SEOUL, June 17 (Reuters) – For Jung Ki-young, a South Korean software engineer, Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) decision to withdraw its Internet Explorer web browser marked the end of a love-hate relationship. a quarter of a century with technology. .
To commemorate his disappearance, he spent a month and 430,000 won ($330) designing and ordering a tombstone with the Explorer “e” logo and the English epitaph: “It was a good tool to download other browsers.”
After the memorial was put on display at a cafe run by his brother in the southern city of Gyeongju, a photo of the tombstone went viral.
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Microsoft dropped support for the once-ubiquitous Internet Explorer on Wednesday after 27 years, to focus on its fastest browser, Microsoft Edge.
Jung said the memorial showed his mixed feelings about the earlier software, which had played such a big role in his working life.
“It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer himself once dominated an era,” he told Reuters.
He said he found that it took him longer to make sure his websites and online apps worked with Explorer than with other browsers.
The tombstone of the Internet Explorer browser, created by South Korean software engineer Jung Ki-young, is displayed on the rooftop of a cafe in Gyeongju, South Korea, on June 17, 2022. Jung Ki-Young/ Flyer via REUTERS
But his clients kept asking him to make sure their websites looked good in Explorer, which remained the default browser in South Korean government offices and many banks for years.
Launched in 1995, Explorer became the world’s leading browser for more than a decade, bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system that came pre-installed on billions of computers. read more
But it started losing out to Google’s Chrome in the late 2000s and became the subject of countless internet memes, with some developers suggesting it was slow compared to its rivals.
Jung said he intended to make people laugh with the tombstone, but was still surprised at how far the prank went online.
“That’s another reason to thank the Explorer, now it’s allowed me to pull off a world-class prank,” he said.
“I’m sorry he’s gone, but I won’t miss him. So his retirement, to me, is a good death.”
($1 = 1,292.2600 won)
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Information from Minwoo Park and Hyonhee Shin; Edited by Andrew Heavens
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source: www.reuters.com