Internet Explorer Lives On In Windows 10, Microsoft Shopping Brand Names For 'Project Spartan'

[canadianvice]

Not sure. IE has been ranked the most secure for years now, also the fastest and ranked just as high as the others on HTML5 tests. All the negativity is from old tech dorks that compare a newly released Chrome browser to IE6 or whatever. Anyone that develops web sites knows that ALL the modern browsers are essentially the same.

Who wants Chrome and Google? You practically have to log in just to browse the web, they track everything, the browser has no options, so minimal that it's useless.... blech!

You're being monitored if you like it or not - now that Americans have allowed the NSA and PATRIOT to take their right to privacy from them. By extension, we all lose it.

I don't much care - good luck using that data effectively. Though, the first time I logged in with Chrome I started getting Tim Hortons' ads everywhere. Not that I'm opposed.

As for "so simple as to be useless", really? One of the few areas I don't care to tweak and mess around is my browser. Chrome is simple. It loads pages and doesn't do much else - but that's all I need from my browser. + Adblock and Lastpass, but that's everywhere.

There's this weird trend in tech, and the same one that afflicts linux, that seems to think extra features are better no matter how much more complex they make the usability of a product. I don't see that as improvement, I see that as bad design.

 

[PaulBags]

Firefox let's me block javascript, download youtube videos, manipulate a websites css, tweak the ui how I like it, etc etc.

But as you say, mangling usability is a problem, and I haven't updated firefox in a long time because of it.

 

[abrarey]

Clippy Navigator, Bing Browser, MSN Explorer, One Browser, Lync Navigator just to name a few 😛

 

[canadianvice]

Firefox let's me block javascript, download youtube videos, manipulate a websites css, tweak the ui how I like it, etc etc.

But as you say, mangling usability is a problem, and I haven't updated firefox in a long time because of it.

I'm kind of torn between Chrome and firefox. Chrome is an absolutely horrendous mobile browser, especially on a hidpi touch system like the SP3, so I use FF there. That said, I'm not superbly fond of it - it's more out of necessity.

On the other hand, Chrome works beautifully for me on a desktop, so I haven't felt any compulsion to switch - it doesn't require worrying about third party components, except for Java, (built in PDF/flash) and it certainly has plenty of extensibility. I also find the command line options to be a bit better than the way FF has them implemented.

They're both quite good though; however, I never have considered IE. It's just not a very nice browser IMO.

 

[shenquay]

I can't wait to see how Microsoft will implement Cortana into Project Spartan.

As for names for Project Spartan, I can think of a few good ones. Guilty Spark, Mjolnir, Requiem, Forerunner, Installation 5, Pillar of Autumn, Incorruptible, Covenant, Elite, Arbiter, John-117, Johnson, Banshee, Battle Rifle, Plasma Grenade, I can keep going...

 

[Durandul]

I like how almost universally, at least in my opinion, the codenames for their products are cooler and more catchy than the release name. I recommend they keep it as project spartan barring any legal issues.

 

[canadianvice]

I can't wait to see how Microsoft will implement Cortana into Project Spartan.

As for names for Project Spartan, I can think of a few good ones. Guilty Spark, Mjolnir, Requiem, Forerunner, Installation 5, Pillar of Autumn, Incorruptible, Covenant, Elite, Arbiter, John-117, Johnson, Banshee, Battle Rifle, Plasma Grenade, I can keep going...

Keep in mind - Spartan is the browser, Cortona is the system-wide personal assistant. They're separate elements.

 

[alextheblue]

I hear that a lot, but I've never had any issues with bugs or crashing. My only annoyance is the abysmal hidpi support and the fact it runs mobile processors extremely hot.

It isn't just making them run hot mysteriously, think about what it is doing to produce that heat. It's eating up more cycles than it should AND it won't let your system sleep. It just isn't very efficient, at least on Windows systems... and that's at least partially intentional. Makes Chromebooks look better when testing with the "same" browser.

That's why IE11 gets much better battery life ratings and why some hardware sites had to move to IE11 for battery life browser tests. Ask the gents over at THG's sister site Anandtech.

On the other hand, Chrome works beautifully for me on a desktop, so I haven't felt any compulsion to switch - it doesn't require worrying about third party components, except for Java, (built in PDF/flash)

They're both quite good though; however, I never have considered IE. It's just not a very nice browser IMO.

I have to use Chrome at work and I don't like the built in PDF viewer. I wish I could permanently murder it (I can't make substantial changes to these machines). I use Adobe Reader at home and its much nicer. The built in flash player seems pretty competent, though. I guess it's fairly idiot proof, though.

As for IE11, it's pretty solid all around. I like using the Modern UI version on touchscreen devices - it's also got built-in Flash but thankfully uses your preferred PDF reader to open PDFs (which can be the stock PDF reader or Adobe Reader, etc).

 

[demonkoryu]

You need to stop referring to W3Schools browser stats as if they were representative for the whole world. W3Schools is mostly visited by web developers; of course they won't be using IE as much as the rest of the world!
Looking at another, consolidated source of browser stats, netmarketshare.com, IE has a market share of 55% worldwide.

 

[wishtar]

I'd read elsewhere that the reason they are creating a new browser is so they can dump all the baggage that comes with making it backwards compatible with older versions of IE. So taking Internet Explorer out of the name makes sense.

 

[Vlad Rose]

I bet it won't be cross platform nor use W3C standards. They can call it whatever the heck they want if so; developers will still hate it and not want to support it unless forced to.

There's a reason why Chrome and Firefox became so popular....

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Microsoft needs to explain their reasoning for having both web browsers. What are the benefits of one over the other? I think it would be better if they just focused on one web browser, Spartan, and forgot about Internet Explorer (considering its bad vulnerability history, poor code interpretation, etc.). I have found that Firefox is actually the lowest in resources and handles hefty transitions with the least lag compared to Chrome (with hardware acceleration on in both browsers). When I design websites, I also notice that Firefox all-around renders elements often slightly better than Chrome, in which some things may be a pixel off at times.

Anyway, I do have hope for Spartan, I guess Microsoft is keeping IE just because it's been a name brand for decades. But I hope they fix the problems that cause 65% people to use Chrome.

Oh, and my favorite Firefox feature is 3D webpage view.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

You need to stop referring to W3Schools browser stats as if they were representative for the whole world. W3Schools is mostly visited by web developers; of course they won't be using IE as much as the rest of the world!
Looking at another, consolidated source of browser stats, netmarketshare.com, IE has a market share of 55% worldwide.

W3schools is a really poor site for anyone learning web development, they should stay away from it. Their information is mostly outdated on there. See http://www.w3fools.com/ for more information. Mozilla Development Network has the best up-to-date documentations ranging from HTML to Javascript, and CSS-tricks is a great site for learning styling.