End of the Spartan? With the launch of the Chromium version of Edge nicely done, the software titan now has three different web browsers available for Windows users.
These being Internet Explorer, the legacy version of Microsoft Edge, and the Chromium flavor.
No secret that of these three, Redmond only sees a future for the third and final one. This is why the company is doing all it can to entice everyone to give the new Edge a try — even if it involves a few questionable tactics and aggressive advertising.
At the same time, the company has outlined plans to kill off the other two old browsers.
Namely Internet Explorer, and Edge Legacy, also known as Project Spartan.
The whole affair will take place in stages, of course. It will start with Microsoft Teams dropping support for IE 11 after November 30, 2020. Come March 9, 2021, Edge Legacy will also reach end of life status, which means it will not receive any new updates, not even security fixes.
Microsoft will follow this by dropping support for Internet Explorer 11 entirely on Microsoft 365 on August 17, 2021.
As explained:
“Using Internet Explorer mode in the new Microsoft Edge will not help to extend IE 11 access to Microsoft 365 apps and services beyond the dates listed above. Microsoft 365 apps and services will stop supporting IE 11 on the dates listed.”
The online Microsoft 365 service will not completely stop working on Internet Explorer 11 after this date, but some features may cease to work.
Likewise, Edge Legacy that made its debut with Windows 10 back in 2015 will continue to work beyond its retirement date, but it will remain an unsupported piece of software. Even now, its user base has shrunk considerably as people have made the jump to the new Edge.
Expect this transition to pick up pace in the coming months.
For both these classic browsers.
