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Microsoft Edge comes to Linux in October as a preview

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That's right, no need to wipe your glasses as that's a real headline here. Microsoft are bringing their Microsoft Edge browser to Linux in October.

Not a huge surprise, as this was already confirmed previously but having a launch month is the next step. Writing on the Windows Experience Blog, Liat Ben-Zur, Corporate Vice President confirmed the Linux launch plan:

Our mission to bring Microsoft Edge to the platforms our customers use daily takes its next step: starting in October, Microsoft Edge on Linux will be available to download on the Dev preview channel. When it’s available, Linux users can go to the Microsoft Edge Insiders site to download the preview channel, or they can download it from the native Linux package manager. And just like other platforms, we always appreciate feedback—it’s the best way to serve our customers.

What's not entirely clear is what they mean by the native Linux package manager, since there's a few. Most likely though, since they (like a lot of others) target Ubuntu directly, they might mean the Snap Store.

All of this is as Microsoft appear to continue treating Linux less like a hostile target, and more like something to take advantage of themselves. Linux has ended up being a big part of Microsoft, from integrating it into Windows with Windows Subsystem for Linux and Linux is a popular and supported choice by Microsoft on their cloud Azure platform too. Heck, they even admitted they were 'on the wrong side of history when open source exploded'.

It's going to be a bit of a hot topic, and I'm sort of dreading asking this because the comments will be quite colourful but here we go anyway: will you use it and what do you think of Microsoft getting certain applications on Linux?

Personally, I am all for it. A key part of the computing experience is having access to the applications you like and want to use, even if it's a browser with a few key differences - it all adds up. The more Linux gets, the better.

Note: this is actually not the first modern Microsoft application to arrive on Linux, as Microsoft Teams became available on Linux late last year. There's also Visual Studio Code and Skype too which have been on Linux for some time now.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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pb Sep 22, 2020
I think it's just another step closer to Linux(kernel)-based Windows. They'll keep porting stuff so the future inevitable switch is easier.
Donkey Sep 22, 2020
I will probably install it as an additional test option for web development. It will be interesting to see if it will have any special features compared to Chrome and Firefox.
peta77 Sep 22, 2020
i'm very happy with all the possibilities and the privacy options i have with firefox (or torbrowser on web-sites that don't block it), so i don't see any reason to switch (i don't use netflix or something else that requires edge)... but it's actually something good for linux when more applications, even from microsoft, get ported to linux.. that should increase its relevance and could make it more attractive to other users who are not happy with ms windows as it lowers the bar for switching with more of the known environment becoming available, so not much gets lost.. hopefully other big software companies join in soon to port their stuff, that could give linux a real boost...
Luticus Sep 22, 2020
Microsoft's data collection and telemetry would prevent me from using it as my main browser. I might would jail it and use it for work if there was something that worked in it but not elsewhere. I am happy to see it come to Linux though, more software is always better. I think the native package manager thing would be like apt or yum, but not snap, flatpak, or other universal package types. Who knows, maybe they'll target those too, but I always prefer stuff that uses native .deb packages.
x_wing Sep 22, 2020
Wake me up when they release office.
Kimyrielle Sep 22, 2020
MS has definitely become a bit less hostile since Ballmer is out, but it's still a big corporation and thus, evil. Do I personally want it? No. However, I can appreciate that it would appeal to corporations and schools, who as we all know usually install everything Microsoft without ever questioning it, just because everybody else does. As others have pointed out above, it will be a browser that Office will be guaranteed to run in, so that's one obstacle against Linux on the client out of the way.

It's therefore good news.
peta77 Sep 22, 2020
Quoting: AwesamLinuxI believe the main purpose of this browser is to ensure that the Office 365 suite has a browser they can test against, and guarantee the service works with. Large enterprise customers demand solutions that are cross-platform as they have often mixed environments. So the browser could perhaps be a good thing, maybe a sign of Microsoft moving towards providing platform agnostic services/software rather than forcing Windows down everyone's throats
office 365 works without any problems with firefox on linux... we have it at work and i didn't have any problems yet (ok, i still use thunderbird and libreoffice most of the time)...

but maybe they intend to add additional stuff which then only will work with their browser but they don't want to anger the linux business users; they can then just say: "use our browser, it's also available on linux, everything else is rubbish anyway"... that would be the pessimistic outlook...
Kimyrielle Sep 22, 2020
Quoting: x_wingWake me up when they release office.

Unlikely. MS wants everybody to use Office 365 anyway, and is very likely to make local versions less and less desirable over time, until the elbowed everybody into their cloud. The last thing they're likely going to do is add new platforms to stand-alone office.
peta77 Sep 22, 2020
Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: x_wingWake me up when they release office.

Unlikely. MS wants everybody to use Office 365 anyway, and is very likely to make local versions less and less desirable over time, until the elbowed everybody into their cloud. The last thing they're likely going to do is add new platforms to stand-alone office.

Didn't they already announce there'd be no further standalone versions? Or somewhere in the near future. That's going to be a wonderful time for people when required to store everything in the cloud. Especially considering a newspaper article I recently read, where they reported on how quite a few Microsoft cloud accounts got suddenly disabled without any notice or explanation and people had a hard time to get them re-enabled to get back access to their personal stuff (of which they of course didn't make a backup somewhere else as cloud storage is super-safe). Seems that they are using some kind of bot / AI to make such decisions. And decisions those things make are still rather questionable, depending on the learning process.
pete910 Sep 22, 2020
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