Internet Explorer is heading to the software graveyard this week. It is a little strange to write, since this wish did not come true for so long.
On Wednesday, June 15th, the Microsoft browser will permanently stop working on all Windows PCs.
“We announce that the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 is Microsoft Edge,” Microsoft reminded again on May 19, but this time urgently, in a blog post.
Internet users have been turning to Chrome en masse for a long time.
Specifically, this does not change the daily lives of Internet users who have long since switched to Chrome en masse.
In April last year, the market share of Internet Explorer was 0.39%, of which 64.34% accounted for Google Chrome.
Microsoft itself announced back in August 2021 that its in-house products such as Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Teams would no longer work with Internet Explorer.
IE mode persists in Microsoft Edge
Note, however, that the Microsoft Edge browser has an Internet Explorer (IE) mode designed to be compatible with sites and applications based on the older Microsoft browser.
IE mode is supported until at least 2029. This gives web developers eight years to modernize existing applications and possibly eliminate the need for IE mode.
The history of Internet Explorer apparently marks the advent of the Internet on users’ computers in 1990. This software, signed by Microsoft, was then offered as a package with the Windows operating system.
Stormy history
Profitable strategy as Internet Explorer quickly became the most widely used browser (95% market share in 2004) to the detriment of competitors that did not benefit from this bundled sales principle (Netscape Navigator, then Mozilla Firefox).
But the explosion of smartphones triggered by the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 will undermine that dominance.
As far as desktops go, Google is the winner with its Chrome browser. So much so that Microsoft’s own browser, Edge, will switch to Google’s Chromium engine in 2020, ditching Microsoft’s legacy technology from Internet Explorer.
A failure as the Edge currently has a market share of only 4.05%.