R.I.P Microsoft Internet Explorer. The official browser of your grandparents will be saying goodbye in June 2022.
Microsoft will finally be doing away with its once-beloved Internet Explorer, with the desktop app set to discontinue next year.
To better compete against market dominators such as Google Chrome, Microsoft will focus its attention on its new ‘Edge’ browser.
It has been a slow and painful death for Internet Explorer, with Microsoft phasing out the browser for several years.
The browser has long been the subject of mass internet scrutiny and brutal (but brilliant) memes, mocking its sluggishness and tendency to lag.
At 25 years old, it currently commands less than 4 per cent of the desktop browser market—compared to the 90 per cent it controlled at its peak.
Many were aware that the passing of Explorer was coming for some time now. But still, that shit hurts.
When Chrome hit the market in 2008, it passed the Acid Tests, which Microsoft had consistently struggled with, and immediately became a serious competitor.
Web developers were drawn to Chrome as it enabled them to build more sophisticated websites and presented fewer technical issues. Since then, Microsoft has struggled to keep pace.
“Microsoft finally announces the end of Internet Explorer” pic.twitter.com/rACmLBZ5VU
— Raf Rasenberg (@rafrasenberg) May 23, 2021
But it was only on Wednesday that Microsoft finally confirmed in a blog post that it would be discontinuing the desktop app from June 15 2022.
The post clarified that this decision had been made to encourage users to adopt the new Microsoft Edge.
Microsoft introduced Edge in 2015 to compete with browser heavyweights such as Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It has the advantage of “a dual engine advantage that supports both legacy and modern websites“, with a “built-in legacy browser” compatible with older applications that still require Internet Explorer.
This will function as a built-in Internet Explorer mode, which will make older websites accessible and smooth-running.
Loyal fan of Internet Explorer pic.twitter.com/M31DZX1w0Y
— Internet Explorer Parody (@Fastest_Browser) April 22, 2020
So Internet Explorer lives on, in a way, in the new Edge.
Emerging in 1995, Explorer quickly superseded the then-popular Netscape. So chances are if you first discovered the internet between 1999-2005, Internet Explorer was the browser you would use to post on your MySpace account.
It is certainly a sad yet graceful end to Explorer, which at its height controlled 95 per cent of the browser market. However, the new ‘Edge’ pays homage to Explorer, retaining the iconic blue ‘e’ logo, in a modernised, sleeker style.
