27 years after its launch, Microsoft will today (Wednesday) discontinue its support for its first and oldest browser, the Explorer, in most versions of the Windows 10 operating system.
This is not a shocking surprise, as Microsoft already announced last year the date when it will stop supporting its old browser, and even then it recommended to its users to switch to the Edge browser, which it launched in 2015.
A browser that has become a monopoly
Microsoft released the first version of Explorer in 1995, and it quickly overthrew the greatness of the most popular browser of the time, the Netscape Navigator.
One of the reasons for its dominance was the strong connection the company created between its browser and the operating system it released at the time.
But both the U.S. Department of Justice and European regulators opposed this restrictive relationship, creating a monopoly - which led to Microsoft being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1997.
The claim was that the strong connection to Windows and the requirement that everyone who buys the operating system actually use this browser, has created a monopoly and an unfair advantage over other browsers, such as Google's Chrome, Mazola's Firefox and Opera.
You will not support Explorer.
Windows 10 // Photo: Reuters,
In any case, in 2000 the browser controlled 90% of the market share of all web users, but since then it has faded due to security issues, slowness and crashes, as well as following the opening of the market to better competing browsers.
Over time, most surfers have also switched to Google's Chrome browser, which currently controls about 65% of the market.
It is followed, by the way, by Apple's Safari, Mazola's Firefox - and in fourth place you will find Microsoft with its Edge.
Many surfers took advantage of the day to tell again how bad it was or to cling nostalgically to a time that was and is no more.
Were we wrong?
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