After spending over a year in the preview channels, Microsoft Edge for Linux has finally graduated to the Stable channel.
With this release, Microsoft Edge joins the leading browsers including Firefox and Chrome that can be used on all the major desktop and mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Users can download the Linux version of Microsoft Edge as a precompiled binary in both DEB and RPM formats, making it installable on all mainstream distros including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and many others.
Edge for Linux launch
Edge for Linux first came to Linux via the Dev channel in October 2020. After spending over six months in the Dev channel, Microsoft bumped it up to the Beta channel, before finally bringing it over to the Stable channel for general, everyday consumption.
Microsoft Edge uses the open source Chromium web rendering engine, which also powers Google Chrome and several other web browsers. In fact, Microsoft is an active contributor to the Chromium project, helping fine tune the engine.
In fact, Microsoft argues that switching to Chromium, enables the company to offer better web compatibility for users, while reducing the fragmentation for web developers, just as it did when it debuted the browser on macOS.
“This year at Ignite, Microsoft Edge continues its commitment to be the browser for business and to serve customers’ total needs, from the needs of IT Pros to developers to end-users. That means rounding out our platforms with Microsoft Edge on Linux,” notes Microsoft in a blog post.
Microsoft developers have been bringing useful features to the Edge for Linux Dev builds, and earlier this year rolled out the sign-in and sync features in a limited capacity. However, while the Linux version has graduated to the Stable channel, Microsoft hasn’t indicated whether it now sports all the features of its other variants.
