◎ reporter Liu Yan
After 25 years, Microsoft Internet Explorer is about to "retire", and another digital product has faded out of the stage of science and technology history.
From June 15, 2022, some versions of Windows software will no longer support the current version of IE 11 desktop applications.
There is glory and word-of-mouth decline.
IE is a graphical user interface web browser developed by Microsoft, and it is one of the most important tags in the Internet era. Without rivals and the system itself, IE browser peaked at birth, and its market share was as high as 95% at one time.
On August 24, 1995, Microsoft was in Windows 95 Plus! The first IE browser was launched in Pack — — IE1.0。 The cleverness of Microsoft lies in bundling it into the operating system and offering it to users for free. Two years later, IE browser occupied 49% market share.
Binding policy is not the only reason why IE browser dominates the rivers and lakes. IE browser is the first supporter of many technologies commonly used in web pages now, which makes web pages more interactive and attractive in visual effects, and competitors are left far behind.
For example, because IE browser supports AJAX at the bottom, web pages can display the latest information from server data without refreshing. This concept is very important for highly interactive websites such as Gmail and Google Maps.
However, with the advent and continuous progress of Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and other browsers, users have made comparisons and choices, and a large number of market shares of IE browsers have been seized, with the share falling below 20% in 2015.
On April 29th, 2015, Microsoft announced the launch of the Edge browser at the Build conference, and encouraged users to stop using IE and switch to Edge. IE browser began a long farewell.
Talking about this alternation between the old and the new, Microsoft replied to the Science and Technology Daily reporter: "The development of the Internet has surpassed the evolution of IE browser. Considering the new Web standards and innovation requirements, we need to build a new browser. Compared with IE browser, Microsoft Edge can bring a faster, safer and more modern Web experience to Internet users. "
Microsoft emphasizes that Microsoft Edge with IE mode is the only browser with built-in support and compatibility with websites and applications based on IE browser.
In other words, the Edge browser solves a key problem. IE functions such as developer tools and ActiveX controls can be called in the Edge browser, and users can directly access the old websites and applications based on IE from the Edge.
There are changes and the future is unpredictable.
On August 17th this year, the last major version of IE browser, IE 11, will cut off Microsoft online services, such as Office 365, OneDrive and Outlook.
Luo Haoyuan, co-founder of Sino-Guangdong Investment, believes that IE’s suspension of service has no effect on ordinary users. The long-term service channel (LTSC) of Windows 10 will still support IE browser, so the operation of websites such as enterprises, institutions, governments and banks that only use IE browser at present will not be affected.
Shi Lei, the former founder of WPDang, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter: "Edge’s connection with IE comes naturally, which is in line with Microsoft’s development plan. Judging from the basic technology construction of Edge browser based on Chrome, not everything in Microsoft is based on its own standards. "
In Shi Lei’s view, Microsoft is the most basic standard setter, or at least the main participant in standard setting. It doesn’t matter to Microsoft which kernel the browser uses. HTML language is a standard that Microsoft participated in, which is enough. Just as whether windows and office are used or not is not so important to Microsoft, as long as ntfs (a disk format supported by a series of operating systems of Microsoft Windows NT kernel and designed for network and disk quota, file encryption and other management security features) or even the lower file system and office document format are common formats in the industry, it will be beneficial to Microsoft.
"IE curtain call and Edge, Microsoft is still that Microsoft, and it is still a top technology company." Shi Lei said, "It is alive and well. The company that raises scientists will not make big mistakes and can afford the cost of trial and error."
However, the hero’s late death still attracts countless sadness. The feeling of "Ye Qing Hui" and "Ye Qing Jie" is not only the memory of many people touching the Internet for the first time, but also the doubt about the future direction of the browser, which was the absolute overlord of traffic portal in the past.
With the application and cloudization of PC, mobile phone and other devices, the meaning of "portal" has fundamentally changed. Without the browser, it will not affect people’s shopping, social interaction, games and entertainment, and the scenes generated by the browser will become less and less important.
Luo Haoyuan said: "The focus of competition has shifted from entrance to time. Whoever takes up more users’ time has greater value."
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