Microsoft Will Release Their Edge Web Browser For Linux

[rhavenn]

Don't forget the internet server space. Linux was a hobbyist OS not that long ago. Now it runs all of Google, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, etc. Not to mention all the various Cisco and Brocade LAN and SAN devices behind the scenes. The boring corporate desktop is literally the only place where Microsoft still has dominance, and that's almost exclusively due to MS Office. Which is why they will never release Office for Linux, or if they do, it'll be a crippled cut down version like it was for Mac.

Back to the main topic, IMO releasing Edge browser for Linux is like releasing MS Paint or Notepad for Linux. It's the answer to a question nobody asked. Plus I'm sure it will be cut down, as Edge on Windows has significant hooks into Windows API's, DRM controls, etc. that I doubt will be ported to Linux.

Once MS starts losing Windows 10 licenses or sees it's more profitable to sell Office to whomever because it will sell cloud / Azure / O365 licenses then we might see Office on Linux. It may be somewhat stripped down. Personally, Outlook is about the only thing I need / want for what I do with Microsoft. The online apps work well enough (Word, Excel, etc..) and Outlook is becoming somewhat de facto tied to a O365 subscription. Excel and all it's VBA macros, etc...is the only really hard one IMHO. PowerPoint, Outlook and Word could move with some stuff like plug-in support for "classic" plug-ins removed.

For me, mutt works fine with O365, but need to use the web interface for calendar and sometimes you do need to send HTML email. Teams works fine for chat, video chat on Linux now, so they're really moving to a full Cloud subscription model.

[onicsis]

I don't think it can be more spyware than Google Chrome is, just another Chromium based browser from so many others. Basically useless on Linux. Why [Microsoft think that a] a user should choose Edge on Linux and not something else ? make no sens.

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Microsoft has the knowledge, money and the manpower to double contribution upstream back to Chromium project it they decide to want to do it, gaining significant amount of mass in code, optimization, bugs reporting and solving and so on.

[M@GOid]

Steve Ballmer's reaction to the news:

[DebianXFCE Jr]

And then, replacement of Windows' kernel with Linux

Nice one.

[ferry]

Nice, I won't mind using it. Already using Edge on Android anyway.

On Android I like Duckduckgo as it blocks adds and trackers.

[Charlie68]

All this conspiracy is embarrassing, MS will release its Edge even for Linux, simply because it costs nothing to do it, so why not! No one is pointing a gun to his head to let him use Edge!
Someone (sorry if I don't remember the username) wrote that they do not release Office and this is why people use Windows, well I never knew a person who uses Office yet they use Windows the same. The only reason why Windows is still the most used desktop operating system, is because it is pre-installed on 99% of PCs, Office has nothing to do with it!

[timrichardson]

All this conspiracy is embarrassing, MS will release its Edge even for Linux, simply because it costs nothing to do it, so why not! No one is pointing a gun to his head to let him use Edge

Yes, this is easy for Microsoft. They will probably use it to add value for Microsoft users, such as profile management (bookmarks, passwords, tab and search history).

It is really good for desktop linux. imagine in two or three years time saying to a Windows user that they can use Edge on Ubuntu. That is, the application that the average Windows user spends the most time with (which will be Edge) is on desktop Linux. This is a huge branding moment for desktop linux, if Microsoft does a good job.

[Mario Junior]

Another chromium reskin. Nice!

[kneekoo]

Am I the only one thinking that this is humiliating for Microsoft who controlled 95% of the browser market share 15 years ago to now use Google's browser, give up the smartphone race and lose the web search battle?

Evolution doesn't care. If you're on the right track, fine. If not, whatever.

[wizard69]

Nope.

Firefox FTW

Exactly! I’ve never liked any of the Chromium respins. Firefox works well for me on every platform I use.