American tech giant, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is something that most of us are familiar with. One of the longest running internet and web browsers, it has had countless patches and versions over the years. First released in 1995, it has been over 25 years, having been there for us since the dawn of the internet. In fact, it has seen countless internet booms and busts and the evolution of the internet web and its applications. In fact, such has been its influence that a lot of childhoods depended on Internet Explorer when browsing the net.
However, other web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox replaced it. Unable to keep up with the fast processing of other browsers, it had become a subject of memes and jokes. But now it seems that the once popular internet browser will soon meet its end. Not only Internet Explorer, but even Microsoft‘s Legacy Edge browser will be facing the same fate, albeit a bit later. This latest development comes months after Microsoft introduced their Chromium based Edge browser for Windows and macOS supported versions. They have invested efforts to heavily promote the Chromium based browser for increasing user experience.
While the plans for Microsoft to axe the Internet Explorer browser dishearten many users, it shouldn’t really be a surprise. It’s popularity now is a mere shadow of it once was. Akin to the end of an era, the closure will impact barely 5% of internet users, not including mobile users.
Microsoft Teams is going to stop support for Internet Explorer by 30th November. This is as per a recent time schedule released by the company. While enterprises can still use the browser, Microsoft will be slowly killing off the browser over time, in phases. This means that Microsoft will stop future updates for the browser, including any security updates and patches as well. This will leave users open to potential malware and virus attacks, compromising security.
Additionally, the time table reveals that Microsoft 365 will stop supporting Internet Explorer by 17th August 2021. Meanwhile, the legacy version of Microsoft Edge will have its plug pulled by 9th March 2021. Note that the legacy version was based on Microsoft EdgeHTML engine rather than the open source Chromium project.
What is surprising is that Microsoft took so long to finally close the doors on Internet Explorer. This has apparently been on their to do list for a while now. That is ever since they launched the Microsoft Edge back in 2015. Microsoft even claimed to have upgraded most Windows 10 users to the latest Edge browser. This has also been gaining popularity, being second only to Google Chrome.
Do you think that it is high time that Microsoft finally ended the dated browser? What do you think of these recent developments? Let us know in the comment section below!
Deepanjan Datta
Management student who likes to write articles at times, into mobile photography and likes to cook as a hobby.
