Microsoft releases Microsoft Edge Preview for Linux

[harlan4096]

When Microsoft unveiled the Chromium-based Edge browser some time ago, it surprised many by revealing that the browser would not be Windows 10 exclusive. The classic version of Edge was released only for the company's Windows 10 operating system; the new Edge for previous versions of Windows -- even Windows 7 which at the time of official release was already out of official (consumer) support. Microsoft did not leave it at that either, as it released Edge for Mac OS X and promised to release a version for Linux as well.

Today, after 10 months of general stable availability for Windows and Mac OS X devices, the first version of Microsoft Edge has been released for Linux. The Linux version of Microsoft Edge is released as a development version; it is not stable and should not be used in production environments at the time of writing.

The release supports Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSUSE distributions according to Microsoft. Microsoft plans to release weekly builds of Edge for Linux and a stable version eventually. Nothing has been revealed as to when the first stable version of Edge for Linux will become available.

Some features of other Edge versions are not available on Linux at the time of writing. Microsoft mentions in particular that Linux versions of Edge support local accounts only; in other words: Microsoft Account sign-ins or Azure Active Directory are not support yet, and so are not features that rely on them such as the built-in sync functionality. Microsoft promises that these features will become available at a later point in time.

As far as installation is concerned, Microsoft is providing .deb and .rpm packages on the company's Microsoft Edge Insider site. Just scroll down on the site and click on the Linux (.deb) or Linux (.rpm) download buttons on the page to download the packages to the local system.

Microsoft published instructions on installing Microsoft Edge using the Microsoft Linux Software Repository and the Linux distribution's standard package management tool. A test installation on a Linux Mint system completed without any issues.

Linux users who run into issues may use the Send Feedback tool that is built-in to report these issues to Microsoft.

Now you: Microsoft Edge for Linux, will you use it?
...

Continue Reading