The Edge of an Era -- Internet Explorer is OFFICIALLY DYING

[Commodus]

54 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

It's the difference between catering to corporate and consumer markets. If Windows machines had to go in the bin after 4 years like phones because no more security updates, many business users would seek an alternative.

 

As an example would you rely on an Android or iOS app to operate an expensive piece of machinery, or would you rather go with a Windows program safe in the knowledge it could still be made to work in 15 years? 

 

 

There's a better balance to be struck, and I think Microsoft realizes that. It's one thing to offer support for 10-plus years; it's another to be terrified of dropping an ancient framework because some accounting firm has been using the same database software for 20 years and would prefer to keep using it for another 20. At a certain point, it crosses over from helping corporate customers to being chained to them.

 

Ideally, you'd see reasonably long support with a hard cutoff. Remind companies that expecting software to run for all eternity is not only unrealistic, but dangerous. Somewhere in between where Microsoft used to be (it's a bit better now) and Apple's several years for macOS.

[Roswell]

8 hours ago, Athan Immortal said:

 

"After March 9, 2021, the Microsoft Edge Legacy desktop app will not receive new security updates."

 

Very interesting distinction you've pointed out there actually, Vitamanic. They only mention the Windows 10 legacy edge, not IE, and a note at the bottom reads:

 

"Internet Explorer 11 is a component of the Windows operating system and follows the Lifecycle Policy for the product on which it is installed."

 

5 hours ago, Nimoy007 said:

I see you didn't read my post. If you had, you would have seen the passage in the first paragraph beginning with, "Technically..."

Stripping IE support from 365 apps is a very good reason to believe that the aging browser is very quickly becoming useless.

The title of the thread literally says IE is officially dead. It’s not.

 

The first paragraph then goes on to say Microsoft gave an end of life date for IE. They didn’t.

[Athan Immortal]

23 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

 

The title of the thread literally says IE is officially dead. It’s not.

 

The first paragraph then goes on to say Microsoft gave an end of life date for IE. They didn’t.

I agree, I was thinking it was Edge and IE from the thread title, even with that bias in my mind reading the statement from Microsoft about Edge Legacy, I had read it to be IE as well. It was only when Vitamanic pointed this distinction out that I realised I'd misread it because of this thread.

 

Title of the thread says OFFICIALLY DEAD in capital letters, and it explicitly isn't, no matter what you want to infer from MS removing Office 365 support, that still doesn't make it dead. Official would imply that Microsoft had officially said "that's it done". Thread title is a bit click baity.

[Nimoy007]

37 minutes ago, Vitamanic said:

 

The title of the thread literally says IE is officially dead. It’s not.

 

The first paragraph then goes on to say Microsoft gave an end of life date for IE. They didn’t.

I stand by the title. It may be a bit clickbaity, but no more than the content we receive from LMG already.

Also, I think I have addressed your concerns for the "first paragraph." I would have called it the summary (right below the illustration), but I think that is what you're referring to.

I would also like to point out that since Windows 10 primarily concerns itself with Edge, it's likely that the 2023 Extended Support cutoff date for Windows 7 will be the nail in the coffin for IE (I don't think Microsoft has considered 8/8.1 active for some time).

Edited August 22, 2020 by Nimoy007
Ignore the first paragraph of this reply

[Nimoy007]

Changed my mind. I'll make the title, "Officially Dying"

 

UPDATE: Also credited Vitamanic and Athan in the reason for edit on the main post

Edited August 22, 2020 by Nimoy007
Updated to credit forum members

[Dabombinable]

11 hours ago, Commodus said:

That's arguably been one of Microsoft's biggest liabilities, and why companies like Apple and Google can be so nimble in comparison.

 

Part of why the PC market was struggling pre-pandemic (and still is, to a degree) is that Microsoft's former "legacy support above all else" mantra was coming back to haunt it. Companies have been loathe to buy Windows 10 PCs because they still want to run Windows 7, because it has a Windows XP mode that can run their Windows NT apps, because... you get the idea. Microsoft was so eager to build backward compatibility into Windows that it didn't stop to realize that it was setting unrealistic support expectations. Every time it wants to ditch a legacy framework it risks alienating tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of customers who've been trained to think all their software will run forever.

 

Apple and Google, meanwhile, don't have that baggage. They can sometimes be ruthless, but they also don't end up maintaining decrepit frameworks... or, for that matter, having to rush out security patches for a 16-year-old OS when ransomware wreaks havoc across the planet.

If all software was coded well, we wouldn't be seeing as many people clinging to older OS for support. I've got some games from 1998 that run perfectly on Windows 95, and every non-ARM version of Windows up until Windows 10 2004. They were made by Epic Games btw.

[lazypc]

Wow this subject got so overblown to Internet Explorer is going away. Not just here, but by a number of news articles on the subject.

 

The only thing Microsoft said of the matter was that IE was losing compatibility of Microsoft Teams in November and the rest of Office 365 apps by August of next year... But you really shouldn't be using IE for Office 365 anyways.

 

IE 11 is still going to be around and receive security patches for the foreseeable future, so if you have crappy web apps that run in nothing else like the craptastic Lorex security camera software for our 10 year old security system. It will be just as craptastic as it's always been. Same goes for all that old company software your probably wishing would get rewritten for something more modern and probably useful.

 

I know I make it sound like I have no love lost for Internet Explorer, and that isn't true. IE was my window to the internet in my youth, but we are talking back in the Windows 95/98/ME days. (I never had internet on the first computer we ever owned that was Windows 3.1) That was not IE 11, IE 11 was Microsoft's last push to try to make something of the browser they stopped caring for and had gotten so behind on when it came to features and render speed that just mentioning the name Internet Explorer raised the neck hairs of any techs nearby.

[Koeshi]

On 8/22/2020 at 2:45 AM, TetraSky said:

Now businesses won't have any excuse to not upgrade their aging (craptastic) softwares that rely entirely on Internet Explorer and somehow doesn't work with other browsers.

Good joke, good joke plenty of places still running XP and older, if MS ended IE support today it would still be in wide corporate until at least 2030 (or whenever computers break and companies are forced to get ones that don't run IE, even then, some machines would be kept around as access terminals for IE dependent software).

 

On 8/22/2020 at 4:25 PM, Monkey Dust said:

As an example would you rely on an Android or iOS app to operate an expensive piece of machinery, or would you rather go with a Windows program safe in the knowledge it could still be made to work in 15 years? 

It would have to be a dedicated custom Linux or Unix system, even Windows Embedded is horrible for long-term reliability.  If something is expensive and needs to run reliably for years without regular resets I am not trusting it to Windows.  Even if it doesn't need to run all the time, I have seen enough issues with software that was designed for 7 and doesn't support 10 preventing machinery from working that I wouldn't trust Windows on anything other than an Office/Home PC, machinery is not what it is meant for or good at.

[Tieox]

I think some companies will need Bills Gates rotting resurrected corpse clone zombie army of 2120 to literally destroy all copies of Internet Expoited before they stop using it.

[The Benjamins]

On 8/21/2020 at 9:45 PM, TetraSky said:

Now businesses won't have any excuse to not upgrade their aging (craptastic) softwares that rely entirely on Internet Explorer and somehow doesn't work with other browsers.

GOD the amount of companies that use software that only works on IE is just insane to me.

[jagdtigger]

On 8/22/2020 at 6:20 AM, Ravendarat said:

now they will have to get off their lazy asses and actually write a new version

Rest assured they wont because $$$.....

[Ravendarat]

3 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Rest assured they wont because $$$.....

In the case Im referring to all of their hardware depends on their web program existing for loading firmware onto the modules, if the program goes down the entirety of their hardware line is worthless and so is their company.

[jagdtigger]

2 hours ago, Ravendarat said:

In the case Im referring to all of their hardware depends on their web program existing for loading firmware onto the modules, if the program goes down the entirety of their hardware line is worthless and so is their company.

So what? They will just continue using IE, EOL wont render it unusable suddenly......  Just like how they dont dispose machinery just because the control PC's OS is EOL.

[LAwLz]

I wonder if this is Microsoft artificially cutting off IE support or if there is any actual technical reason for why IE won't be able to run Office 365 apps anymore.

If there is no technical reason for it then I think this is a bad thing. Websites shouldn't be artificially blocking certain browsers from working if that browser supports everything that makes the website work. 

 

 

Just announce end of support for IE instead of this "if we make it break more and more people might leave it" BS.