You can hide the home button and favorites bar, as well as change the default font, but not much else.Īt least the dark mode, which initially could only be turned on from the edge://flags page, has now been implemented.

Unfortunately, you can’t change a whole lot about Edge’s appearance for the time being. The old Edge sidebar is gone, which is certainly not a bad thing, and it has been replaced with a Chrome-like settings page. The tab design is similar that of Chrome, but corners are a bit less rounded, reflecting the design of the browser's EdgeHTML variant. Microsoft has done its best to avoid changing the browser too much after switching to Chromium, as fans were never too critical of its UI, instead focusing on compatibility issues and missing features. Similar to Chrome, but with the same Edge feel From now on, however, these updates will always be available in the latest Chromium release, which the browser is built around. It meant more work for web developers, an additional extensions store and the inevitable compatibility issues.įor the Edge development team, it meant a lot of effort implementing new web standards, and the browser had a history of lagging behind its competition in this regard. So, at a time when the web was already built around Chromim-based browsers, Firefox and, to a lesser extent, Safari, popularizing a new browser engine was always going to be difficult. Firefox was still fairly popular, but it had been around for much longer and had the advantage of being the only mainstream open-source browser. Why Edge failed to convince users before the switch to Chromiumīy the time Edge was first released, Chrome had already become dominant in the browser war. Recently, however, the software giant has made the switch to Chromium, opening up a range of new possibilities, including cross-platform support.

Mind you, it was never all that popular, for various reasons, but by switching to Chromium and its Blink engine, Microsoft can now bring the browser to multiple platforms, including macOS.įor a long time, Edge relied on Microsoft’s proprietary EdgeHTML engine, which brought about issues for its development team, web developers and users. While Windows users are all too familiar with Microsoft Edge, given that it's the operating system’s default browser, Mac users have likely never tried it.

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