Socrates once suggested that the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. While I am by no means an expert on ancient Greek philosophers, I have taken Socrates’ words to mean something slightly different. I believe true wisdom is knowing when what you know, and have put to practice, no longer holds true, and at that point, one should accept this notion and seek out knowledge to correct one’s misunderstanding. In the simplest of terms, fail forward. Take your mistakes in stride and correct them on the second, third, or however many tries you’ve attempted thus far. Several years ago, Microsoft (MSFT) felt the need to stay relevant in the internet browser space, given that most computer users had switched to Google Chrome, the sleek, easy-to-use browser developed by the world’s favorite search engine. The brains responsible for the archaic Internet Explorer brand concocted a new, hip browser called Microsoft Edge.
Edge was all things a web browser should be; simple to use, a pleasant user interface, not too many overbearing bells and whistles. Alas, no matter how hard Microsoft (MSFT) tried, Edge just wasn’t catching on. According to the U.S. Government’s Digital Analytics Program (DAP), over the course of the last six months, Microsoft Edge’s browser usage has dropped below its predecessor, Internet Explorer.
Microsoft Edge hasn’t gained significant traction since the appeal of the browser first wore off in the months following its 2015 release. In the last few weeks, rumors have spread that Microsoft Edge’s developers are bailing on EdgeHTML, the rendering engine that powers the subpar browser, and building out an entirely new web browser powered by Chromium, the same platform that power’s Google (GOOGL) Chrome. According to TechCrunch, Microsoft expects to release a first developer preview of the new browser sometime next year.
Microsoft announced their plans to scrap Edge, and start fresh, in a blog post on the company website:
“For the past few years, Microsoft has meaningfully increased participation in the open source software (OSS) community, becoming one of the world’s largest supporters of OSS projects. Today we’re announcing that we intend to adopt the Chromium open source project in the development of Microsoft Edge on the desktop to create better web compatibility for our customers and less fragmentation the web for all web developers.”
–Blog Post Regarding Future of Microsoft Edge
Touching on Microsoft’s (MSFT) foray into the OSS community, the company has shown tremendous promise in the market over the past few months. At the tail end of October, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that it had finalized plans to snag GitHub, the SF-based collaborative platform built for developers around the world to share code, discover innovative approaches to solving issues and, ultimately, develop better software for consumers, for $7.5 billion in stock options. The acquisition was meant to show the industry that, after years of evading and shutting down open-source software and programs, Microsoft (MSFT) decided it was high time to join the party.
With Microsoft’s (MSFT) utilization of the Chromium platform for developing their new browser comes with the understanding that the company will increase its involvement in the OSS space, and not simply feed off the success of Google’s (GOOGL) open-source platform. In an effort to extend the reach of the new Microsoft Edge release, Microsoft (MSFT) plans on optimizing the browser to it can be used on Apple’s (AAPL) MacOS operating system. Assuming the rollout of the browser ends up successful, it will be Microsoft’s (MSFT) first web browser on Mac since Internet Explorer for Mac in June 2003, according to several sources.
“Microsoft Edge will now be delivered and updated for all supported versions of Windows and on a more frequent cadence. We also expect this work to enable us to bring Microsoft Edge to other platforms like macOS.”
–Microsoft Announcement Regarding Microsoft Edge
