Information from Microsoft’s Windows Store Policies, as revised on March 29, 2017, show that the new Surface Windows 10 S laptops for the education community will not be able to install Google Chrome on the devices. But instead of looking at this as a standalone event where Microsoft is deliberately trying keep Chrome away from its new Surface laptops, we need to look at the bigger picture.
What might make it seem like a “tit-for-tat” situation is the fact that even Chrome OS doesn’t allow browsers outside of the Chrome Web Store. Apple’s iOS has the same restrictions, as a matter of fact, and the reason for that is primarily security.
For example, the Google Chrome that you run on your iOS device isn’t the same as the desktop Google Chrome, because it users WebKit-based browser components. It’s merely the user interface, or UI, that looks like Google Chrome. Of course, the search capabilities are provided by Google, but it uses WebKit rendering engine and the embedded JavaScript engine, which is why it can often be slower than the desktop version of Google Chrome, which was also based on WebKit, but now uses Google’s own Blink fork.
In this case, Microsoft is merely applying the same rule, with the caveat that apps converted into Universal Windows Platform app and submitted to Windows Store may be approved for use on the Surface Windows 10 S laptops.
Essentially, that now forces Google into a position where they would have to rewrite Google Chrome on UWP using Windows rendering and JavaScript engine. The odds of that happening are infinitesimally low.
Of course, users can upgrade to Windows 10 Pro at any time from Windows 10 S, and then use Google Chrome to their heart’s content. But how many users would cough up $49 just to use a freely available browser?
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