14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest benefits of Microsoft giving up on the EdgeHTML engine for Microsoft Edge and switching to Chromium is that the company would be able to release the browser on other platforms, including the previous Windows versions.
At this point, Microsoft Edge is exclusive to Windows 10, while also being available on Android and iOS. But once the browser is updated to the Chromium engine, there’s no technical limitation that wouldn’t allow the software giant to release Edge on operating systems like macOS and Windows 7.
And that’s exactly what Microsoft plans to do, according to Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Windows. Belfiore said that bringing Edge to macOS is a thing that the company wants to do, just like it is releasing the browser on previous Windows versions.
Windows 7 to reach EOL in January 2020
Including Windows 7, that is, despite the fact that the 2009 operating system would reach the end of support in January 2020.
“Improving the web-platform experience for both end users and developers requires that the web platform and the browser be consistently available to as many devices as possible,” Belfiore said.
“To accomplish this, we will evolve the browser code more broadly, so that our distribution model offers an updated Microsoft Edge experience + platform across all supported versions of Windows, while still maintaining the benefits of the browser’s close integration with Windows.”
The biggest question right now is how much sense it makes for Microsoft to invest in a Windows 7 browser given the OS is already supposed to be retired in a little over a year.
Microsoft expects a preview of the new Edge browser to be ready in early 2019, while the full stable version should go live sometime later in the year. This means it could land on Windows 7 only a few months before Microsoft pulls support for this operating system, in which case it could actually serve as a reason for some users not to upgrade their devices to newer Windows.