windows was going to be Chrome's engine with a coat of paint? There's already Chrome for Linux, so this seems too easy a program to avoid publishing...

  • It's the same one that we had when it came to WIndows.

    Edge Who?

  • Edge is just going to be Chrome with less spying stuff.
    Or did we forget that Google took the evil crown from MS a while back.

  • You know, I'm glad that the ongoing coup and correction at Microsoft is going swimmingly, but some things never seem to change about this company. For example, the whole idea that anyone wants to use their re-purposed version of Chrome to begin with. I mean, don't get me wrong. Edge is a very capable browser. When I install a windows system, it's the only thing I trust to download Chrome and Firefox. Then, unless it's by accident, I never really think about it again. And the only reason that makes any sense

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