There has been a lot of talk as of late concerning the future, or better said the nonexistent future of Internet Explorer. Speculations regarding the browser’s premature demise was only fuelled by the comments made by Chris Capossela, who is none other than Bill Gates’ former assistant and an executive at Microsoft. Many internet users from around the world flooded Facebook and Tweeter with messages saying the “Internet Explorer is dead” or “Long live Spartan”.
But is Internet Explorer really dead? The answer is “no”. Following Chris’s comments, Microsoft was contacted by Mashable.com and confirmed that Internet Explorer is alive and well. They said that their new browser (codenamed Spartan) will be constructed and implemented in Windows 10, but that they will continue to make IE accessible “with Windows 10 for enterprises and other customers who require legacy browser support.”
A lot of people from around the world, including a few Hollywood celebrities declared that they use Internet Explorer 11 as their primary web browser. To be fair it is not as bad as a browser as critics made it out to be. It has, in most part, the same features other browsers offer, it is not slow and has an outstanding graphic processing. It is true that it’s not as polished or as responsive as Chrome or Firefox but it isn’t terrible either.
If you were to take a look at NetMarketShare.com you will be surprised to find out that Internet Explorer 11 has the highest market share concerning browsers. It holds the first position with 22.29% and it is followed by Internet Explorer 8 with 19.08% while Google Chrome occupies the third position with only 15.10%.
But why does “everybody” hate Internet Explorer?
I think that in order to answer that question we’ll have to take a step back into the past and revisit the earliest version. Many people do not know that Microsoft didn’t actually create Internet Explorer. They just purchased “Spyglass Mosaic” from a company called Spyglass in the early 90s, slapped a shinny new sticker on in and renamed it Internet Explorer.
A brilliant marketing campaign from Microsoft made Internet Explorer the number one browser in a very short time outclassing “Netscape Navigator” and managed to mention that spot for many years to come.
On November 9, 2004 a new, free and open-source web browser emerged called Mozilla Firefox or simply known as “Firefox”. It was the new best thing and everybody was using it, praising it and calling it the “browser of the future”. But it had a lot of its own problems and by the end it failed to deliver. I used it for a little while and threw it away as soon as Chrome showed its magnificent head.
I think that it was that exact market dominance that made Internet Explorer so hated, the fact that it was always forced on us by developers. There are still programs to this day that will use Internet Explorer exclusively, just take a look at SopCast.
I prefer Chrome, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t use Internet Explorer too. As a matter of fact I use them both on a daily basic and I think that in the end, it is a question of preference. After its public release on December 11, 2008, Chrome rapidly became the most used browser in the world. Its clean and slick interface made it a favorite for developers and ordinary users alike. Google understood how important accessibility was so they made it so Chrome can be accessed from any computer, smartphone or tablet, by simply entering your Google user name and password.
It saves all your bookmarks, all your settings and browser history so you only have to configure it once and you will never have to do it again. It keeps your information even if you reinstall your OS or format your Hard Drive or SSD. But for everything that it does well you can always find something that Chrome doesn’t do so good. Take third party apps for example and you will find out that Chrome struggles with them. Just count the number of times Shockwave Player will crash during a week and how much it will slow down your computer.
Do not get me wrong I’m not saying Internet Explorer is better or that Chrome is, all I want to say is that when it comes to their bare minimum and you strip them down to the core they are not as different as you might think. Sure, both of them have issues but there is no such thing as a perfect web browser. Who knows, maybe Spartan will be the knight in shining armor we’ve all been waiting for, the one that will rescue us from the endless crashes and debates about what is the best browser.
You may congratulate Google for designing a very solid web browser but never underestimate Microsoft and their desire to finally catch up. With a powerful name like Spartan I can only look forward to it and hope that it will be faster, more stable, better secured and at least as accessible as Chrome is at this time. The competition can only benefit the customer in the end and nobody can say for sure where our browser architecture would be today without the existence of Internet Explorer.
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