Jim Salter
Microsoft has officially ended support for the legacy Edge browser (not derived from Chromium) this week. The death of the legacy Edge was first announced in August 2020, with the end of life set for March 9, 2021 – this Tuesday.
The obsolete version of Edge, originally called Project Spartan, was developed and shipped as the default browser for Windows 10 in 2015. Unlike the current Chromium-based Edge, it did not have an upstream project – the entire browser, up to and including the rendering engine, was a design from Microsoft.
Despite being the default browser for Windows 10, Spartan has never achieved significant market share, let alone the overwhelming dominance previously enjoyed by Internet Explorer. According to GlobalStats, the legacy Edge peaked well below 2.5 percent market share – less than, for example, Opera. On the other hand, and despite its relative newborn status, the Chromium-based Edge has already reached 3.4 percent – closing at around 3.8 percent for Firefox in February 2021.
Windows Update is scheduled to automatically remove Legacy Edge on next month’s Patch Tuesday. If you have a family – or colleagues who need a little “extra support” – who still depend on Legacy Edge, it might be a good time to check on them and lend a hand before the old animal leaves for good.