And all developers everywhere heaved a sigh of relief.
Now I am not here to bash Microsoft, and I am not going to be a Mac snob just because I am a web developer.
In fact I used Internet Explorer myself for many years, not knowing the slightest difference, until someone put me onto Google Chrome.
But once you learn how to code, the shortcomings of Internet Explorer become glaringly obvious.
If you ever tried to put together a website, you know the agony of painstakingly putting together a beautiful design, getting it all coded up and looking amazing in Chrome, Firefox and Safari, only to open it in Internet Explorer and it turns into a complete mess.
You end up spending as much time fixing the inconsistencies in IE as you took to code the entire thing!
You sit there wondering why it’s the only browser that nothing works in.
I mean really, people have made money on coming up with work-arounds for the IE browsers!
What went wrong with Explorer?
So I looked it up and there are different theories about why most of the current technologies don’t work in Internet Explorer - one of them being that Microsoft had the monopoly on browsers for so long (in January 2002 85.8% of people used IE) that it stopped innovating.
This along with its long delays between version releases (5 years between IE 6 and IE 7) meant it was just always a few steps behind.
It persisted with the browser until now, but eventually even Microsoft has admitted defeat and with the release of Windows 10 in July 2016, it will be launching its new browser Microsoft Edge.
It has also ended support for all versions of IE except 11 from 12 January 2016. This does mean that if you are still using an older version of IE you should definitely update, as it can be unsafe to use a browser that its maker is no longer providing security updates for. Such a browser is more at risk for malware attacks and data theft.
Conclusion
Whether you love it or hate it that Internet Explorer will soon be a thing of the past - and I am sure many people will cling to it for as long as possible - my recommendation is that if you’re going to update, try Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Support the open source!
