The Obituary
Internet Explorer won the first browser war by the simple tactic of being free and pre-installed on every copy of Windows. Released in 1995, it buried Netscape and by 2003 ran on about 95% of the world’s computers, a grip so total it drew a US antitrust suit. Then Microsoft stopped innovating. IE6 lingered for years, riddled with security flaws and broken standards, while Firefox and Chrome raced past it. Mocked as slow and unsafe, it survived mainly as the tool people used to download a better browser. Microsoft retired the desktop app on June 15, 2022, replacing it with Edge.
Worth remembering
- At its 2002-2003 peak IE held roughly 95% of the browser market.
- Its dominance triggered the United States v. Microsoft antitrust case over bundling.
Sources
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.