Microsoft announced that their latest rendering engine, EdgeHTML 13 is rolling out to users as part of the first large-scale Windows 10 update.
In a blog post, Edge Program Manager Kyle Pflug says that the updated rendering engine has a score of 458 out of a possible 555 points at HTML5Test. While this is good compared to EdgeHTML 12 (402), it still lags behind other browsers such as Chrome 46 on Windows (526) and Firefox 42 on Windows (468).
The new engine adds a number of features such as:
- input
type=time <template>element<meter>element<picture>element- CSS initial keyword
Unlike other browser rendering engines, EdgeHTML 13 is responsible for more than just the in-browser rendering experience. It also handles rendering HTML/CSS apps for the Universal Windows Platform on Windows 10. With this release, Microsoft has shown they can increase the release cadence of the browser, but the double-duty for EdgeHTML 13 means that Edge likely will not get updated as frequently as Chrome or Firefox.
Developers and users can enroll in the Windows Insider Program to get access to the latest builds, but Pflug says that most of the Edge updates will come along with updates to Windows 10:
We do have the ability to service features via Windows Update without a full release of Windows (for example, we shipped our alert trap mitigation to Windows 10 users back in September), but in general at this time we expect to align major platform updates to the Windows release cadence, which allows us to leverage the Insider program for rapid release and stabilization of new features (often within days of checking in to internal builds).
Along with the updated rendering engine, the Windows 10 update bumps Edge (the actual browser) to version 25. Developers can follow along with the changes at the Microsoft Edge changelog.
Many responses were positive about the move. On reddit, user Vheissu_ was pleased with the way Microsoft has involved the community:
I am really impressed with how Microsoft has been handling Edge support for newer ECMAScript and Web specification features. The community model in which people can vote for features that matter most to them seems to be really working (I voted for the template element which recently went in).
