The tombstone of the Internet Explorer browser, created by South Korean software engineer Jung Ki-young, is displayed on the roof of a cafe in Gyeongju, South Korea, on June 17, 2022. Photo: Reuters.
SEUL: For Jung Ki-young, a South Korean software engineer, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) ‘s decision to withdraw its Internet Explorer web browser marked the end of a love-hate relationship. a quarter of a century with technology.
To commemorate his disappearance, he spent a month and 430,000 won ($ 330) designing and commissioning a tombstone with the “e” logo of the Explorer and the English epitaph: “It was a good tool for downloading other browsers.”
After the monument was displayed in a cafe run by his brother in the southern city of Gyeongju, a photo of the tombstone went viral.
Microsoft on Wednesday downgraded support for Internet Explorer, once ubiquitous after a 27-year run, to focus on its fastest browser, Microsoft Edge.
Jung said the memorial showed his conflicting feelings for older software, which had played such an important role in his working life.
“It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer himself dominated an era,” he told Reuters.
He said he found that it took him longer to make sure his websites and online applications work with Explorer than with other browsers.
But his customers kept asking him to make sure his websites looked good in Explorer, which remained the default browser in South Korea’s government offices and many banks for years.
Launched in 1995, Explorer became the world’s leading browser for more than a decade, as it was included with Microsoft’s Windows operating system that came preinstalled on billions of computers. Read more
But it started to lose ground with Google Chrome in the late 2000’s and became a topic of countless internet memes, and some developers suggested that it was slow compared to its rivals.
Jung said he had wanted to make people laugh with the tombstone, but he was still amazed at how far the joke went online.
“That’s another reason to thank Explorer, now it’s allowed me to make a world-class joke,” he said.
“I’m sorry he disappeared, but I won’t miss him. So his retirement, for me, is a good death.”