The Verge: ‘Microsoft Is Killing Off the Internet Explorer Brand’

Tom Warren, writing for The Verge:

While Microsoft has dropped hints that the Internet Explorer brand is going away, the software maker has now confirmed that it will use a new name for its upcoming browser successor, codenamed Project Spartan. Speaking at Microsoft Convergence yesterday, Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela revealed that the company is currently working on a new name and brand. “We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10,” said Capossela. “We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing.”

As a lifelong Mac user, my thoughts on “Internet Explorer” run to the Mac version. It was a lifeboat back in the late ’90s — a browser with reasonable performance and high-quality rendering and strong support for web standards. But it would sometimes wedge your entire machine. It was like browsing with a stick of dynamite that could go off at any moment. And remember the pre-Safari days on Mac OS X? The days of bringing down the whole system were over, but good lord was that thing ugly.

★ Tuesday, 17 March 2015