Microsoft has today taken the wraps off its long awaited new Edge Chromium browser today on both Windows and macOS. A stable version of the browser is now available for everyone to download. This comes after a year after when the software maker revealed its plans to switch to Chromium. Microsoft is initially targeting Edge at enterprise users of Windows and macOS, but consumers will be able to manually download and install it, too.
Expect to have several updates from Microsoft that will be done automatically for Windows 10 users with this new version of Edge which will fully replace the existing built-in browser. The company is taking a slow and careful approach, bringing the new Chromium Edge browser gradually to groups of Windows 10 users through Windows Update before it’s fully rolled out later mid-year. Microsoft is also releasing this version of Edge to OEMs (laptop makers like Dell, Asus, Samsung, etc) today, so expect to see machines start arriving in the back-to-school period with the new version of Edge preinstalled. Microsoft will eventually bake this directly into a future Windows 10 update, and it will be part of Windows 10X for foldable and dual-screen devices. An ARM64 version of Edge won’t be available today, but it’s expected to come to the stable channel shortly.
Edge Chromium has support for Chrome Extensions
It should be noted that while Edge Chromium is available today, it will come without some features you might be familiar with if you’re used to using Chrome. Both history sync and extension sync are missing at launch, but things like favorites, settings, addresses / contact info, and passwords wil all sync. Microsoft is planning to have these missing sync features available later this year. The good thing is the rest of Edge is very similar to Chrome and even includes support for Chrome extensions. Where Edge differs is new features like Collections, which allows you to collate images and content from the web, and tracking prevention.
The new Chromium browser will allow you to choose from three different levels to avoid being tracked on the web in Edge, and the default setting will block trackers from sites you haven’t visited before. This makes sure content and ads are less personalized and harmful trackers are blocked. There’s also a strict setting that blocks the majority of trackers on the web, but that could mean some parts of sites fail to load or might not work correctly. If you’re familiar with Ghostery, then Microsoft’s built-in protection Edge is similar.
There’s also the aspect of trust and which browser company you want to trust with your browsing history and privacy. According to the Verge, Google is phasing out third-party cookies and trackers in Chrome but not for two years. That gives Edge, Safari, Firefox, and others an opportunity to capitalize on web users who are a little more privacy-conscious. This alone won’t be enough to get everyone to switch away from Chrome, but Microsoft has a better opportunity than most with its Windows dominance in the enterprise and the fact Edge is now a lot more compatible with the web.
Microsoft chose this route of using a chrome based browser in order to be more Compatible with other browsers. Chromium offers instant web compatibility, and it also allows Microsoft to bring its web browser elsewhere. For some odd reason, the success of Edge Chromium could come down to whether it’s fully embraced by web developers and competitors like Google.
