Internet Explorer says goodbye and we will not miss it. Surely you have not used this web browser for years and if you are one of the youngest in the area, you may never have used it. Yes, as a computer application today it is inconsequential, you should know that it has marked an era in world technology.
Microsoft will retire the Internet Explorer 11 desktop app tomorrow. Although it will still remain in some enterprise versions and can be used through the IE mode included in Edge Chromium, June 15 marks the official and final date of goodbye of the web browser.
Internet Explorer today is an absolutely unnecessary in world technology: slow; inconsistent with standards; Insecure by default and without the capabilities of the new Edge, which is Microsoft’s reference in web browsing, the software giant has long been seeking to drop ballast and completely eliminate IE.
A year ago Microsoft announced the roadmap to end the browser, although it had previously discouraged its use in favor of Edge and other modern browsers. He had even stripped him of the “navigator” title, leaving him a mere “compatibility solution”. Furthermore, the head of cybersecurity at Microsoft stressed that it should not be used in daily work and published an article on the official Microsoft blog whose headline said it all: “The Dangers of Using Internet Explorer as Your Default Browser”.
Still, Microsoft has kept it for enterprise compatibility and the need to support older standards for web access and application operation. Once the deployment of Edge Chromium (the best browser in Microsoft’s history, on a par in performance, compatibility, security and features of any other modern browser) is complete, there is no point in keeping Internet Explorer in circulation.
In addition, Edge has an IE mode that allows you to use a second engine (MSHTML) specifically targeted to run those applications that have not yet been migrated to other modern browsers. It runs in an Edge tab without the need for any other software and of course without having to use the outdated Internet Explorer. Microsoft has guaranteed its support until 2029 so companies that still need it have plenty of time to migrate.
In consumption… what I said, completely unnecessary. Any modern web browser has better features and its removal we do not believe will be a problem for any user.
Internet Explorer says goodbye to a technological age
Internet Explorer hit the market over 26 years ago. It was created based on the Spyglass Mosaic code and came as part of the “plus” package released for Windows 95. It was a time of almost absolute dominance of Netscape Navigator, the first commercial browser, but this release and the subsequent “browser wars” changed everything.
Microsoft didn’t have to work too hard to popularize its browser. It didn’t matter if it was better or worse than the competition, just with include it as part of their operating systems managed to defenestrate Netscape and consolidate a monopoly that lasted 20 years (no less).
Microsoft’s strategy was controversial and there were multiple lawsuits and before the regulatory bodies under the argument of that illicit exploitation of Windows quota, which ended up harming the rest of the competitors by not offering alternatives for use. Its default installation in Windows was the true defender of IE, because Mozilla (later Mozilla Firefox), the open development that emerged from the release of Netscape, was a better browser than Internet Explorer during those two decades.
Nothing lasts forever. The obligation to include alternatives in Windows in some regions such as Europe (remember the browser choice screen imposed on Microsoft by the European Union?) was the beginning of the end, although even without it, Microsoft was already losing ground.
Finally, in 2016, the global web browsing market turned upside down when Google Chrome overtook Internet Explorer in market share. Since then the decline has been sharp and Microsoft has lost presence in this important market that opens the way to search engines and Internet advertising. In 2016 alone, IE lost 350 million users and was subsequently overtaken by Mozilla’s Firefox as well.
You know recent history: ‘For great ills, great remedies’. Microsoft opted for something unthinkable, to use rival Google’s Chromium open source base in a new development to try to reverse the situation. Chrome still largely dominates the market, but at least the new Edge is a browser worthy of a company like Microsoft. Internet Explorer was long dead at the consumer level and now comes the announcement of a late but expected ending.
