Yes yes, we know that IE isn’t available for Mac. And that writing about it on an Apple blog doesn’t make much sense. But when Microsoft announced that it will be permanently shutting down all the older versions of IE (except IE 11), we couldn’t help but feel a part of our childhood being lost. What else did we have in 1995, except IE, Swat Kats and Super Mario! It is an end of an era, and we couldn’t stop ourselves from writing about it.
The writing was on the wall
Frankly, the news doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, most people are relieved! IE has long been ridiculed as the buggiest and most difficult browser to work on. Microsoft itself had been talking about the inevitable for some time now. And the axe has finally fallen!
IE 11: The Sole Survivor
Microsoft hasn’t killed IE altogether. IE11 is still available and the company assures that it offers a trouble-free experience. To quote their website, “Internet Explorer 11 offers improved security, increased performance, better backward compatibility, and support for the web standards that power today’s websites and services.
Discontinuing older versions of IE doesn’t mean that the versions installed on your desktops and laptops will stop running altogether. You can still access them if they’re already installed. However, Microsoft will no longer provide updates for them, making them all the more vulnerable to spam and security attacks. Folks, it’s really time to move on!
Welcome to ‘Edge’!
We, at AppleSutra, are very picky about browsers. We are Mac users, but most of us don’t use Safari, despite it offering better native integration with Mac OS. That’s because we believe that Google Chrome is still the undisputed king of browsers. But having used Edge firsthand, we have to admit (albeit little grudgingly, that it comes freakishly close!
Microsoft has done an incredible job integrating Cortana and Edge, and many of its features are more than just “frills”. Edge still has a long way to go, but it did fix a lot of issues that IE had.
Our Suggestions
— If you use Windows 8.1 or lower, you should immediately update to IE 11.
— If you use Windows 10 or higher, you should take the plunge of leaving behind IE and give Edge a try. It will surprise you!
