As we have already mentioned in an older post there currently is a discussion going on if Safari will be the new Internet Explorer dragging the web down with less new features and slow development. I would think that this discussion is besides the point as long as we still have the real Internet Explorer around!

Microsoft Drops Support For IE 7 +8

With the recent announcement of the support end for IE 7 and 8 in January 2016 Microsoft has effectively accelerated the end of support for all Internet Explorer versions. This is a long overdue step to force their customers to use a more modern version of Internet Explorer and (I think this is more relevant) to save Microsoft a huge amount of future support costs. But let’s think about what that means for us as web developers.

The End of IE 11

For the last Internet Explorer version the support will end with the end of support for Windows 8.1 (the last Windows version shipped with IE 11). This means that IE 11 will be around until 2023 when the extended support for Windows 8.1 ends. So most web developers will be able to finally stop developing for IE in just about 7 more years. Unfortunately 7 years is a very long time in the software business….

What Does Support Mean?

While Microsoft will continue to support IE 11 until 2023 this only means they will continue to provide security updates. With the release of the new Microsoft browser Edge the feature development for Internet Explorer has come to a complete stop. This would not be such a big deal because users can update to the new Microsoft browser, right? Not without updating their Windows version as well because Edge will not run on anything older than Windows 10!

The Same Situation Again

Just like with Internet Explorer 6 Microsoft has stuck us with a browser (IE 11) for 7 more years without planning to implement a hole lot new HTML, CSS or JavaScript features into Internet Explorer 11. In 7 years the situation will be the same in regards to Internet Explorer support as we have today. The only thing that really changes are the version numbers.

Microsoft Could Fix This Mess

If Microsoft would make their new (and really good) Edge browser available to users of Windows 8 we could all avoid supporting a browser which gets older and older by the day. Understandably though Microsofts goal is to push their users to their new product Windows 10 with all power they have…