Windows 10 includes a new web browser. It’s called Edge and it’s built for the modern web, whose content is much closer to full-fledged applications than to a large library of static, text-filled pages. Its creators are open to new standards and suggestions from web developers. It is to bring new features every month. The same version is compiled for both x86 and x86-64 processors and ARM, so the same browser runs on both desktop computers and phones.
Where does the name come from?
Microsoft Edge is technically another version of Internet Explorer, but it’s not called Internet Explorer 12, but Microsoft Edge. The name Edge is nothing new. Edge has always been the designation for IE’s latest rendering mode. Putting the name Microsoft at the beginning of the name is a requirement of the marketing department. While Apple was building one strong brand, at Microsoft, each division was building its own brands – Windows, Office, Xbox, MSN and, more recently, Bing and Skype. Interestingly, while every iPhone owner immediately answers that Apple when asked who made it, few Windows OS owners immediately think of Microsoft. It’s good that Microsoft is aware of this and is doing something about it. Another reason why Edge is that it starts with the letter E. Edge may have only a slightly modified logo. For many people around the world, the blue E is the symbol of the Internet. Changing the logo would be just as reckless as removing the Start menu.
Unusual development
Edge was developed under the code name Spartan. First, IE was bifurcated into two separate branches. One branch for IE will continue to be maintained for corporate customers who have built their intranet applications on it. The second branch for Edge has undergone a significant modernization. In particular, it was the implementation of the DOM (Document Object Model), the foundations of which were 20 years old. The 6 rendering modes that provided backward compatibility (with websites written for Netscape Navigator) have been removed, and over 300 application interfaces have been removed, especially ActiveX and BHO (Browser Helper Object). VBScript support has disappeared for good. In total, over 220 thousand lines of code were removed. This reduction has allowed for faster and better implementation of the new standards. For example, the implementation of all standards from Web Components takes twice as much time.
The DOM implementation is undergoing a complete reorganization of the architecture, which reflects today’s form of the web, not the web that was here 20 years ago. Over 3,000 rendering flaws have been fixed and over 45 new standards have been added, such as HTTP/2. ES6 support is well advanced.
Unified core and universal browser
Not so long ago, Internet Explorer was not one (I don't mean different version numbers, but entire development branches), but there was a separate branch for Windows, a separate fork for Windows Phone, and an extra direction for Xbox (which could only be launched with the Xbox Live Gold membership, which was for a monthly fee). And there were also 2 versions of the user interface. One for the Desktop (classic Desktop) and the other for the Modern User Interface (also known as Metro).
With Windows 10 comes a new era that Microsoft has been working on for many years. After the unification of the Windows and Windows Server kernels (with Windows Vista), the Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone cores were unified (with Windows 8). Now (with Windows 10) the Windows kernel and Windows Embedded have been unified. This enabled the creation of a unified platform – UWP (Universal Windows Platform). The Edge core is part of it and provides HTML rendering with CSS and a runtime environment for JavaScript. The Edge UI is otherwise a common universal application built on this platform. By having the same Windows 10 run on a PC as well as a tablet, phone or Xbox, Edge will be the same on all these devices.
More frequent updates
Opera, Firefox, and Chrome are getting support for the new standards in smaller batches and much more often than Internet Explorer. It is updated via Windows Update every month, but these are mainly security patches. New features were added with the new version, which was released about once every 2 years. Recently, things have started to change. IE 11 added support for HSTS this year, and WebGL support was improved a year ago without upgrading the major version. However, this pace was still not enough.
The release of the browser, as well as any other highly complex piece of software, is not hampered by the fact that the entire source code for all modifications can be compiled only once in a long time. That was the case with Windows Vista. The biggest problem is the need to test whether or not the new browser build is reliable and compatible enough.
Microsoft has a separate laboratory for measuring reliability. The compatibility comparison was based on 9,000 of the most visited websites. However, this solution did not work. The web has 44 billion web pages, and the browser should be compatible with most of them. Instead, Bing was used. When browsing the web, it looks for code patterns that are most commonly used. Correct interpretation of the formulas by the browser then guarantees compatibility with many pages. In addition, compatibility can be evaluated much faster. To give you an idea, the robot visits millions of URLs a day, trillions a month.
The understanding of the correct implementation of the standard in the browser has changed. What is correct is not what is according to the specification, but what works on multiple sites. The specification is supposed to be based on what the developers use. The speculative concept of development has turned into a pragmatic one.
Forget about the second Tuesdays of the month. From the beginning of the launch of Windows 10, updates will have a weekly cadence. Over time, the dosage of the novelties should stabilize at a monthly interval.
Greater openness to developers
With Edge, you know what things are currently being worked on. Not only does Microsoft maintain a list of standards with their implementation stage, but an about:flags tab has also been added, where you can turn on experimental features. One of them is, for example , asm.js. This will make it easy to find out what new will appear in the future and what techniques you can focus on. And if you don't know where to start, you can find the main developer portal at dev.modern.ie.