[_the_inflator]

Sorry, I don't really get what's wrong with using Chromium in Edge. It is open source. Everybody can contribute or even fork the code (Blink/WebKit).

And I think Microsoft did a genius move because Edge can be now the cool browser that rocks like Chrome but without the privacy issues it offers.

This is also the problem Mozilla confronts. Year after year they urged for open source and an open web and now that Microsoft opts for it, they feel betrayed.

Put another way: the rendering engine is a commodity while the intention you use it for is the real deal.

[t0astbread]

Undoubtedly, Google controls what happens in the Chromium stack (Blink/V8). I gotta admit that I don't know if MSFT's actually using Blink or just WebKit, so idk how much power Google effectively has over that.

But either way, the platform is not really controlled by the community. Sure you can file issues and pull requests or even fork Chromium but ultimately, Google still controls what's merged into the global Chromium master, so it's not really decentralized power.

Also, you've missed the main point. The problem here isn't that we don't have enough free/open source browser engines, the problem is that we don't have enough _different_ browser engines. If there's only one dominant browser engine, then whoever maintains that engine can decide how the web works. And that's kinda scary.

[bunnycorn]

Google controls but knowing Microsoft, they'll probably pull what Google did to Apple with WebKit.

My bet is that Microsoft will offer everything that google offers, AND some more extras that google probably won't want to offer to protect their business plan.

Also, my bet is that Microsoft will make kick-ass documentation for Chromium and kick-ass developer integration with the popular VSCode so web developers will reach for that first.