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Thursday, 11 August 2016

Internet Explorer - still around but why?

Way back in the mid 1990s when Windows 95 was introduced to the public, Netscape's Navigator was the dominant web browser. Microsoft's Internet Explorer then dominated the internet browser market as a free add on to Windows operating systems. At work, Internet Explorer is still the default browser to connect to the company intranet, as soon as we require internet browsing capabilities, most switch to their favoured browsers as most people have their preferred product. 


The introduction of Safari in 2003, Firefox in 2004 and Chrome in 2008 saw Internet Explorer's dominant market share decimated. Although Internet Explorer still maintains just below a 15% market share slightly behind Firefox's 16%: Internet Explorer dwarfs Apple's Safari browser at slightly over 4% with Microsoft Edge trailing Opera at around 2% market share.  

Now that Windows 10 replaces Internet Explorer with Microsoft Edge: this effectively spells the end of Internet Explorer as an operating system. Technical support will apparently continue for the latest version for each operating system for an undetermined period as each product life cycle differs - it's almost gone.

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