Internet Explorer is finally heading for the pasture.
Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of web browsers liked to hate, and some still say they love it. The 27-year-old app now joins BlackBerry phones, dial-up modems, and Palm Pilots in the trash of technology history.
Bill Gates announces an update to Internet Explorer in 1997. Credit: AP
The demise of IE was no surprise. A year ago, Microsoft said it would end Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing users to its Edge browser, which launched in 2015.
The company made it clear that it was time to move on.
“Microsoft Edge is not only a faster, more secure, and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also capable of addressing a key concern: compatibility with older websites and applications,” wrote the CEO of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, Sean Lyndersay. in a May 2021 blog post.
Users marked the death of Explorer on Twitter, and some referred to it as a “bug-free and insecure POS” or “main browser for installing other browsers.” For others, it was a time for 90s nostalgia memes, while The Wall Street Journal quoted a 22-year-old who was sad to see IE leave.
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Microsoft launched the first version of Internet Explorer in 1995, the antediluvian era of web browsing dominated by the very popular first browser, Netscape Navigator. Its release marked the beginning of the end of Navigator: Microsoft merged IE and its ubiquitous Windows operating system so closely that many people simply used it by default instead of Navigator.
The Justice Department sued Microsoft in 1997, saying it violated a previous consent decree by requiring computer manufacturers to use their browser as a condition of using Windows. Finally, it agreed to resolve the antitrust battle in 2002 over its use of its Windows monopoly to crush competitors. He also became entangled with European regulators who said that linking Internet Explorer to Windows gave it an unfair advantage over rivals such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Opera and Chrome.