The day has come, Microsoft have officially made their own web browser available on Linux in preview. Microsoft Edge on Linux, what a time to be alive.
While it's currently only in a preview form, this now makes Microsoft Edge available for all major desktop and mobile platforms. Microsoft said in the announcement they will be keeping the Linux version up to date in the developer channel, exactly the same as they do for macOS and Windows. Currently, they're supporting Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE distributions. However, as expected, Arch Linux already has it up in the user repository.
Microsoft noted that the majority of features are in and should behave the same as macOS and Windows. However, the initial release only supports local accounts and does not support online sign in with a Microsoft Account or AAD account and so there's no syncing yet. They said they will be coming in a later preview.
I decided to take if for a spin for a while, take some shots and see what all the fuss is about. Here's the initial setup screens:
As a reminder, this is not the first Microsoft application to be put onto Linux. Technically Skype came way before, although that was available for Linux before the Microsoft buyout. Microsoft Teams is also available for Linux, and has been since late 2019. Still, it's a remarkable change for Microsoft overall, who were once seriously hostile to the open source community. Most of that is history now, lessons clearly learned in some places. Microsoft now love Linux right?
See the full post here.
In other Microsoft-related news, Microsoft opened up their Windows calculator application back in early 2019. Now, developers from Uno Platform have ported that over to Linux too because why the heck not. You can grab that from the Snap store if you want to try it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: KonUno Calculator has added telemetry not present in the Microsoft source code. That's a plenty good reason not to use it.
What telemetry has UNO added? not that I was going to use it, but am curious.
Quoting: RaabenQuoting: stud68Tested on Arch here and still no 4K Netflix. Only running at 720p.
Oh well back to trusty Firefox. Not that I was ever gonna leave.
This was the only thing I might have been interested in. Ah well, back to not caring about MS products.
Same for me, that would be the only thing I would use it for.
Quoting: The_AquabatQuoting: EikeQuoting: spayder26Microsoft IE/Edge/Whatever-is-called-tomorrow serves a purpose, and it probably isn't any good for Internet openness or user freedom.
If it had its own browser engine, it actually might have been that, considering Google's dominance in browsers...
isn't it a fork of Chromium?
Yes, it's some Chrom* stuff, that's why I said if it had its own...
Also, windows calc on Linux? Why would you want that piece of garbage when the basic calc on Linux is so much better!
> Makes Edge available (strategy tactic I bet)
> DX12 made available for WSL but not for Linux and continues pushing it on developers
Their love for linux managed to warm 0.5/1000 of my cold penguin heart
Last edited by Linuxwarper on 21 October 2020 at 1:40 pm UTC
aristorias Oct 21, 2020
Quoting: g000hFinally we're here - The Year of the Linux Desktop. Microsoft have finally realised and they're porting their main applications ready for the transition.
Call me paranoid, but I am not entirely sure what the actual strategy behind this is and if it's desirable ...
Quoting: Schattenspiegelacquire Canonical or at least the snapstore to become the gatekeeper for all Linux software distribution
I've speculated that they'd buy at least a chunk of Canonical at some point ever since there were IPO rumors in 2017, I'm just not sure about when. They seem to be more and more aligned so it wouldn't surprise me.
Last edited by psy-q on 21 October 2020 at 5:47 pm UTC
ShinyaOsen Oct 21, 2020
Quoting: ShinyaOsenIE mode not available which was to only thing i wanted for this release hope they'll add it.
Even on macOS is not available. Seriously, a lot of govern websites on my country only work in IE so i was quite excited to use IE mode on linux
slaapliedje Oct 21, 2020
Quoting: EikeIs that what they call Common Core? :PQuoteIn other Microsoft-related news, Microsoft opened up their Windows calculator application back in early 2019. Now, developers from Uno Platform have ported that over to Linux too because why the heck not. You can grab that from the Snap store if you want to try it.
That's the one that still doesn't do multiplications before additions by default. Why the heck not?
2020 has been a weird year, that's all I can say...
TheRiddick Oct 21, 2020
Quoting: rustybroomhandlePart of a process by Microsoft to shift some of their stuff to be based on open source projects. A cost cutting measure that some suspect may eventually extend to their operating system, another source of money-bleed.
Hmm, and people think its impossible for MS to port Windows over to Linux.
Seems like there is a pretty big incentive for Microsoft to eventually adopt a Linux Kernel backend to their windows platform, and that is open-source and the fact you'd end up with free bug reporting and fixing from the community whereas atm MS has to front up allot of money still to build their windows platform and keep it working, by themselves.
I doubt this will happen anytime soon however, it's more likely we will see a Linux Distro spin from Microsoft where it slowly gets native DLL support and other things until one day it just works like windows10.
Quoting: gustavoyaraujoWell, it can be faster and blablabla, but what makes me still prefer Firefox is the fact that they care about privacy and security more than others. I want to use a web browser that makes my experience safe, I don't care about fancy stuff and some few miliseconds when loading a webpage
wvstolzing Oct 21, 2020
Quoting: TheRiddickI doubt this will happen anytime soon however, it's more likely we will see a Linux Distro spin from Microsoft where it slowly gets native DLL support and other things until one day it just works like windows10.
On a barely related note, there's this project for a library that would allow calling functions from windows dlls from Linux natively: https://github.com/taviso/loadlibrary
(When I found out about this I was excited for a moment, that I might be able to circumvent ancient DRM that keeps me from using the damn product I've already paid for years ago .... but then I realized I'm way out of my depth.)
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