If there's one thing that //next author Markus Sekulla associates with slow Internet, it's the Internet Explorer. Now the Microsoft browser will be retired in June 2022. Reason enough for a little review.
The older ones will know what I’m talking about. In the second half of the 90s, the World Wide Web entered our lives. It's important to remember that for the first 10 years, the Internet took place primarily on our desktop computers. The smartphone existed only in Steve Jobs' head back then. Until the PC connected to the Internet, you could easily load up the washing machine, get a drink or, if you realized you didn't have one in the house, take a quick trip to the gas station. Those were the days that we look back on with a smile. The Internet took a little longer in those early days of web surfing. And so did the first browsers. Whether you were on Team Netscape or Team Internet Explorer, you couldn't afford to misplace the nail file next to the keyboard. Slow page loading was a daily companion.
Fast Forward. The Internet became faster, upload and download speeds multiplied, smartphones conquered the world and of course became faster and faster. Everything suddenly seemed to be racing. Everything? Almost! The small, Gallic village of the Internet seemed to be Internet Explorer. Even among the many Windows versions, there seemed to be no improvement in sight and so other browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera (Opera!) slowly but surely outranked and outpaced the IE. In the meantime, Chrome is the top dog and Internet Explorer has been left behind for years with a market share in the single digits. Microsoft launched Edge in 2015, a new browser that offers more speed with less room for errors.
Edge will now replace Internet Explorer in June. Microsoft's announcement can be found here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/internet-explorer-11-desktop-app-retirement-faq/ba-p/2366549
When Internet Explorer says goodbye to us in June, a source of scorn and ridicule will also disappear, which could always provide amusement with a wink between nerd and geek. Between Windows and Nokia phones, there was still a joke in there about IE. Here are my two favorite memes:
At the same time, let’s not forget: On the other side of mockery is usually a legend.
For all the mockery, somehow the time in the early days of the web were great. Everything didn't have to be so fast, we had more time and weren't so rushed. It sounds like the midlife crisis of a 40-something. But our relationship to speed has changed fundamentally. If you ask me… for the worse. Today, when it comes to TV, people don't just watch 2nd screen, they like to watch 3rd screen. If the Netflix loading circle pops up for more than a second, you almost call up your network provider to denounce the stone-age speeds.
On that note, farewell and stay relaxed, blue e!
Text: Markus Sekulla
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