Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#21

Post by polskibus » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

fabricexpert wrote: post #14

volandovengo wrote: post #4

This is HUGE! Microsoft throwing away the IE engine in favor of one more or less standard rendering engine is a huge win for web developers everywhere! It's also something that would have been unimaginable in the Steve Ballmer era. Thank you!

> A huge win for web developers everywhere! And a huge loss for users everywhere. Now that Chrome is becoming the main web target, Google (an adtech company) basically controls the internet.

It already controls the Internet. More importantly, Chromium will now also control the intranet.

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#22

Post by tombert » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

I'm assuming I'm not the only one who's afraid of Blink becoming the new Internet Explorer; instead of people following a web standard, they'll follow what's Chrome-compatible.

It's still better because Chromium is open-source, but I do worry that we're going to have a problem in the future with a lot of broken sites (YTMND-style).

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#23

Post by bdcravens » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:23 PM UTC

copperx wrote: post #7

MikusR wrote: post #2

In short. Edge engine is dead. Based on Chromium. Not an UWP. Will be on Windows 7 and Mac.

If Edge comes to Linux it will be the second ice age in hell.

Why? Other Microsoft software runs on Linux.

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#24

Post by Retroity » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:24 PM UTC

On one hand, this creates a platform that is more or less the standard of the web. On the other hand, this only gives Google more control of the web.

I really wish that instead of doing this Microsoft would just stick with EdgeHTML and maybe open-source it.

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#25

Post by dxf » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:24 PM UTC

fabricexpert wrote: post #14

volandovengo wrote: post #4

This is HUGE! Microsoft throwing away the IE engine in favor of one more or less standard rendering engine is a huge win for web developers everywhere! It's also something that would have been unimaginable in the Steve Ballmer era. Thank you!

> A huge win for web developers everywhere! And a huge loss for users everywhere. Now that Chrome is becoming the main web target, Google (an adtech company) basically controls the internet.

The article says the MSFT will be a significant contributor to Chromium. If anything, this means that Google will have _less_ control, as a second major internet player will be involved.

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#26

Post by bluejekyll » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:24 PM UTC

fabricexpert wrote: post #14

volandovengo wrote: post #4

This is HUGE! Microsoft throwing away the IE engine in favor of one more or less standard rendering engine is a huge win for web developers everywhere! It's also something that would have been unimaginable in the Steve Ballmer era. Thank you!

> A huge win for web developers everywhere! And a huge loss for users everywhere. Now that Chrome is becoming the main web target, Google (an adtech company) basically controls the internet.

I don’t really get this. Edge was only available to Windows users. This is only a loss to those users. On the other hand Chrome and Firefox are available on all major (for some subset of all) platforms. (Yes, I’m aware iPhone Firefox is hobbled bc of Apple policies).

If you want to push competition and choice, encourage everyone to use Firefox (or Safari if they only use macOS).

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#27

Post by _nickwhite » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

Could this be a bad thing for Firefox? Seems like Microsoft + Google is quite a rival to go against?

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#28

Post by crazy_monkey » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:25 PM UTC

Open-source is good! The less of it written by Microsoft, the better!

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#29

Post by wvenable » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:27 PM UTC

egeozcan wrote: post #13

If Microsoft knew that Edge in its current state is inferior, why did they try so hard to make every windows user switch to it? I mean there was this "startup growth hacking" kind of craziness from a corporation and sudden admittance of defeat... It's very confusing. Edit: We all know why they want everyone to switch don't we, but think about all the now admittedly false marketing! It's not like they stopped the aggr…

Microsoft is trying to drive traffic to Bing (and their other services). The rendering engine doesn't actually matter. Microsoft could just bundle Chrome with Windows but instead they are specifically taking the Chromium engine and putting it in an Edge shell. The only reason for that is to maintain control over the user to drive them to Microsoft properties.

Re: Microsoft Edge and open source collaboration

#30

Post by scrollaway » Thu, Dec 06, 2018, 5:27 PM UTC

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #5

Man, this sucks. I really wish they had open sourced their new engine and stuck with it. I would have volunteered time porting it to Linux/POSIX as well.

There's still time to open source it. I'm confused why they don't, at this point.

Well, not that confused, I guess it ties in to Windows quite a bit and it's probably not worth it for them. Still I hope they do it.