I remember when Microsoft tried to pass IE9 as a "modern browser" - with less than half the HTML5 features of Chrome and Firefox at the time (which is still true for the latest IE versions btw).
IE11 is fairly modern. You can't berate Microsoft for trying to catch up.
We don't want to be in a position where there can't be new browser engines because they're not "modern" if they don't implement literally every feature their competitors support.
IE11 was fairly modern when it came out. It will likely be legacy long before IE12 or whatever they decide to call it comes out. They're not really going to be able to play keep up until they divorce the browser from the OS. Given that this is Microsoft it is kind of funny that this is their problem now.
> IE11 is an evergreen browser with constant improvement.
Until Spartan comes out?
> There won't be another IE. There will be Spartan.
So we're going to be stuck supporting IE11 long after "Spartan" has taken hold just like every previous release? Doesn't that go against the whole purpose of the "Evergreen" browser?
> They basically have, long ago. IE10 and IE11 aren't Windows 8-exclusive.
I don't mean exclusive to the operating system. I mean that there are parts of the OS that rely on the browser libraries itself. And there are weird situations where OS things rely on IE libraries, or (Worse) Office Libraries. That at least for a while was one of the big reasons the problems would never get fixed.
Those companies are part of the problem, not the solution.
FWIW, we're driving our users to deploy at least IE10 before talking to us, preferably IE11. Supporting old browsers is just not worth it--for devs in the short-term, or clients in the long-term.
Supporting old browsers is just not worth it--for devs in the short-term, or clients in the long-term.
The part you missed is that it is worth it for clients in the short term. If you have an eCommerce site and a portion of your potential customers use IE8, then you cater to IE8. It's as simple as that. When your business depends on making money every month, "short term" or "long term" doesn't matter as much.
