What stuff exactly?
Before you list it, know that it's almost identical down to even the synchronization, which is simply handled by another .dll (in Windows) that connects to MS servers instead of Google's. The UI is both simplified and enhanced with an additional set of privacy controls.
Microsoft defaulted to a simple UI trick that makes the window appear before the engine is initialized, thus making the impression the browser launches faster. It has made Edge prefetch more aggressively, thus making the impression the browser works faster. Nothing you can not do with changing Chrome defaults. Also, it's about "making the impression" -
real-world data show otherwise in most cases.
In software development, if you have an 'engine', you don't modify it 'heavily'. That's the whole point of using an 'engine', especially in open source, as somebody else will optimize this engine for you and you just drop it into your project.
Your first statement was:
'
I hate to break it to you, but this Edge is Chrome with some small UI changes.'.
Here is a test of the memory usage of Chromium Edge vs Chrome (exactly the same number of pages, exactly the same sites):
Also see the following remarks:
Source:
https://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft/edge-insider-chromium-better-than-chrome
This is part of what I meant by 'bloated Google stuff' that Microsoft removed. It is also a well known fact in a lot of measurements that Chrome consumes much more memory than Chromium Edge. Especially when opening multiple pages. A number of the '50 different Google services from it's insides' where built by Google into the engine and another number in the GUI. Therefore it is safe to say that Microsoft modified the Chromium engine. They also did not 'make some small changes' to the Chrome GUI, but replaced it with there own code. Maybe the GUI looks the same to you, but looks can be deceiving.
Your next remark:
'
The engine is exactly the same, I doubt it goes beyond measurement error. '
https://fossbytes.com/difference-google-chrome-vs-chromium-browser/
As you can see in the link above 'Chromium' open source project is not only an engine, but much more. Microsoft made their own 'Chromium fork' with changes, so it is difficult to determine what part of the engine they changed and what other parts not belonging to the 'core' engine.
Also the measurements are a bit more different than only 'measurement error':
Besides the memory consumption I already mentioned, see also:
https://bgr.com/2020/01/15/edge-vs-chrome-firefox-browser-benchmark-comparison/
https://www.stevebtech.com/2019/04/22/browser-benchmark-chromium-based-edge-vs-edge-chrome-firefox/
I will not say that Edge measures on all points better than Google Chrome, but it certainly measures quite different on a lot of points. This goes a bit further than only measurement error.
To ask me 'What stuff already?' can only be answered by people who actually worked for Microsoft on Chromium Edge. Since I did not, I can not answer that question, which is also besides the original points I reacted to. Assuming you did not work on Chromium Edge yourself, I doubt you can answer your own question also. Neither can you be sure of your own claims because of that. Also your further remarks about 'using a different dll' etc. are only thngs you can see on your part since you have no access to the code like anyone else. Going into such nitty picky technical details is also besides the point and clouds the discussion about your original claims.
I can only repeat that your original claims:
'
I hate to break it to you, but this Edge is Chrome with some small UI changes.'.
'
The engine is exactly the same, I doubt it goes beyond measurement error. '
are an oversimplification. Nothing more, nothing less. This was my original point.
Is Chromium Edge better/worse/faster/slower than Google Chrome? That is debatable, but most people claim it consumes far less memory than Chrome. Also it measures quite differently on a lot of points.
So, is it much more different than only some GUI changes? Certainly it is.
