Just think about every time you purchased a new computer. The first thing you do is download another internet browser because Internet Explorer failed to keep up with the likes of Google Chrome and Safari.
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But, years and years of avoiding the pesky software has finally resulted in action as Microsoft has announced that it will no longer be supporting or developing Internet Explorer.
Now, this isn't the first time that this news has made the rounds as back in 2015 Microsoft announced that it would be replacing the software with Microsoft Edge as the defacto Windows 10 browser.
However, the company has announced that from November 30th, Microsoft's product team will no longer be supporting the app. And, by the 17th of August 2021, none of Microsofts 365 apps or services will work in conjunction with the browser and sites that were designed for Internet Explorer will see a degraded experience. This effectively pushes Explorer into the grave.
The post read:
This means that after the above dates, customers will have a degraded experience or will be unable to connect to Microsoft 365 apps and services on IE 11. For degraded experiences, new Microsoft 365 features will not be available or certain features may cease to work when accessing the app or service via IE 11.
While the nostalgic part of us may be a little sad that our favourite thing to hate won't be around anymore, we have to admit we aren't surprised by the announcement. Chris Jackson, a cybersecurity expert in Microsoft's Windows division, spoke to The Verge last year about the issue:
We're not supporting new web standards for it and, while many sites work fine, developers by and large just aren't testing for Internet Explorer these days. They're testing on modern browsers.
He continued:
If we continued our previous approach, you would end up in a scenario where, by optimizing for the things you have, you end up not being able to use new apps as they come out. As new apps are coming out with greater frequency, what we want to help you do is avoid having to miss out on a progressively larger portion of the web.
So, for those who are still sticking loyally by the side of the world's most hated internet browser, it may be time to look into other options.
