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Explorer’s New Clothes

edge logo animated It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser. And perhaps that’s a gross understatement. So when Microsoft officially unveiled its new browser last week, titled Edge, it left me curious for a couple reasons. First, as a developer, we now have to test our web applications in one more environment. Second, will this be a completely different browser or is Microsoft selling the same Internet Explorer with a new identity?

I’m not completely thrilled about the idea of having to test our applications and websites in yet another environment. The recent iterations of Internet Explorer have been far less excruciating to build for in comparison to the days of IE6 or IE7, so one can hope that Edge will continue the upward trend toward the industry’s standards. Webdesigner Depot’s article points out that Microsoft’s Edge only supports 75 percent of what Chrome offers. This means Edge’s capabilities aren’t too revolutionary. The Picture Element is not supported, the Grid Layout specification is only partially supported and CSS Filters are not supported.

While I believe Microsoft was aiming to show the world their little browser of old had all grown up, I fear they merely put some new clothes on it and gave it a new name. Even the logo just looks like it got a haircut and lost some weight … Only time will tell. When Windows 10 launches, I’ll be sure to dig my hands into the new browser and begin testing away.

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