When it was revealed that Chrome would ship without a Google-designed browser toolbar, the Internet lit up with debate. Will Google die with its inability to provide a useful browser for the masses? Will Mozilla/Thunderbird take a dive, left for dead with Microsoft taking the throne of the open Web?
Last year, Google faced allegations of allowing its Chrome browser to be customized without users’ knowledge. Although the company ended up settling the case for $22 million in December, the details weren’t clear about how the company determined the cosmetic changes.
The implications of one such in-browser mod are huge. While manufacturers like Samsung and Acer are frequently criticized for not limiting their OSes to only running on Windows, it’s always disappointing to see them do the same with Windows. And some people certainly don’t want them to.
Microsoft surprised the world in late September when it unveiled Windows 10, an OS that replaces the icons on the familiar Start menu and in the folders that come with every version of Windows ever made. While Microsoft executives will remain mum on how Windows 10 will differ from the previous versions of Windows, a curious subset of Windows 7 and Windows 8 users are already finding that there’s one place where they’ll be kept in the loop: Microsoft’s built-in browser called Edge.
In the leaked photos that Microsoft was willing to share on Thursday, Edge looks like Chrome in some photos, but that doesn’t mean it will run the same.
