Microsoft finally retired its ancient Internet Explorer web browser last week, confirming that it will not receive security updates or support on affected versions of Windows.
Additionally, the company will slowly redirect all users to Edge over the next few months. Upon completion of this transition, IE will be disabled for good via an update that will be released via Windows Update.
Given that the first public version of IE was released 27 years ago, the browser obviously holds more meaning to some than others. While it was the king of the hill for a fair while, Internet Explorer started losing users rapidly as alternatives like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome gained more traction.
So much so that for some folks, it eventually became the best browser to download other browsers.
And this seems to be the point for South Korean software engineer Jung Ki-young who decided to mark this moment in the best possible way.
For the momentous occasion, he decided to spend ₩ $430,000 ($330) on a gravestone dedicated to the infamous browser. As can be seen in the photos below, it mentions Internet Explorer’s lifespan, which is August 17, 1995, to June 15, 2022.
Reuters reports that the gravestone is placed at the café run by his brother in Gyeongju, South Korea, and the memorial quickly went viral both online and offline.
Jung mentions that even when other browsers dominated the global market, his customers kept requesting him to ensure that the websites and apps he created for them looked good in Internet Explorer.
This makes sense, considering that the browser was the default option in government environments worldwide.
The demise of Internet Explorer is undoubtedly a historical moment for the technology world, as this browser from Microsoft has been a leading name in its domain for a long time.
Viral stories like these will only add to the legend of Internet Explorer.
It has been a good run, IE!
