The inclusion of Internet Explorer in the ubiquitous Windows operating system and the requirement that it be used on certain government websites has made the browser an indispensable part of everyday life for millions, he said.
Updated
June 15, 2022, 2:25 PM ET
It also hastened the demise of Netscape Navigator, the world’s first commercial web browser.
“Internet Explorer certainly wasn’t the first browser, but its inclusion in Windows in the mid-1990s really helped the Web gain a very large user base,” and made the Internet more widely accessible, said Professor Nelson .
Still, he said, “It was never a great browser.”
“If you wanted to do high-performance things or if you were on the cutting edge, anything from Microsoft was like driving around in your mother’s Toyota Camry,” said Professor Nelson. “It did the job, but nobody got excited about a really low-performance, unappealing browser.”
In a blog post about the browser’s retirement, Sean Lyndersay, general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise said on Wednesday that, despite its remarkable role in the evolution of the web, “Internet Explorer’s reputation today is justifiably a product of an older era – quirky in behavior and without the security of a modern browser.”
In the coming months, users who open Internet Explorer will be redirected to Microsoft Edge with “IE mode,” he wrote.
“Eventually, Internet Explorer will be permanently disabled as part of a future Windows update, after which Internet Explorer icons will be removed from users’ devices,” he wrote. He called Edge a “faster, more secure, and more modern browser.”
