Any reason for excitement? What it has over Chrome or other Chromium clones?
For people
- On older hardware:
Windows 10 used to preload old Edge, so it launched faster than any other browser. Because new Edge replaces old Edge, this Microsoft trick will hopefully also be enabled for new Edge.
- Using no third-party security software injecting DL'L's in the browser:
Edge-chromium only uses Microsoft signed software, so it can be extra protected with Windows Defender (enabling option Code Integrity Guard for 'msedge.exe' of 'Exploit Protection' in 'App and Browser control'), so it will only load Microsoft signed software (which reduces the already minimal chance of Chromium based browser to be exploited to near zero).
On top of that it has build in:
- Anti-tracking which when set on strict does not require additional ad-blocking extension (according to @oldschool)
- Smartscreen integration (according @Umbra) *
- Admin mode warning **
So enough reasons for me to give it a spin on my 9 year old dual boot laptop
*) Chrome now also offers a flag to perform additional safe browsing checks when downloading programs, so Google is forced to enhance the out of the box security (because it has lost the claim of being the safest browser with the tricks mentioned above).
**) New Edge throws a warning when it is started with admin rights. Because Edge (and Chrome) have a separate installer, it should be possible to sandbox/contain the broker process in a standard user box/denying it admin rights. Maybe Microsoft will add that in future to new Edge also.