November 3, 2021

After one year of availability in the Dev and Beta channels and almost two years of stable channel availability for Windows and macOS, Microsoft recently launched the first stable version of the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser for Linux.

The new Microsoft Edge has become the second most popular desktop browser after Google Chrome and overtook Mozilla Firefox in April this year.

Being Chromium-based, Microsoft Edge has the advantage of giving users access to all Chrome Web Store extensions, including the same compatibility and performance as Google Chrome.

The Linux version of Edge is compatible with most major distributions, with Microsoft having both .deb and .rpm installers on its download page. In addition, the browser can also be installed from the user’s command line or preferred package manager.

Linux users who also use Windows for work should have a version of the browser that can sync data back and forth. Linux version of Edge does not have Internet Explorer and Mac OS compatibility mode, which many companies use to update outdated internal web pages.

Another advantage of Edge is its compatibility with most of the Chrome extension ecosystem without being tied to Google’s services or data harvesting mechanisms. In addition, it also provides more robust tracking and privacy controls as well as more expansive cross-platform compatibility.

There are two ways to use Microsoft Edge on Linux: you can download it from the official Edge site or from Redmond’s Linux software repository.

For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.