By Derek Ashauer
Internet Explorer (IE) used to be the de facto browser for all PC users. Then other browsers like Firefox and eventually Chrome came into the market and that all started to change. IE was the biggest nightmare for a web design and development company like us. Until a few years ago, that is. Many developers simply stopped caring about IE and stopped trying to make their site work in the browser. If something didn’t quite work in IE, it was IE’s fault and developers stopped caring and the user should be the one to update and get with the times. Older versions of IE actually had an effect on how designers, like myself, would create web designs because of it’s limitations.
The reason for this was because older versions of IE did not follow many standards as outlined by the W3C, an organization which defines the rules for coding in HTML and CSS. IE made developing newer features and pushing the web to new heights significantly more difficult. Trying to develop to IE could add a lot of time and cost to a project and it simply was not worth it anymore.
Thankfully, Microsoft has recently announced that it will cease to provide support and updates to all of its IE browsers, except for it’s most recent release IE 11. Users still on older versions of IE will get upgrade notices telling them to move to IE 11 and that anything older simply will not be updated anymore. Microsoft is also trying to move users to it’s newest browser, Edge. Users who don’t update to at least IE11 could put themselves at a security risk in the future as new security issues are found and exploited by hackers.
It took a while but Microsoft finally learned that how they developed IE was not good for the web nor themselves. I still remember the day when I finally said “I’m done with IE” and stopped trying to develop for that browser a while back. It was one of the most liberating moments of my life, not just as a developer. From that point forward I started adopting newer HTML/CSS coding techniques which made building websites easier and more flexible. I’m incredibly excited Microsoft is continuing to take steps to rid the world of IE and the big ugly stain it created.