Why Microsoft Dropped EdgeHTML for Chromium and What It Means for Browser Engines

Microsoft announced it will abandon its proprietary EdgeHTML rendering engine and adopt the Chromium engine for its Edge browser, a move that has sparked significant debate.

The Chromium‑based Edge preview is slated for release in early 2019, and the shift means that Firefox’s Gecko engine will become the only major alternative to Chromium, which is already used by Google Chrome, Opera, and dozens of other browsers.

Microsoft project manager Kenneth Auchenberg tweeted that Mozilla should also embrace Chromium, arguing that the web is already dominated by Chromium and that Mozilla’s parallel engine serves less than 5 % of users.

Mozilla CEO Chris Beard warned that Microsoft’s decision gives Google greater power over how people use the web and stressed the need for competition and choice to keep the internet healthy.

The view was met with criticism from Mozilla and Chromium engineers; Mozilla engineer Asa Dotzler pointed out that an employer’s abandonment of its own technology does not obligate others to follow.

Auchenberg later clarified he does not wish to see Mozilla disappear, but believes the organization should restructure as a research institute rather than positioning itself as a “network protector,” and he does not think Chromium will dominate the web in the same way as Internet Explorer because it is open source.

Source: cnbeta and other media