After 27 years of long service, Microsoft is retiring Internet Explorer for good.
There used to be a long-standing joke about Microsoft Internet Explorer. The number one browser for downloading a better browser was Internet Explorer.
Some might argue that it has come way too many years, too late. It has been a long, slow (unintended) death of the one-time most used browser.
Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer in 1995 as an add-on package for Windows 95. After that, Microsoft’s internet browser was made available to everyone as a part of the package with the later versions of Windows.
In a blog post, Microsoft announced that it is shutting down Internet Explorer. Last year in May, the company announced that it is retiring the Internet Explorer browser next year in June. Later that year, Microsoft 365 and other apps ended support for the Internet Explorer 11. Now, cut to June 2022, the Internet Explorer desktop app will be inoperable from June 15.
Internet Explorer reached its peak in 2 with a 95 per cent user share. However, after that, Internet Explorer witnessed a major downfall as it failed to keep up with the other browsers. Since 2016, Microsoft has not introduced any new versions of Internet Explorer. In fact, Internet Explorer 11 is the last and final version which was released in 2013.
In the same blog post, Sean Lyndersay, Microsoft Edge program manager, said that “the future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 lies in Microsoft Edge”.
The destiny of Internet Explorer was decided the day Microsoft released its Chromium-based Edge browser in 2015.
The company first brought Edge as a System application for Windows 10 and Xbox, and it was later released for Android and ioS in 2017.
According to StatCounter, Microsoft Edge is the world’s second most popular desktop browser.
How much ever slow it was, but the Internet Explorer was a huge part of 90’s kids growing up, so we might miss it a bit, but the goodbye was long due. RIP Internet Explorer.
By The Times of India
