Microsoft Edge Won’t Be Open Source, at Least Not Yet

It is not a secret that Microsoft is venturing more and more into the world of open source software and about a month ago a Microsoft executive even said that a full open source windows would be a definite possibility. But Microsoft’s new browser doesn’t follow that scheme and won’t be open source, at least not yet.

Microsoft dubbed their new browser Edge and gave the Internet Explorer icon an overhaul, but neither of the two impressed users or press. Microsoft is being accused of sticking too much to the old and not daring to venture too far away from the known realms. Previously, the industry speculated that Microsoft could base their browser on the same open-source WebKit engine that Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers are built on, but we’ve now learned that this won’t be the case.

“At this time, we don’t plan to open-source Microsoft Edge or its platform components,” Microsoft declared in a statement. “We understand and value the importance about being more open with our roadmap and our core technologies. To that end, we’ve launched Microsoft Edge Platform Status for communicating our roadmap”

So while Microsoft has opened up over 1000 projects on GitHub, neither Windows nor their new Edge browser will be among them for some time. Nothing is ruled out for the future and Microsoft said that one of the first discussion they have about every product is whether to go open source or not. So it is a big a concern to them, they just haven’t found the golden middle way between the two worlds yet.