Microsoft Say Edge May Come to Linux “Eventually”

When Microsoft announced it was switching the foundations of its home-grown Edge browser to a Chromium base we asked if it might allow the app to come to Linux.

Microsoft stated that it is going to switch base for its home-grown Edge browser to a Chromium base so that it can be supported by Linux.

The first (Windows-only for now) development build of Chromium-powered Edge was made available to download this week. Also, a version that is compatible with macOS is expected to come ‘very soon’.

While the speculation about the 'Edge-Linux connect' was building up, Microsoft’s Kyle Pflug responded to the question on Twitter. He said that a Linux build is something the Edge team would “like to do eventually” but they ‘can’t commit to Linux just yet’.

If noted, the answer is not a 'flat out no' but hints a possibility. But the question now is how likely it is to be done?

It is to be noted that almost all the Chromium-based web-browsers like Google Chrome, Vivaldi and Opera are available across Windows, macOS, and Linux. So Edge could also follow the same path as the other Chromium-based browsers.

To this end, they plan to make major changes and add new features to the browser, ranging from PDF viewer improvements, better battery and resource usage, enhanced web standards, smooth scrolling, and ARM64 support.

Microsoft says they switched to using Chromium to pursue their (somewhat noble) aim of improving web compatibility, reducing fragmentation, and improving the user experience. If Edge gets a Linux touch-up, it may still retain some Windows-specific replaced parts.

Making Edge compatible on Linux would help web developers working on Linux as they no longer need to keep a Windows VM when working on it.