If true, this really is an interesting move, and one that ought to make us think carefully about the implications.

It could mean the end of browser-wars, as far as the rendering engine is concerned. The browser war itself is over.

The latest public stats indicate IE/Edge at 4.0%, with Chrome at 79.6%
[w3schools.com...]

I don't find Edge that bad, I tend to use Chrome & Edge at work and Edge at home. So far it does all that I ask of it.

Specifically at work I use Edge for working with Bing Ads and Chrome for Google Ads. :-)

Telling

So Microsoft presumably throws in the towel every time something doesn't work out? -- Seems to be a trend.

I think I might have only used Edge twice? Maybe 3 times? -- Not bragging at all by any stretch, but I just never saw the need for it. The only reason why a Microsoft browser, any Microsoft browser, stayed in the game so long was because it was bundled with the OS -- Once you are forced to compete, a new light is shed on the quality of the product. Microsoft has gotten so wrapped up in itself, so self absorbed ... that the internet world just sort of blew right on by. Microsoft's echo chamber on their product(s) hasn't served them well at all it seems. Funny how it all works out at the end of the day.

I'm not really a big Chrome fan either, but I can pretty much guarantee that it's gotten more mileage on our boxes than Edge has - Microsoft comes out with a new and improved browser, and we just roll our eyes and go, "Oh, another browser, how nice" - all the while thinking about Vista, ME, and that phone thing of theirs.

So Microsoft gives up (allegedly) ... Opera gave up too as I recall - It's not really the end of the world. The real tragedy, if you can even call it that, is that nobody seems to think that there could ever be a better rendering engine -- We've sort of gotten to the point of "peak rendering engine" -- And the fact that Microsoft has been snuggling up so close to Linux these days also points to the very real possibility that we've gotten to "peak operating system" as well.

Microsoft products, like say their "operating system" for instance, might win the day in the future if someone in Redmond one day woke up and decided to clean up their code -- You can't have the best and the brightest if your builds are still littered with elements of Windows 95 - Yes ... Windows still retains some fairly ancient writes as it relates to their operating system. I'm guessing that their browser suffers from the same old shortcut mentality.

You can't have any kind of true innovation if all you do is sit around thinking up ways to do end run's around code that should have been shelved 20 years ago.

I never used Edge apart from a trial. If you have Google Chrome why use Edge?

I primarily use Firefox, followed by Chrome, IE 11 then Opera. For me each have their own special assignments.

IE 11 for search because with it I can highlight any text on a page which then instantly appears in the Google Toolbar.

I do not think anyone would accuse me of being an MS fan, but this is terrible news if it is trye. We need multiple browser engines. A monoculture is never good.

Amazing though that LGPL licensed code that started out as the HTML renderer for the KDE desktop will end up in Windows.

Amazing though that LGPL licensed code that started out as the HTML renderer for the KDE desktop will end up in Windows.

Indeed ... Interesting times we live in.

The real question is if the change will still remain MS centric or if there is a back room deal going on between tech giants?

(note, MS just reached #2 in value ... just behind Apple)

Wanna bet these big boys are plotting behind the scenes? (Not Conspiracy Stuff ... just common sense!) Why? Ask the railroads back in the 1800s when the Feds came and busted them up. Or AT&T... The more this goes around the more it comes around.

Dropping innovation for "common compliance" is the first warning sign.

Me? Never used Edge all that much so for me personally is not a loss. Just sad to see it go in that, like others above have said, there's something to be said about competition and innovation.

And then there's this --

Microsoft will give the U.S. military access to 'all the technology we create'

Microsoft is “going to provide the U.S. military with access to the best technology … all the technology we create. Full stop,” Brad Smith said Saturday during a panel at the Reagan National Defence Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

[latimes.com...]

Could be something, could be nothing

I know it's a bit off-topic with regard to the browser, but along with it, and Microsoft getting after Github recently, I'm thinking that there might be more going on with Microsoft that just browsers and open source software --