Microsoft has been pushing their new Edge browser which is based on the open-source Chromium browser standard. The truth is Microsoft needs to standardize Edge on the Chromium standard since their current edge browser has little to no mark share.

Microsoft made a big mistake tying Edge to the operating system in the first place a few years ago when Windows 10 was released. Windows 10 gets updated with features twice a year where Chrome gets updated every six weeks which right from the start put Edge at a disadvantage. Then the lack of browser extension support for Edge I think was the final end for Microsoft and the reason the shift to Chromium happened. If Microsoft would have made Edge available on every platform like they did with Internet Explorer and now Edge built on Chromium they would have not fallen to a four percent market share in the browser market.

Microsoft needs Edge to be Chromium based because they need a browser that has a rich browser extension store to offer users of Edge. Using Chromium as the browser base allows Microsoft to port their apps over and allows users to install extensions from other stores like the Google Play Store.

Using Chromium allows Microsoft to break the browser off from Windows 10 and develop for other platforms like Windows 7, Windows 8 and MacOS. Since Chromium looks like Chrome it allows Microsoft to possibly make users stay with Edge and not download Chrome. Going with the Chromium standard allows Microsoft the ability to update Edge every six weeks like Chrome rather than twice a year with the cumulative update packages.

Going with an open standard like Chromium helps Microsoft by making it easier for developers to make extensions. Before making extensions for Edge was complex and developers were not going through the effort to develop an extension for a browser with a 4 percent market share. Now even if they don’t make the extension for Edge you can still download it from the Google Play Store.

I really like what Microsoft is doing with the new Edge based on Chromium and how they have taken much of the Google tracking code out and have replaced it with Microsoft services. Overall, I think it’s a great browser I have used it on MacOS, Windows 10 and Windows 7. Everything is working great so far but again the browser is in Beta.