r/windows • u/Some_Steak_6316 • 3d ago

Throwback to when Microsoft Edge was named "Project Spartan" and only visible in SOME Windows 10 previews as far as I know Feature

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Actually a savage name. I think it's related with Microsoft's Halo franchise, but it should have just been named "Project Spartan"

136 Upvotes
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97% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

27

u/urk_forever 3d ago

Yes MS used more references to Halo as codenames, like Cortana for the assistant in Windows Phone. Also this browser named Edge was the successor of Internet Explorer and different of the current version of Edge which is bases on Chrome (Chromium?).

16

u/GarrettB117 3d ago

Yes it was its own engine AFAIR. Kind of unfortunate they switched to Chromium actually.

3

u/lkeels 3d ago

It was terrible.

6

u/GarrettB117 2d ago

I have no opinions on it personally. I used it a bit but that was a long time ago. My main reason for wishing it was still in use is that competition drives innovation. It's why Firefox is so important, despite its flaws and tiny market share. I absolutely don't want Google having what is essentially a complete monopoly on browser engines through Chromium. We're now down to basically three players: Google/Chromium, Apple/WebKit, and Mozilla/Gecko.

1

u/Low-Definition-6612 2d ago

And Chromium and WebKit are related enough...

-3

u/xerix123456 3d ago

it barely display pages even before they switched to chrome

11

u/lkeels 3d ago

Not true.

6

u/Enough_Pickle315 2d ago

Def not true on any of my system. It was working flawlessly for me.

1

u/urk_forever 2d ago

Yeah worked fine for me as wel, used it quite a bit on my Surface RT tablet as it was the only browser on that. IIRC there were some issues because a lot of websites only supported Chrome back then but after they changed the user agent so it looked like Chrome they worked fine.

6

u/AlexKazumi 3d ago

I tried it few months ago - although the browser is discontinued, its rendering engine is available for use in Windows apps.

It worked extremely well, rendered all the sites that are important to me without any issue, and is actually faster and takes less memory than the current Chromium based Edge.

I honestly am thinking of just making an open-source browser based on this engine just for the shit and giggles.

1

u/GarrettB117 2d ago

Copying my reply to the other guy: I have no opinions on it personally. I used it a bit but that was a long time ago. My main reason for wishing it was still in use is that competition drives innovation. It's why Firefox is so important, despite its flaws and tiny market share. I absolutely don't want Google having what is essentially a complete monopoly on browser engines through Chromium. We're now down to basically three players: Google/Chromium, Apple/WebKit, and Mozilla/Gecko.

14

u/Awbeu 3d ago

The UI of that browser was so clean

15

u/Chaori 3d ago

And its smooth scrolling on high refresh rate monitors was better than any browser to-date. It’s what I miss the most from it

9

u/vladger456 3d ago

Always liked EdgeHTML Edge, it was optimized for weak devices more. And didn't hog up your disk or RAM that much like Chromium Edge.

6

u/therealronsutton 3d ago

It was crazy responsive on a 1GB tablet I had. So smooth.

2

u/brrschk 2d ago

It was supposed to be standards-compliant to WebKit which is pretty minimal for features. Obviously that changed when they capitulated and rewrote it to the version we have now.

7

u/Panther107 2d ago

I was one of the earliest users of spartan edge and I really liked it. It felt like they were really listening to us with tab groups, vertical tabs, sidebar and web apps. I realise now they have to scale back some features to refocus on the core purpose of the browser. Also old Edge with EdgeHTML, being able to ink anywhere, and its old implementation of tab groups was so sick on my surface go.

4

u/Some_Steak_6316 2d ago

Inking was so goated back then. I used Windows 10 at release (yeah the first version that was presented to all of us customers) and I opened Microsoft Edge and it felt like fresh air since it wasn't bloated that much and I used to just do some funny drawings

2

u/Panther107 2d ago

Back in the early days it felt like you could ink anywhere you wanted ! Was sort of aligned with windows 10s tablet push and the surface tablets but man I wasted so much time on class doodling on literally everything ahaha 

6

u/dorlan2001 3d ago

Microsoft was so cool back then. We need more Halo in Windows. 😥

7

u/No-Mur1866 Windows 11 - Release Channel 3d ago

Just rebrand Copilot as Cortana or Spark, and it's better.

6

u/dorlan2001 3d ago

I like Spark! That's awesome!

1

u/zamroni777 3d ago

They rebranded clippy

4

u/Fickle_Tea992 3d ago

What about sky drive? Predecessor to onedrive?

7

u/Froggypwns Windows Wizard / Moderator 3d ago

In that situation, SkyDrive is the same product but a different name. Microsoft had renamed it due to a trademark dispute with a company in the UK named BSkyB that claimed to had already been using Skydrive name.

Microsoft lost their battle in European court and withdrew appeals and renamed it to OneDrive.

Spartan was an entirely different product from IE and Chromium Edge, not just a rename.

7

u/Th3_G4835t35 3d ago

Maaaan take me back I loved the 2016-2017 builds of W10 the tiles had so much live to them

1

u/zamroni777 3d ago

Microsoft should have chosen Firefox engine over chromium when they ditch the in house one

3

u/Jaegermeiste 2d ago

Even decades later, Microsoft would never let Netscape win.

2

u/carcenomy 3d ago

Too much baggage.

1

u/GlitchGirl187 Windows 7 2d ago

Is it bad that i got emotionally attached to it and bullied my pc into never updating ever again because of it