Posts Tagged ‘ie’

GoodBye IE ( 1995-2015), Hello Project Spartan!

January 27th, 2015

The famed rounded e on your desktop, representing the connection to the world, is now being phased out. Can’t understand? Well, Microsoft has decided to phase out Internet Explorer, the web browser that actually started it all back in the days. With Windows 10 almost near its launch in 2015, MS has bundled it with a brand new browser to replace IE.

Phasing Out Bad Memories

Although, Internet Explorer was the browser of choice for people in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, lately it has lost its steam. With stiff competition from high performance browsers like Chrome and Firefox, IE was a chink in the Windows armor. Old versions of IE were reported to have many bugs and large bug fixes. Also, the support for Javascript and other latest features were somewhat less functional in IE compared to other browsers. Although, IE will be phased out slowly and Windows 10 will have IE in the initial versions.

Hail the Spartan

Project Spartan is well in the lines of modern high performance browsers delivering a crisp browsing experience. Being in development stage, not much details are revealed. However, its intelligence is reported to lie in the fact that it will make browsing clutter free. It aims to deliver valuable information to the reader and remove the unnecessary bells and whistles associated with web pages. Spartan’s integration with Cortana (MS’s voice assistant AI) is also on the cards. It can give you voice assistance when you are looking for real world integration like directions or restaurant reviews.

It will offer customizable reading lists which will be cross-platform. This means that you can save your favorite pages for offline viewing comfortably. In-browser note-taking will be supported as well. It’s also reported that it can be done via stylus or touch. Readers can also add comments and annotations anywhere on the webpage. Of course, people can also expect to borrow certain UI elements from Chrome and Firefox. But it will be really Microsoft’s trick to pull off a good UI without seeming like a copycat. Similarities with IE will surely be reflected in some boxy buttons and features.

Recent independent benchmarks have revealed that Project Spartan has performed very well indeed. Its performance is notably faster compared to its sibling IE 11. In some tests, including Octane, WebXPRT, Sunspider and HTML5 test, it has outdone the competition. And all this is still in development stage. So, the final version is going to be even more exciting.

With Windows 10 around the corner, MS is heating up the gossip in the streets. Project Spartan will definitely be a gem in the upcoming eagerly awaited Windows version. We really hope MS keeps the name Spartan although it is so far only a codename.