Good riddance, Internet Explorer!

Judmarc

I worked for an engineering company many years ago pre-IE and remember attending a presentation from Spyglass about using “their” (Mosaic’s, really) technology as a way to create technical visualizations, sort of a PowerPoint on steroids.

That was what having access to the original graphical Web browser amounted to in their estimation.

I’m sure they thought they were quite lucky when Microsoft agreed to pay them for a license.

LonM

@tradesmanhelix said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

maybe Firefox wasn't a viable base back when Vivaldi first launched.

This is likely the case. When vivaldi was first being developed mozilla was in the middle of a big rewrite of code, and vivaldi wouldn't have been able to keep up.

I think long-term that is a pity, but we can't turn back time.

Catweazle

IE was for me a very practical utility to download a browser on a new PC, I have always disabled it afterwards.

eilegz

considering that internet explorer its been replaced by chromium and firefox it the only real alternative, history its repeating itself sadly

eilegz

@agych: glad that someone understand the current situation, its better than ie days but its not better by any means

greybeard

One issue for me is all my HTA files.
I use IE with VBS to make it easier to administer my local network and machine.
Fortunately IE has just reached its EOL, it will not be removed from Windows so I can still use it for now...
I can always copy out the scripts and perhaps turn some or all into PowerShell scripts when IE becomes unavailable.

[EDIT] I agree with the book idea from @Nekomajin.
From Jon's Various writings and posts over the years I find he has a understanding of what is happening in the technology world and is able to elucidate this knowledge and experience into finely crafted writing.
Bravo !!

npro

Here's ~~an idea~~ the solution, Mozilla ditches dead Gecko, forks Chromium and everyone else except Google & M$ contributes to the code /added: Then you have 2 true camps fighting, forcing people to take responsibility at last and stand at the right side

Priest72

@npro said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

Here's an idea, Mozilla ditches dead Gecko, forks Chromium and everyone else except Google contributes to the code

Mozilla are/were in the process of retiring gecko and replacing with servo/rust.

but recent mozilla changes may upset that.

npro

@Priest72 said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

@npro said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

Here's ~~an idea~~ the solution, Mozilla ditches dead Gecko, forks Chromium and everyone else except Google & M$ contributes to the code /added: Then you have 2 true camps fighting, forcing people to take responsibility at last and stand at the right side

Mozilla are/were in the process of retiring gecko and replacing with servo/rust.

but recent mozilla changes may upset that.

They 're just postponing/slowing down their inevitable death this way, now that they still have some people left and with the help of the momentum regarding "privacy matters" is the time to act clever.

Nekomajin

I would read a book from Jon about the shaping of the internet and browsers with insights like these.

gabevilela

@tradesmanhelix: Perhaps in the future, we will see browser render engines born from chromium

senja

We don't even need Chrome. At last, Chrome is responsible for Presto death, not IE. Google did the same thing. Maybe now you need to work together with Mozilla, Microsoft and Apple, to improve Web standards...
You can't even identify Vivaldi on web, as Vivaldi. Is it any better with Google? I don't think so. It's even worse.
I just hope that you will be able to bring back Presto in future.

Steffie

@Priest72 said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

question..why do chrome users or rather over 70% of web users choose that browser over others.

answer.. because they're not Vivaldi users. No, i am not being trite, instead i simply allude to the concept of ethos. I posit that whilst V can be used by anyone [& obviously Jon & team would quite like such a scenario], historically to now the majority of V users have specifically sought out V & adopted it coz it matches their personal ethos. They want their web access to be as much as possible on their own terms, via a vehicle bent to their will & specific use-cases, catering to their taste & tone. We could never use Chrome.

We however remain the minority. Others [whom i might mischievously describe possibly as B-Arkers] do not give a flying fig about the vehicle. They've simply no interest in controlling the journey, they care only about the destination. They either don't understand how commodified they become by bowing to that behemoth, or sense something of it but shrug & don't care. Some, which continues to blow my mind, both know & relish being commodified [i kindly call these people; morons].

I don't need to look far to see validation [or at least, correlation] of this. My Dad, my sisters ... simply do not care, not one teensy weensy little bit do they care. In my sisters' case, they actively shake their heads & regard me with pity that i do care.

It's a weird world... but made slightly less bonkers for having V.

Nekomajin

@greybeard @jon
If not a full book, maybe a regular column on the V blog with a self-contained story each time?

Not necessarily about bashing Microsoft or Google every time, but insights of how the standards developed, what difficulties turned up at Opera or just funny stories from the world of browser development.

rickmve

@JohnConnorBear
You don't know what you are talking about and about how a web browser works. You don't need any G0gles permission to compile your own build of Chromium. Which Vivaldi and many other current web browsers are based on. Only if you will have the knowledge and time to do it. One compile takes couple of hours on a good computer. G0gles cannot lock now the Chromium code, it is only trying to forcibly steer development in its evil interest to conquer the whole Web.

You should also be grateful for what this small team from Vivaldi is giving to its users. The best user centric UI, full of innovative options like once the unique Opera had. This on top of best web engine. Yes, Chromium it is well ahead of NOzilla's engine, all websites loading faster on Chromium and with less used resources and better Dev tools. And Vivaldi is free for its users, not twisted with some build-in coin mining for supporting its advertisers. As some other competitor has and called a "brave" movement.

And get used to it. Soon the Web fabric will be Chromium based. G0gles is keeping NOzilla around just as an so called competitor and to avoid what M$hit was thrown on by the gov. for IE. And for the same money NOzilla is also following the same UI design and ergonomics as Grome to blur the line between the two for the users. And when it will not save its purpose anymore, NOzilla will be left to rot and Safari web engine will be open for other OS-es to be the alternative.

You did not read it right. It needed the other tree big players in Web browsers world to get together to turn around M$hit from its scum tactics to dominate the Web how it did with desktop computers. There are no other big players in web browser engine world anymore. NOzilla took the code from Netscape, it did not even build something from the ground, and it managed now to totally destroy what was once the THE User's browser, Firefox, with all amazing customizations from addons.

Thanks Mr. Jon for a little reminder how the web browsers history unfolded. And Vivaldi Team for some Great software to use daily and openly recommend to others.

samuvuo

@Steffie said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

Others [whom i might mischievously describe possibly as B-Arkers] do not give a flying fig about the vehicle.

Most of them don't even know they are using a browser! Anyone who's done support knows this. Therefore to assume they can just uninstall Chrome and install some other browser (as I see suggested over and over again) is a tall order.

rickmve

@JohnConnorBear
Oh yeah. You are the leader of the resistance, coming from the future were you build the greatest web browser engine to fight Gnet. And when you wake up, you go back to crack some software and load some cheats on your first person shooter games in your mom basement. And from time to time you lurk on some company forums to bash their 8 hours / 5 days a week work on a piece of software they offer to their users for free and they also spend a great amount of time explaining their product and their decisions on development.

Priest72

@JohnConnorBear TBH it sounds like your not a fan of the WWW period.
Maybe it is time for you to disconnect and have a holiday maybe.?

with all due respect to you john.

greybeard

@Steffie said in Good riddance, Internet Explorer!:

I don't need to look far to see validation [or at least, correlation] of this. My Dad, my sisters ... simply do not care, not one teensy weensy little bit do they care. In my sisters' case, they actively shake their heads & regard me with pity that i do care.

Same here.

britur

Very interesting historical summary. Pity it did not come out a few years back, would have saved users much time. Being a European, I can only say is I dont trust Microsoft 1 single MM, nor Trump, cant understand he has not been thrown into gaol yet before stealing the election.