We are on August 16, 1995. The Web is still in its infancy and only a minority of early adopters already have access to the Internet, most often through a modem whose speed does not not exceed 14.4 kbps. Microsoft, which launched Windows 95 with fanfare, did not see fit to provide the tools for surfing the Web by default in its new OS, nor even support for TCP/IP, which is essential for connecting to the Internet.
It is therefore through a paying pack (50 dollars!) of additional software, called “Plus! , that Internet Explorer 1.0 (which will soon become IE) makes its appearance, lost in the middle of games, additional sounds and wallpapers. At the time, the pioneers of the Web paid little attention to it: they largely preferred Netscape Navigator, launched in October 1994, much more complete.
It must be said that Internet Explorer 1.0 does not have much original to offer. It is neither more nor less than a “skin” of Spyglass Mosaic, a browser for which Microsoft had acquired the rights under license a few months earlier, with the aim of responding as quickly as possible to the dazzling success of Netscape. The ace ! The integration of IE in a paid pack was probably not the wisest idea: Netscape thus continued its progression to the detriment of the Microsoft software.
But very quickly, the giant of Redmond changed his tune. Only a few months later, the company launched Internet Explorer 2.0, still based on Spyglass technology, but this time… for free, for everyone, including businesses. It’s a small revolution! At the time, Netscape made companies pay for its software. By making IE free, Microsoft would quickly attract the good graces of the pros.
Internet Explorer 4: the master stroke
IE 3 will be best remembered for being the first version of the software to sport the famous blue logo. But it was Internet Explorer 4 that would change everything and allow Microsoft to win what is now called the first “browser war” against Netscape, and thus ensure it a virtual monopoly on the market for ( too) long years.
In 1996, after realizing it very late, Microsoft knew full well that the Web was going to become unavoidable, and that it was essential that Windows embrace this revolution. The code of Internet Explorer 4 is thus very different from that of previous versions, and gets rid of a large part of that of Spyglass Mosaic. Microsoft also introduces the Trident rendering engine, which it will keep until the end of the browser’s life.
Above all, IE 4 is closely linked to Windows. It is delivered from the outset with the most modern versions of Windows 95, and will even be completely integrated into Windows 98, which will use its rendering engine to display the interface of the OS and offer a much more modern File Explorer. .
This decision to integrate IE 4 by default into its OS obviously had very serious consequences for Netscape, which saw its market share melt like snow in the sun as early as 1996: why would a Windows user go and download Netscape when there is already an integrated navigation software?
Thus, in the space of only a few years, and thanks to the domination of Windows on the OS market, the successive versions of IE will naturally crush all competition. From 81% market share at the end of 1996, Netscape was overtaken by Internet Explorer two years later. In 2001, the mass is said: IE monopolizes 90% of the market. Netscape no longer exceeds 5.5%!
IE 6, the worst browser in history
An obviously problematic situation on many levels. The integration of IE in Windows will even push the Federal Department of Justice and twenty American states to lodge a complaint against Microsoft for abuse of a dominant position, in 1998. The firm came within a whisker of dismantling. But escapes after an epic trial.
Above all, the omnipotence of Internet Explorer, in particular its version 6, will for a long time slow down innovation on the Web and frustrate both developers and users. Inaugurated with Windows XP in August 2001, IE 6 will indeed live for a long time, too long. It will only be replaced in 2006 by IE 7, delivered with Windows Vista.
During these six long years, Internet Explorer 6 will accumulate bugs and security problems – it’s a real sieve – and Microsoft will take malicious pleasure in not respecting Web standards to establish the domination of its baby. Microsoft will not do anything either to add new functions to it: it will be necessary to wait for XP Service Pack 2 for IE 6 to finally benefit from a poor pop-up blocker (a plague of the time). And IE 7 for Microsoft to deign to offer tabbed browsing!
Firefox, the anti Internet Explorer to the rescue
A browser as bad as IE 6 could not remain without competition for long. And it is on the ruins of Netscape that it will be born. Firefox arrives on the Web in version 1.0 at the end of 2004, thanks to the fabulous work of Mozilla and its contributors. In 1998, in fact, Netscape initiated the open source movement by taking an unprecedented decision in the history of computing: providing free source code for its Web browser, which will now be developed by a community of developers. The name of the project? Mozilla.
When it arrives, Firefox represents the antithesis of Microsoft’s software. Its source code is open, it respects Web standards as best it can, and offers a myriad of functions that IE 6 superbly ignores: tabbed browsing, extensions, themes… Firefox will immediately appeal to experienced users and developers, and grab market share from IE quickly: it reached 10% of Internet users in 2005. Microsoft doesn’t know it yet, but it’s already the beginning of the end for IE.
Safari and Chrome, the browsers that ridicule IE
But the worst was yet to come for Microsoft. In the summer of 2007, Apple launched the iPhone and took advantage of its long-term work on Safari and its own rendering engine (WebKit) to revolutionize mobile surfing. A year later, Google unveils Chrome, which also benefits from Webkit, which Apple had the good idea to make open source in 2005. But also from V8, an in-house JavaScript engine that greatly speeds up the display of complex Web pages .
Sundar Pichai (now CEO of Google) presents Chrome, in 2008
Light, fast and secure, Chrome will meet with dazzling success. It must be said that Google took full advantage of its home page to promote its browser… and at the time we were only talking about HTML 5.0 and Web 2.0 sites, which displayed very poorly in IE .
Compared to Firefox, Chrome and Safari, Internet Explorer is outdated in terms of technology and functions. And despite its integration with Windows, the glory days of IE are behind it: it will now be used mainly to “download Chrome or Firefox”, as the joke wants.
IE 9, the attempt at a comeback
A little panicked by this fierce competition, and while it is missing the turn of the mobile Web, Microsoft plays its all. In 2010, he presented Internet Explorer 9. It was a turning point: the firm had always superbly ignored the HTML 5 revolution and respect for Web standards, but said this time that it would do everything to respect them. A way of trying to seduce new Web developers, who consider Internet Explorer as a relic that must be got rid of as soon as possible. It must be said that despite the new versions of IE offered by Microsoft, this plague of IE 6 is still widely used, in particular because of a still very large fleet of PCs under Windows XP.
Too little, too late. IE 9 will not raise the bar. Faced with a Google that is multiplying innovations on Chrome at a frantic pace, Microsoft is unable to keep up, despite this sudden effort to open up.
Edge, the first death of IE
But Microsoft obviously does not want to let go. And kills IE for the first time in 2015. Aware of the deplorable image of its software, it takes advantage of the announcement of Windows 10 to inaugurate an all-browser, Edge. It incorporates a new rendering engine (EdgeHTML) which is none other than a fork of the old Trident… which relies on interoperability and absolute compliance with standards. In order to ensure the compatibility of certain web applications, however, Microsoft will leave the latest version of IE, the 11th, in a corner of Windows 10.
But nothing helps. Edge, despite increasing performance and some good ergonomic ideas, is unable to recover. Chrome now has no rival. So much so that Microsoft is forced to throw in the towel. In 2018, Microsoft announced that it was abandoning EdgeHTML, the engine inherited from that of IE, to switch to that of Chromium, the open source version of Google’s browser. IE never stops dying!
2022: game over (or almost)
The long history of Internet Explorer will come to an end in a few months. When users who still have it click the infamous blue “e”, Microsoft will kindly let them know it’s time to upgrade to Edge, and Windows will launch Edge instead.
But IE is not quite dead yet. Its impact has been such that it is still essential for some old professional applications. So, we can always, from Edge, activate the “IE mode” to load a site with the venerable IE rendering engine.