Having read this " story " , it seems to me that the only thing that is " gone " is the name . Browser itself will still be made by Microsoft and until it is released no one has any idea as to looks or functionality .

 

Reminds me of an episode of Blackadder ( he has to marry the Spanish Infanta ) when someones eyes were said to be more blue than  " The Blue stone of Galveston " , where the person making the statement had seen neither the eyes of the person nor the Blue stone .

 

John

RIP IE.

Shouldn't it be RWOP IE! For the worst coding that ever came out of the MS stable.

Each browser has their own special use and forte, along with downsides to each.

 

The downside for MS is that the majority don't like their offering. Considering the amount of money and effort they've spent trying to coax people to use it over the years, (as well as Bing) Its got to be an expensive and disappointing result.

 

Maybe now they will sit back a bit and really try this time, to figure out why people were not impressed with their offering..

All the people saying it's a much ado about nothing have never had to develop for IE. The problem started around IE v5 or 6. Around this time, Microsoft were absolutely dominating in the browser wars (there was actually no war to speak of, Netscape Navigator didn't cut it at the time and Microsoft knew this) Microsoft got cocky and started adding features and doing things *their* way. Mozilla gained traction with Firefox, webkit was released (Safari/Chrome). Firefox and Chrome together with Opera adhered to a set of web standards and were beginning to get big.

 

Microsoft panicked and began updating (after years of being lazy). The only problem was, each new version of IE was just building on the incompatible previous version (incompatible by web standards) and web developers had to spend a ton of time just writing workarounds for IE so the site would display the same in all browsers (IE still had a massive market share)...We're talking basic CSS layouts that would completely break the page in IE. Eventually Microsoft competely rewrote IE a couple of years back to be more web compatible but it was too little too late. As we can see now, Firefox and Chrome are the big hitters and they've pretty much forced Microsoft to drop the IE brand altogether. Spartan is clearly just IE in another guise, but hopefully they've learned their lesson. They've got a long way to go before they get to the top again and I doubt it's even possible anymore.

The problem began when Bill Gates said "The internet is just a passing fad" so in typical Microsoft Fashion they got caught with their pants down and had to play catch up really fast. Then with Windows98 Second Edition their response was they integrated IE into the operating system and got caught up in anti-trust lawsuits which they were forced to reverse and pay settlements.

It was plagued from the beginning and they worked very hard over time to make it right. I do like it when MS just wipes the slate clean and starts again which is what they are doing right now, 20 years later 

 

 

Spartan is clearly just IE in another guise, but hopefully they've learned their lesson.

 

This is more than just a rebranding. They are forking the rendering engine in IE and stripping out all of the old junk that is holding it back. However, thanks to the corporate world and their custom internal applications and systems, they have to maintain backwards compatibility too, meaning the IE rendering engine will still be included.

 

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/01/what-we-know-about-project-spartan-extensions-and-performance-yes-windows-7-no/

I am wondering about the up coming windows 10. What about windows 9 ? I wonder if we are going once again to see a whole new platform like we did with XP becoming Vista? 

I am wondering about the up coming windows 10. What about windows 9 ? I wonder if we are going once again to see a whole new platform like we did with XP becoming Vista? 

 

I thought Windows 8 was Vista 2.0? My mistake maybe.

 

It probably either boils down to a marketing thing to name it windows 10, or 8.1 is windows 9, or they had a windows 9 and it was really bad so were skipping to 10.

I thought Windows 8 was Vista 2.0? My mistake maybe.

 

It probably either boils down to a marketing thing to name it windows 10, or 8.1 is windows 9, or they had a windows 9 and it was really bad so were skipping to 10.

They didn't "scrap" 9. They used a different number because Windows 98 and 95 both start with 9, and that caused some interference. Read about it here: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/191279-why-is-it-called-windows-10-not-windows-9

I am not skeptical of things to come. They have learned from Windows 8 and 8.1 was reversing some of that mistake. WIndows 10 should be in the right direction. Spartan is just the browser that will come with WIn10 and if it is great then people will use it. If not then Chrome or Firefox  or browser of choice will still be available.

 

From what I read Spartan is a restart and not a next release of IE with a new name, They are working on new things and speed is one of those things

It was plagued from the beginning and they worked very hard over time to make it right. I do like it when MS just wipes the slate clean and starts again which is what they are doing right now, 20 years later 

 

IE4, IE5 and IE6 were absolutely glorious to write for, when compared to Netscape Navigator. The equivalent of an IE6 hack fifteen years ago was the terrible code and workarounds we had to write for Netscape.

 

IE didn't get updated for a number of years, but back in its day was actually pretty decent.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

I thought Windows 8 was Vista 2.0? My mistake maybe.

 

It probably either boils down to a marketing thing to name it windows 10, or 8.1 is windows 9, or they had a windows 9 and it was really bad so were skipping to 10.

You are correct the platform for windows 8 is the last and most corrected version of Vista. It takes about that long to make em work these days. I just hope we don't go into a whole new non-working out of the Gate / Bill  version of windows again / SP1/ SP2 / SP3 oh .... lets make windows 11 now situation, but I guess I need something to do at night huh. 

 

 

IE didn't get updated for a number of years, but back in its day was actually pretty decent.

 

I agree, I was happy with all things Microsoft at that time. I was a Windows NT user when I was using AutoCAD and 3D Studio MAX but I used to dual boot with Windows 98 to use MSFS 98 etc

 

Windows 2000 was awesome

Windows XP was awesome

 

IE was fine, just fine in those days

 

A little part of my is still heart broken with the later years of MS but I have moved on  B)

Haven't used IE since 2000 or so. Before Firefox launched, I used Netscape.