Forum Discussion
It's not Edge if it doesn't have these features!
Aesthetics like Fluent Design may not be the most functionally necessity to have a usable web browser, but it helps the overall user experience and makes the new Microsoft Edge truly native to Windows 10 than leaving it liking a third-party web browser. Personally I don't expect an Acrylic Tab Strip since there maybe a technical limitation implementing it since this new Edge Chromium uses older Uxtheme titlebar/non-UWP titlebar. Maybe Acrylic material can be done, Idk. Though Reveal Highlight effects on menus and buttons are more possible, especially when we look at Google Chrome featuring Material Design's pulse effect when you click toolbar buttons. If its possible to tweak that effect to look like Reveal Highlight, then that would be awesome!
You can implement a lot of the fluent design parts without it being a UWP program. I've done as much in my own development. You could, of course, fake it without using the actual fluent API calls as I have had to do in places.
But the issue is that the new browser is not built using standard windows controls or, as with the old edge, .NET Core controls. This means that new Edge will NEVER implement fluent UI in it's current implementation. What we don't have, what I was hoping for, is a chromium rendering window inside a UWP / .NET controlling program. I don't think this is technically impossible but when it comes to extensions and addons there may be issues.
I suspect that this may be what blocks several other features that I suspect we will never see too. I don't think we'll see pinning to the start menu for shortcuts. I don't think we'll see the excellent pen annotation implemented and I don't think we'll see a decent fluent UI. All of these things will need major changes to the chromium engine and underlying UI classes that I don't think is in the MS development plan.
I really hope I am proved wrong and they are going to put the extra effort in to make it fit properly. But I doubt it.
