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.
Microsoft IE/Edge/Whatever-is-called-tomorrow serves a purpose, and it probably isn't any good for Internet openness or user freedom.
I've also learnt today that Far Manager is available on Linux too as far2l.
"You already have Mozilla Firefox - the safer, faster browser for Linux"
warning message?
Quoting: 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.
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.
I await with baited breath for PlayReady DRM alternative.
I'm just to lazy to switch the TV to another channel.
Quoting: rustybroomhandle1. Port Azure management tools run on Linux as well as WSL
2. Port core MS applications and services to Linux
3. Release MS Enterprise Linux focused on system administration
4. Keep porting MS applications to Linux
5. Launch MS Linux for regular users
6. Roll out above on dedicated small devices
7. Replace MS Windows with MS Linux entirely
8. Lay off loads of people
9. Profit
Insert:
4.b ) try to secretly push the snapstore to become THE standard software distribution method on Linux
c ) acquire Canonical or at least the snapstore to become the gatekeeper for all Linux software distribution
;-)
Last edited by Schattenspiegel on 21 October 2020 at 11:45 am UTC
Quoting: TheRiddickis this not just chrome?
It is basically, yes. Chromium, but with integrated Microsoft services instead of Google integrated services.
Part 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.
Quoting: 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...
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