Microsoft’s original web browser is on its last legs. Internet Explorer first launched in 1995 as the default web browser for Windows 95. But Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with the Edge browser in recent years… and more recently the company has moved to replace the original version of Edge with a new version based on Google’s Chromium.
So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen websites end support for the aging Internet Explorer.
Now the latest company to announce it will no longer let you connect to its website using Internet Explorer is… Microsoft.
The company says that as of November 30, 2020 Internet Explorer 11 will no longer be supported when connecting to the Microsoft Teams web app.
Starting Augus 17, 2021, Microsoft will end IE11 support for the rest of its Microsoft 365 apps and services.
Microsoft says that means “customers will have a degraded experience or will be unable to connect” to Microsoft 365 using the IE11 web browser, with some features not working if you’re able to login at all.
The company doesn’t necessarily expect other companies to follow its lead though — and notes that businesses that have created their own legacy apps that may only work in IE11 will be able to continue to use the browser to access those apps indefinitely… because porting them to modern web technologies is likely a pain.
The new Edge browser also has an Internet Explorer mode that should allow users to access those legacy apps without actually using Microsoft’s no-longer-supported-or-updated browser.
And speaking of browsers that will no longer be supported, Microsoft has also announced that it will be ending support for the original version of Edge. It will stop receiving security updates after March 9, 2021. By that time Microsoft expects all Edge users to be running the new Chromium-based version of the browser.
via Thurrott
So this means Google Chrome won the browser wars?
Explorer has its legacy. When Edge eventually shuts down nobody will even remember it existed.