Internet Explorer is finally heading to the pasture.
As of Wednesday, Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of surfers loved to hate – and some still say they adore it. The 27-year-old app is now joining BlackBerry phones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots in the trash.
IE’s death came as no surprise. A year ago, Microsoft announced that it was ending Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, directing users to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.
The company has made it clear that it is time to move on.
“Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure, and more advanced browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it’s also able to address a key issue: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications.” Sean Lindersey, general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote in a blog post in May 2021.
Users noted the exploration of Explorer on Twitter, with some calling it “bug fixes, insecure POS” or “the best browser to install on other browsers.” For others, it was a moment of nostalgic memes from the 1990s, while The Wall Street Journal quoted a 22-year-old who was sad to see IE go away.
is Internet Explorer really dead? pic.twitter.com/KQGndprUxn
– @ tomwarren
Microsoft released the first version of Internet Explorer in 1995, the pre-Flood era of web browsing, dominated by the first widely used browser, Netscape Navigator. Its launch signaled the beginning of the end of Navigator: Microsoft continued to connect IE and its ubiquitous Windows operating system so tightly that many people simply used it by default instead of Navigator.
Fighting regulators
The U.S. Department of Justice sued Microsoft in 1997, saying it violated a previous consent decree by requiring computer makers to use its browser as a condition of using Windows. It eventually agreed to settle the antitrust battle in 2002 over the use of Windows’ monopoly to crush competitors. He also clashed with European regulators, who said linking Internet Explorer to Windows gave it an unfair advantage over competitors such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Opera and Chrome.
Meanwhile, users complain that IE is slow, prone to crashes and vulnerable to hacks. IE’s market share, which was over 90 percent in the early 2000s, began to fade as consumers found more attractive alternatives.
Today, the Chrome browser dominates about 65 percent of the global browser market, followed by Apple’s Safari with 19 percent, according to internet analytics company Statcounter. IE’s successor, Edge, is about four percent behind Firefox.
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