Microsoft says it will rebuild Edge to run on Google's open source Chromium project and will make it available on macOS, Windows 7, and Windows 8
A Chromium version of Edge will also arrive on Windows 7 and Windows 8 — Microsoft is announcing some significant changes to its Edge browser today.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft is abandoning its own EdgeHTML rendering engine and rebuilding Edge on Google's open-source Chromium project — while simultaneously ending the browser's Windows-10 exclusivity by bringing it to macOS, Windows 7, and Windows 8. The day before this announcement, coverage flagged exactly that expansion (Edge coming to Windows 7, Windows 8, and macOS), making today's news the confirmation that the platform reach and the engine swap were one decision.
The follow-on coverage shows how quickly the bet materialized: within months, early builds revealed support for Chrome extensions alongside a mixed Chrome/Edge UI and dark mode, developer and canary builds shipped for Windows 10 with macOS builds promised next (Microsoft's canary builds), and by January 2020 the finished browser was rolling out to Windows and macOS (the general rollout).
First-order effects
- Edge users and developers get immediate compatibility with the Chrome extension ecosystem, removing the biggest practical reason to avoid Microsoft's browser.
- Web developers can stop maintaining fixes for a second rendering engine, since Edge now renders pages identically to Chrome.
Second-order effects
- Google's Chromium project gains Microsoft as a marquee contributor, shifting real influence over the web platform's direction from Redmond to the Chromium/Blink codebase Google controls.
- Mozilla's Firefox is left as the only major browser still running an independent engine, changing the competitive framing from feature rivalry to engine survival.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the browser layer consolidates around a single dominant open-source engine maintained under Google's stewardship — a structure that invites scrutiny over who governs web standards when one company effectively sets them.
The trend: Browser competition is collapsing onto shared open-source engines, with vendors differentiating through services and UI rather than rendering technology.