Yesterday, the beta version of Edge browser with Chromium kernel has released the installation package. After using it, what surprised me most was how similar it was to Chrome.
A small partner in China registered the qualification for internal testing, got the installation package, and then released it. And soon had a backup in Baidu network disk and other places.
After downloading and decompressing, if you are afraid that the installation will do harm to your system, you don't need to double-click the installation program, you can decompress the installation package and further decompress msedge.7z to get a green version.
The new Edge synchronizes all kinds of browser information by using your Microsoft account instead of Google account. When you start the browser for the first time, Edge can automatically detect that you have installed your authorized Chrome on your computer, and completely import its favorites, automatically fill in the information and browse the history.
You can choose three different styles on the startup page.
In addition to the pure search box, common websites and information waterfalls that have been implemented in the existing Edge, you can also choose to load wallpaper from bing. Many netizens will download special plug-ins to make their browser homepage load Bing Meitu every day, and choosing Edge can automatically help you realize this wish.
You can freely customize which part of the new tab is displayed according to your personal preference.
This edge basically allows a user who is used to using Chrome to switch seamlessly, and the menu layout, function settings and so on are exactly the same.
In order to achieve a complete docking experience, the beta version of Edge is even the height of the browser tab, buttons such as back and forward, address bar and bookmark bar.
This version of Edge uses the Chromium75 kernel, which is newer than the 73rd version of Chrome browser. Its user agents are:
Mozilla/5.0(windows nt 10.0； Win64x64)AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML，like gecko)Chrome/75 . 0 . 3738 . 0 safari/537.36 EDG/75 . 0 . 107.0
Therefore, the plug-in of Chrome App Store can be installed at will on this version of Edge. Edge will automatically detect that you have visited the Google Store, prompting you that if you want to install it, you need to turn on the switch to install third-party plug-ins on the extension management page.
Edge can fully recognize Chrome extensions and load them, with the same effect, but for Chrome skin, an error will be displayed when installing.
What's even more embarrassing is that Chrome's F 12 developer tool is very useful for many front-end developers, and it is also pixel-level compatible with Edge.
By default, viewing elements in the Edge interface will provide you with a black interface similar to VS code. But you can press F 1 in the developer tool to change this interface to the same style as Chrome in the settings.
This is just an all-round convergence that can be called "humiliating the country".
The news that Microsoft chose to give up the development of its own kernel, and the news that Opera gave up its own kernel and switched to the chromium camp are all regarded as milestones for Google to determine its dominance of browser standards. Now the chromium kernel has been called IE6 in the new era by some front-end developers.
Just like IE4-IE6, Chrome has made many minor adjustments in addition to the popular W3C standard. When the pages written by the unified Web standard are displayed in Chrome, it may cause some inconsistencies in appearance and function. In the end, this difference will often be approved in the W3C standard, and other scientists will have to compare it with Chrome to adjust it.
Also known as New Era IE6, a browser is embedded in the mobile phone WeChat. Because it uses the X5 kernel of QQ browser, and because it is deeply coupled with WeChat, it needs to call many system capabilities realized through WeChat, so some web pages must be specially adapted to WeChat.
For example, the article page of WeChat official account must be opened in WeChat browser to display or post comments. WebView window is also embedded in WeChat on PC and Mac, which can get WeChat login, comment display and other capabilities. However, attempts to use an external browser to simulate the user agent of WeChat browser often end in failure.
Microsoft is no longer Wang Ba-style, giving up its own browser research and some unique achievements, which will definitely make some nostalgic front-end developers sad.
Some "black technologies" launched in the IE6 era are still very advanced even from the present point of view. For example, IE and Office*** use a set of special effects including "blinds", and there is a special CSS writing method, which can realize gradient colors in IE and imitate the floating "window" in Windows 9x style.
Introducing the Active X control set by IE to realize the Windows update on the web page. Although there are different opinions in later generations, it does set a precedent for web pages to realize more advanced and complex program functions.
Since then, hta format based on active desktop practice, that is, using encapsulated web pages as executable programs, has also become an organic part of Windows operating system. Some function demonstration pages of Windows XP, as well as interfaces such as unpacking boot and activation wizard, are all completed by hta.
Now, it's Google's turn to set obstacles for other competitors who may affect their ecology through its browser dominance. Sometimes you can think that this refers to Microsoft.
A former intern of the Edge team once accused Google of deliberately "negatively optimizing" the Edge browser by designing its own YouTube website, which made it perform poorly on the browser.
Specifically, the intern accused YouTube of adding an empty
Giving up developing your own browser kernel should be regarded as part of Nadella's overall behavior of optimizing Microsoft's operation. After all, even Microsoft's own mobile operating system can be abandoned, and Microsoft employees can use Apple and Android phones to embrace the Linux camp. These things are done one after another, so it seems not surprising to give up a browser kernel.
For Microsoft now, giving up its own kernel development can streamline the team strength, directly use the best display effect to increase the user's goodwill, and expect the system to finally get rid of the embarrassment of "the only purpose of using it is to download Chrome".
On the other hand, there is another advantage that Windows 10 can finally fully face up to the real pain points of people who really use browsers to work.
Now, including Microsoft's own Surface, almost all thin and light versions of Windows 10 operating system emphasize battery life, such as several hours of web browsing time, which are calculated according to the existing Edge browser.
Edge's optimization for Windows may make you install a Chrome browser, and with more plug-ins, the system's memory occupation and power consumption are quite different from the nominal ones, and you feel cheated. "Chrome eats memory" has also become an enduring stalk.
Now Microsoft officially uses the Chromium kernel to help manufacturers really face up to this problem.
After the first official version of Chromium Edge comes out, if all manufacturers use the same battery capacity when launching new products, the nominal endurance of browsing the web will probably be greatly reduced.
However, this will force the operating system and OEM manufacturers to optimize the actual experience of using the Chromium kernel, and fundamentally force the gradual improvement of power-saving technology. In this way, everyone who uses Google browser or Edge browser will eventually benefit.
I also hope that this will be the best comfort for the Trident and EdgeHTML kernel independently developed by Microsoft.
Author: Shu Hang, official account of WeChat: Xingtong Society (ID:lifeissohphappy), Weibo: @ lishuhang.
The title map comes from Unsplash and is based on CC0 protocol.