Microsoft is developing a new web browser around Chromium, the same open-source strain Google uses for Chrome, says WindowsCentral. According to the site’s sources, the publisher has decided to drop EdgeHTML, the engine currently used in Edge and which it has been using since 2015 in Windows 10.

This engine has never been able to convince or get Edge to take off against its competitors. According to Net MarketShare statements, Edge has a 4.2% market share on desktop PCs. It is not far ahead of Safari, which can only express itself on Mac (3.8%) and still behind Internet Explorer 11 (8.9%), Firefox (10%) and Chrome, which dominates with its head and shoulders (63.6%).

The code name of this next software that will become the default browser for Windows 10 is named after a Californian city: Anaheim.

Recently, two Microsoft developers had been seen contributing to the development of Chromium, but this had been interpreted as assistance in porting Google’s browser, Chrome, to a native version for Windows 10 on an ARM.

Microsoft is not in uncharted territory; it had already made this effort to run Edge on another engine than its own when it launched the Android and iOS versions of the browser a year ago.

This has of course nothing to do with the infamous Chromium malware that appeared lately :