Microsoft finally dropped support for Internet Explorer on June 15 after 27 years. I know it’s a bit late writing this but then I came across this:
A South Korean fan named Jung Ki-young created an Internet Explorer gravestone. Its epitaph: “He was a good tool to download other browsers”.
History of Internet Explorer
So according to Wikipedia, and I quote:
“The first Internet Explorer was derived from Spyglass Mosaic. The original Mosaic came from NCSA, but since NCSA was a public entity it relied on Spyglass as its commercial licensing partner. Spyglass in turn delivered two versions of the Mosaic browser to Microsoft, one wholly based on the NCSA source code, and another engineered from scratch but conceptually modeled on the NCSA browser. Internet Explorer was initially built using the Spyglass, not the NCSA source code.
Microsoft was sued by SyNet Inc. in 1996, for trademark infringement, claiming it owned the rights to the name “Internet Explorer”. It ended with Microsoft paying $5 Million to settle the lawsuit.
Sources:
A Brief Version History:
- Internet Explorer 1.0 – released in August 1995
- Internet Explorer 2.0 – released on November 22, 1995
- Internet Explorer 3.0 – released on August 13, 1996
- Internet Explorer 4.0 – released in September 1997
- Internet Explorer 5.0 – released on March 18, 1999
- Internet Explorer 6.0 – released on August 24, 2001
- Internet Explorer 7.0 – released in October 2006
- Internet Explorer 8.0 – released on March 19, 2009
- Internet Explorer 9.0 – released on March 14, 2011
- Internet Explorer 10.0 – released on September 4, 2012
- Internet Explorer 11.0 – released on October 17, 2013
I was always concerned about security issues. I can remember reading about these super hidden and protected files called “index.dat” files.
They stored a lot of data about your online experiences that included: Web page URLs, Count of visits, Date and time of visits, The URL of any pictures downloaded, Cookies, and the list continues. When you cleared your history, these items did not get cleared. Other than the danger of these files being hacked by malware producers, these website warnings made me a bit paranoid. This is why I stopped using IE.
I switched to Netscape at first then it was Mozilla Suite (later renamed SeaMonkey) and finally Opera. So what’s your perspective about IE? Did you love it or hate it or just don’t care? Let us know in the comments.
Some other reading: Internet Explorer
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I loved it and it was my default browser from 1999 to about 2015 when I switched to Edge. I tried other browsers and never liked any of them as much as IE. Now, I use the Chromium Edge on all devices including my Android phone and think it’s the best there is.
It was great in the late 90s beating Netscape in features and performance. But the decision to run ActiveX by defaulting to Yes (remember “Snake oil Inc asserts this content is safe” anyone? ) killed it for me. Mozilla was a great replacement in both web and email.
Before there was any real mention of other browsers, IE ruled. I preferred it over Netscape, but once Firefox and Waterfox (which included a 64bit version) became common place, I abandoned IE for a safer browser. It is a wonder how and why IE was allowed to remain with all of its vulnerabilities. Yes rest, but in peace?
Even after trying out many other browsers, I stick with Firefox and Opera as a standby, Mindblower!
The first version I remember using was IE 5. Then I gradually started playing around with Mozilla Firefox. My standard now is Google Chrome, but the newer version of Edge is of course as good as Chrome.