Ask HN: Why doesn't MS open-source Edge instead of switching to Chromium? - zelon88
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ronsor
They may have third-party code they aren't allowed to release.

Edge isn't very portable outside of Windows, it's just the cleaned up and
refactored IE Trident engine. The same one we've technically been using for
two decades.

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qwerty456127
> it's just the cleaned up and refactored IE Trident engine. The same one
> we've technically been using for two decades.

Then why does IE still exist alongside Edge?

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happppy
because IE is still being used in some places.

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beatgammit
In some very wealthy places that don't want to change.

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happppy
I heard NASA uses IE

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nwah1
Open source contributions could ease development cost a bit, but cost isn't
the main concern. The concern is compatibility, security, and performance
which almost no amount of resources could get Edge up to par.

However, a radically new browser engine like Mozilla's Servo has a chance at
performing so well, and reducing security vulnerabilities, that it seems like
the only viable hail mary left for surpassing Chromium.

Also, these options aren't mutually exclusive. They could've decided to open
source Edge but also switch to Chromium.

It would be interesting to have the code for Edge.

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jononor
Just read his news, horrible. Only Apple and Mozilla left to try to keep a
counterbalance. If this trend keeps up, soon the web will require a
Blink/Chromium OS to run. Google already has way too much influence on the
web.

EDIT: Considering the relatively slow speed of Safari development, I would not
be surprised if they also would switch their base to Blink.

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kitsunesoba
While it’s certainly not impossible, I would be pretty shocked if Apple
dropped WebKit in favor of Blink. The entire reason Blink was forked in the
first place was Apple and Google’s differing ideas on which direction to take
the project.

Where Google favors getting new features in at a breakneck pace and sees the
browser as an OS-like platform where the developer rules supreme, Apple favors
power efficiency and sees the browser as a content portal where developers
can’t be trusted to work in favor of users. These two models are fundamentally
incompatible.

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tinus_hn
And then magically other people will start doing maintenance for free?

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qwerty456127
Perhaps, perhaps not, nevertheless why not opensource? I would just remove the
word "instead" from the question.

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snazz
They’d still need to invest a lot into it, to make it to the level that Blink
is at, and they would still be fighting the Chromium/Blink network effects
that brought us to the point we are at today. It would just be another
(technically) inferior browser engine.

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bodelecta
Surely it's just far too OS dependent?

