If Edge goes under it’s crucial that support be given to the only remaining major web browser on Windows that won’t be based on Chromium: @firefox. Also: 😨

Seems like a good time to recognize the contribution that IE and Edge made to web font rendering behavior (years before `font-display`): steadfastly rendering visible fallback text while loading. Just one small example of browser diversity playing a positive role for developers.

(Fair warning: I'll probably mute you if you’re in my mentions talking trash about Edge—I’m just not interested)

What about IE11 tho?

Always been a fan, especially with his earlier work

How dare you 😎

Yeah it's stuff like that that made me sad when I heard that Edge might be replaced with yet another Chromium browser. I haven't had any issues building for Edge, and Microsoft has done so much in terms of innovation, even back in the IE days (Ajax anyone?).

IE: a diamond-studded turd

Let’s not forget that we owe our favorite CSS box model to Internet Explorer.

Not to mention they supported variable fonts and all four color font formats when the specs were still hot from the oven. They had Google's color font proposal running two years before Chrome finally did!

This!

Edge was my daily non-dev driver so I'm bummed at this development.

Mine too. I use Edge on Android too so I can easily switch my reading to PC. Feels odd, links anyone?

Edge on Android is Chromium ;)

Yeah, but with my Edge bookmarks and send to desktop.

And probably nothing will change if and when Edge switches to Chromium.

Is that a thing that's happening?

Not sure yet! Maybe!

Thx and ah and I see this article, for example:

Do. Do what now? Is there a link for this potentiality? Also I'm gonna need a PDF reader on my surface go.

Got a feeling we were both triggered by the same stuff twitter.com/twholman/statu… :/

You're a prophet Tim!

🌊⛰🙏

The call is coming from inside the house 🤐

...and Safari?

Not on Windows for a while now

true, true.

wha.. wha... what? Is Edge going under? Did I miss something? 😨

Yeah, unfortunately:

Frankly, a browser is *so* complex, that I think it may be better that way -- how much could Microsoft have committed to V8 and to Blink's renderer, had they not burnt so much on building EdgeHTML and a totally new Chakra, only to end up with mediocre stuff and a terrible UI?

.... *or* contributed to Mozilla, had they wanted to go that route instead. I'm not familiar with what goes on in Mozilla these days, but I suspect that there's a reason that most alternative browser makers go with Blink.

MS probably choose Blink because 1) it is the dominant browser engine 2) It is much more easier to embed Blink than Gecko

yeah i'm not familiar with any of the pieces of Gecko, I am somewhat familiar with Blink's various separations of concerns that allow it to be used in "things that aren't Chrome". I assume most people choose Blink because it's easier to build a new thing onto, but I don't know

Don't forget IE. They are kept alive by the IT of big companies and public offices. It will take a few years until IE finally dies.

I think this is good news… it doesn’t mean the ideas and talents behind Edge are ceasing - it means they will be put alongside the other great ideas and talents of Chromium - a OSS project supported by very many big players - I look at it more like the ISS of the Internet!

I'm honestly looking forward to the day that Firefox and Safari switch to Chromium.

Oh no, and @rachelnabors foreshadowed it… Sadly… :cry: In her great article on @css: css-tricks.com/the-ecological…

We need edge to keep chrome competitive. Like quark to keep indesign competitive.

That's not true. That rootkit hiding somewhere in the Windows system is visiting different IP address and receiving data. It's kind of like it's browsing the Internet. 😄

IE sucked, Edge kind of sucked (never really used it), so this is a good thing. Hopefully Microsoft contributes to Chromium and makes a better browser for everyone. I am surprised they went with Chromium over Firefox though.

I get the concern about consolidation, but shouldn't Chromium's status as an open source project alleviate some of this? Or am I missing something?

That’s a fair point. There’s certainly some gray area to the discussion. I’m of the opinion that diversity is of higher value to developers, long term.

I don't consider Chromium truly open-source. Every Chromium browser out there, now matter how independent from Google has at least a little bit of Google in it. Google basically owns Chromium and benefits from it being open source to 'improve' it's Chrome browser with new spyware

🚨Hot Take Alert🚨 twitter.com/michaelmistak/…

Why do you think that? My thoughts were:

It could work out well I guess. I think I'm going to shut up about it until some non-leak news lands.

Seems to be already too much consolidation in tech as it is. All the browsers under one banner does not bode well. We saw what that looked like when it was Microsoft. That's not because MS was "evil", that's just what happens with no real competition.

This is one example of it: Opinions in a single ecosystem are more susceptible to groupthink, maybe? I go into a little bit more detail about that specific example here: zachleat.com/web/fout-foit-…