There are a lot of dumb things I did in high school I’m not looking forward to explaining to my kids, but probably the most embarrassing will be the Browser Wars. Man, remember when people cared about Internet Explorer? Like, at all? Ever? That was a long time ago, and it appears Microsoft has finally decided to retire it.
It’s not because IE is outdated and outpaced technologically. Are you kidding? When has that ever stopped any tech company from riding a product into the ground? No, it’s because that after years of dominance, IE is getting waxed by Chrome and Firefox.
In theory, IE is still the most popular browser on the Internet, but in reality, a lot of its market share is thanks to older versions of the software people either can’t, or won’t, upgrade from, and it being a pack-in with Windows. Internet Explorer is so widely hated and hard to support some companies are just buying their users new computers rather than deal with older editions of the software.
Not helping matters is that Windows market share isn’t exactly growing as people ditch desktops and laptops for tablets and smartphones. Throw in those and Chrome is the clear winner. If Microsoft doesn’t act fast, they’ll be left in the dust for good. So, they’re making a new browser, named Spartan, and leaving IE to die.
Honestly, it’s overdue. Internet Explorer doesn’t even support extensions, which is a bit shocking in this day and age. Either a massive overhaul or a clean slate was needed. Now, of course, it’s just a question of getting people to actually use it.