After 27 years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser hits retirement

Web Explorer is lastly headed out to pasture.

As of Wednesday, Microsoft will not assist the once-dominant browser that legions of internet surfers liked to hate — and some nonetheless declare to adore. The 27-year-old software now joins BlackBerry telephones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots within the dustbin of tech historical past.

IE’s demise was not a shock. A yr in the past, Microsoft stated that it was placing an finish to Web Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing customers to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.

The corporate made clear then it was time to maneuver on.

“Not solely is Microsoft Edge a sooner, safer and extra trendy looking expertise than Web Explorer, however additionally it is in a position to handle a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy web sites and functions,” Sean Lyndersay, basic supervisor of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote in a Might 2021 weblog put up.

Customers marked Explorer’s passing on Twitter, with some referring to it as a “bug-ridden, insecure POS” or the “prime browser for putting in different browsers.” For others it was a second for ’90s nostalgia memes, whereas The Wall Road Journal quoted a 22-year-old who was unhappy to see IE go.

Microsoft launched the primary model of Web Explorer in 1995, the antediluvian period of internet browsing dominated by the primary extensively fashionable browser, Netscape Navigator. Its launch signalled the start of the tip of Navigator: Microsoft went on to tie IE and its ubiquitous Home windows working system collectively so tightly that many individuals merely used it by default as a substitute of Navigator.

Fights with regulators

The U.S. Justice Division sued Microsoft in 1997, saying it violated an earlier consent decree by requiring laptop makers to make use of its browser as a situation of utilizing Home windows. It will definitely agreed to settle the antitrust battle in 2002 over its use of its Home windows monopoly to squash opponents. It additionally tangled with European regulators who stated that tying Web Explorer to Home windows gave it an unfair benefit over rivals equivalent to Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera and Google’s Chrome.

Customers, in the meantime, complained that IE was gradual, vulnerable to crashing and weak to hacks. IE’s market share, which within the early 2000s was over 90 per cent, started to fade as customers discovered extra interesting options.

In the present day, the Chrome browser dominates with roughly a 65 per cent share of the worldwide browser market, adopted by Apple’s Safari with 19 per cent, in line with web analytics firm Statcounter. IE’s inheritor, Edge, lags with about 4 per cent, simply forward of Firefox.