It has been some time since Microsoft decided to use Chromium as the base for their own web Edge browser. Until now Edge browser (Chromium based) was available only for Windows and macOS, but now Microsoft has announced a version for Linux as well. The version for Linux is still at the development stage after which it will be shifted to the beta mode before finally being pushed to the release stage after which it can be called stable and safe to use.
Nevertheless, you can install Microsoft’s Edge browser on your Linux computer very easily without waiting for the stable release. It is very easy to install on Debian based Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Mint. Here is how it can be installed:
- Visit https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/ to download Microsoft Edge browser for Linux. You have to select the Dev channel and then choose either DEB or RPM packages depending your Linux distribution. In case of Ubuntu or Mint Linux, you have to download the DEB package. In case of Fedora or OpenSUSE, you can select the RPM package.
- Double-click on the downloaded DEB/RPM file and you will see the package installer window in which you have to click on the Install Package button. You may have to enter the administrator/root password to proceed with the installation.
- After the installation, you can launch Microsoft Edge browser from the system menu. In case of Mint Linux, you can find it under the Linux Mint Menu’s Internet section.
We installed Microsoft Edge browser version 88 for Linux on our PC running Mint Linux version 19.3. We has no problem installing or using this web browser. Installation was fairly easy and all the requirements were already satisfied without downloading any more files from the server. The Linux version of Edge browser looks and works exactly the same as its Windows counterpart.