Microsoft Edge dev preview for Linux(blogs.windows.com) |
Microsoft Edge dev preview for Linux(blogs.windows.com) |
Because I cannot imagine anyone will use this unironically as their browser on their Linux desktop.
Personally, I’ll stick with Firefox. Especially now that you can choose your default browser in iOS, with my Firefox data synced across all devices no matter the platform it’s a great experience.
If your workload does not consist of synthetic benchmark development or hardcore webgl stuff, firefox is more than capable of being used as your daily driver. Hell, it once had over 30% of market share. Also, its more configurable, and offers interesting privacy features.
Filter for “Edge Linux” to get a tar of the source code.
I see that this is based on the Chromium `88.0.673.0` build, so I expect it will just be unstable for a bit.
My guess is, OS money is over and MS wants to safe budget in the long run running its money makers on Linux etc.
I do not see this changing in the near future. I can't see a strong incentive for companies to switch to Linux even if MS brings AD, GPOs, Office, and its own MS-supported WINE.
Setting up new systems with it remotely is a real pain, something the EMM model fixes completely.
The way out I could imagine would be some sort of packaged virtualization, like the "XP Mode" feature on Windows 7. Your legacy apps spin up in a thin, well-integrated VM which ran a "final" build of classic Win10 designed for minimal disruption. The VMs, in turn, would be aggressively sandboxed and firewalled to keep it tamed. I'd suspect there'd still be some gaps-- drivers for hardware that can't be easily wired to a VM, but I suspect there's a mountain of logistics and performance issues that don't fit in a two-paragraph post.
Windows, both server and desktop, is still raking in billions. There is zero reason for MS to give up on it.
You know that was a long time ago right?
Obviously Microsoft had nothing to do with the fact that most of those pretty much died due to their own failures, but many, many people blamed Microsoft for using their OEM deals to push the other players out and thereby killing off their favourite platform. When Microsoft started using seriously anti-competitive behaviour when they pushed Explorer with Windows, they also forced a feature race with Netscape (who ultimately lost, as we all know), and that race was the last nail in the coffin for the alternative platforms. There were no open source web browsers back then, and commercial alternatives for platforms like the Amiga simply couldn't keep up. Explorer became a killer app, and Windows pretty much took it all, apart from Apple which managed to survive because of Microsoft funding. And boy, those Amiga and Atari users can be rabid about Microsoft. I know. I used to be one of them. :D
I work in EMM (though not Windows) and we are rapidly moving to Intune/Azure AD now because of this change. Onboarding new machines has become a nightmare when people can't go to the office.
The problem is a catch-22.. We require a 'trusted' machine to connect to the VPN. Yet the VPN is required to connect to AD and bind it, which is the de-facto way it becomes trusted.
Before someone in the office would do this but in many cases this hasn't been possible since COVID so it's exposed the issues with this approach. But even before that, working from home has been causing a lot of friction.
Everyone is moving to EMM models now, like Google Beyondcorp. MS is pushing Intune now as main management, with 'comanagement' with AD for the time being because it doesn't have the same scope of functionality yet. But it's clear that their long-term plan is to abandon it.