Its sluggishness is what makes it memorable.
Internet Explorer… oh the legendary Internet Explorer. Memories from dial-up internet and this was your only option prior to the creation of Google Chrome. How long do you have to wait just so Google loads up? About 30 minutes? An hour? Well, no matter how long, you probably just used it to download Firefox or something. And the memes still live up and poke fun at how slow it was.
Nevertheless, over the course of its 26-year lifespan, the browser’s loading times improved alongside. By then, however, there are already a number of browsers developed and they offered more than what even the newest version of Internet Explorer has. Microsoft was also developing a new version based on Chromium. This browser served as a future replacement for Internet Explorer and was named “Microsoft Edge”. When it was first announced back in 2015, Microsoft was also already urging its users to migrate to Edge and that Internet Explorer support would end by 15th June 2022, a day after this article was written.
“We are announcing that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is in Microsoft Edge. Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications.” the company said in a May 2022 blog post. “With Microsoft Edge capable of assuming this responsibility and more, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10.”
The first version of Internet Explorer was released back in 1995, a time when the internet was considered a luxury and is unheard of. During its development, it had a rival that was pre-installed on early versions of Windows 95 called Navigator. After that, Microsoft integrated Internet Explorer onto future Windows iterations, where it would become its default browser replacing Navigator.
While the shutdown is quite expected by many, and some even were surprised to see it’s still standing despite the existence of other, more competitive browsers, there were also issues. In Japan, the announcement caused a panic in a number of small businesses and government agencies since the majority of their websites only work with Internet Explorer, despite the legacy mode available for Edge.
Source: AP News