So long, Internet Explorer. The browser is finally retiring
San Francisco, Jun 15: Internet Explorer is finally headed out to pasture. As of Wednesday, Microsoft will no longer support the once-dominant browser that legions of web surfers loved to hate and a few still claim to adore. The 27-year-old application now joins BlackBerry phones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots in the dustbin of tech history.
IE's demise was not a surprise. A year ago, Microsoft said that it was putting an end to Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing users to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.
The company made clear then it was time to move on.
Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications, Sean Lyndersay, general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise, wrote in a May 2021 blog post.
Users marked Explorer's passing on Twitter, with some referring to it as a bug-ridden, insecure POS or the top browser for installing other browsers. For others it was a moment for 90's nostalgia memes, while The Wall Street Journal quoted a 22-year-old who was sad to see IE go.
Microsoft released the first version of Internet Explorer in 1995, the antediluvian era of web surfing dominated by the first widely popular browser, Netscape Navigator. Its launch signaled the beginning of the end of Navigator: Microsoft went on to tie IE and its ubiquitous Windows operating system together so tightly that many people simply used it by default instead of Navigator.
The Justice Department sued Microsoft in 1997, saying it violated an earlier consent decree by requiring computer makers to use its browser as a condition of using Windows. It eventually agreed to settle the antitrust battle in 2002 over its use of its Windows monopoly to squash competitors. It also tangled with European regulators who said that tying Internet Explorer to Windows gave it an unfair advantage over rivals such as Mozilla's Firefox, Opera and Google's Chrome.
Users, meanwhile, complained that IE was slow, prone to crashing and vulnerable to hacks. IE's market share, which in the early 2000s was over 90%, began to fade as users found more appealing alternatives.
Today, the Chrome browser dominates with roughly a 65% share of the worldwide browser market, followed by Apple's Safari with 19%, according to internet analytics company Statcounter. IE's heir, Edge, lags with about about 4%, just ahead of Firefox.
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ACB case against Sisodia, Jain a political move to pressurise them: AAP
New Delhi (PTI): The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday said the ACB's case against its leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain was registered to "pressurise and scare" them as they were recently appointed as incharge and co-incharge of Punjab party unit.
The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government has filed a case against former deputy CM and education minister Sisodia, and ex-PWD minister Jain, over alleged corruption in the construction of government schools.
The scam is pegged at around Rs 2,000 crore and involved awarding contracts at highly inflated rates with classrooms reportedly built at Rs 24.86 lakh each, nearly five times the usual cost, the ACB added in a statement.
Reacting to the development, the BJP said there was corruption in the construction of schools in Delhi under the previous AAP government.
AAP national media in-charge Anurag Dhanda in a press conference dismissed the charges and said the case was a "political" move to "pressurise and scare" Sisodia and Jain.
"The way cases are being registered against Sisodia and other leaders, I feel there could soon be cases against him for occupying the minister's seat, for forgetting to put a comma or a full stop in a document," Dhanda said.
Dhanda added that the BJP government does no work, instead it files cases against AAP leaders on every matter.
"It can not be a mere coincidence that earlier a case was registered against party leader Durgesh Pathak when he became co-incharge of Gujarat. Now, a case has been registered against Sisodia and Satyendar Jain who are in charge and co-incharge of the Punjab unit of AAP," Dhanda stated.
Earlier in March, the AAP appointed Sisodia as in-charge and former minister Jain as co-in-charge of the Punjab unit of the party.
"The BJP should understand it well that AAP leaders are not scared by their agencies like ED and CBI or such empty threats," Dhanda added.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva demanded the ACB to probe the role of then chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal in the alleged scam.
"This is a decisive moment in the fight against corruption of AAP and its previous government in Delhi," he said.
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