No king rules forever. And, as expected, Internet Explorer was not going to be an exception. Microsoft‘s quintessential web browser, which we all used between the 90s and 2000s, finally has its days literally numbered. And it is that, after almost 27 years on the market, on June 15, 2022 it will finally be discontinued and go down in history, along with many other greats in the history of computing, such as Windows XP or MSN Messenger, among others.
It is rare to find people using Internet Explorer anymore. Despite the fact that this browser has already come to have the absolute majority of the browser market share, in the end it was unable to adapt to the new times and was overtaken by Google Chrome, which today occupies that predominant position. In addition, Microsoft has already forgotten about its veteran browser, putting all its efforts into the development of Edge, its new browser that also shares most of the code with Google’s.
However, despite the fact that it is a browser in disuse, and two weeks after running out of support, there are still companies that continue to use it. And even many websites (without going any further, the Treasury or the FNMT) that recommend the use of this browser. But, far from reality, what is rather recommended is to abandon this program, since not only is it about to end its support, but it may also have serious security and compatibility flaws that prevent us from browse normally.
Reasons to leave Internet Explorer (if you still use it)
Whether we are home users or developers, there are several reasons why we have to definitely forget about this web browser. Let’s see the main ones right now.
- Security . As with any other program, continuing to use IE after its end of support poses a security risk. Hackers surely already have several aces up their sleeves that will allow them to hack any computer that still uses this browser. Therefore, it is vital that, once it passes to a better life, we completely forget about it.
- Performance . Although, as we have said, there are websites that still ask us to use this web browser, these are, luckily, very few. Web developers have long since forgotten about the IE engine and all pages today are optimized for a Blink engine, like Chrome’s. Therefore, the websites that we visit with IE will work poorly, and it is even possible that they will not work at all.
- Easier development . We no longer have to worry about our website being compatible with IE. If any user uses an outdated and unsupported browser, it will be their sole responsibility, nothing more.
- Use of APIs and properties . By not depending on IE, developers can use more modern and advanced APIs in their web pages that give the pages added value and improve usability. And we can even make use of the CSS Custom Properties, which were not compatible with IE 11.
Goodbye, Internet Explorer.
