By Tim Moynihan

Microsoft is phasing out the web browser, in name at least,apparently to shake off negative connotations.2phase out： 逐步廢止；browser： 瀏覽器；shake off： 擺脫；connotation： 隱含意義。

Instead it wants a fresh start for the new browser being baked into Windows 10, codenamed Project Spartan.3bake into： 此處指內(nèi)置于……；codename： v.以……為代號(hào)；Project Spartan： 斯巴達(dá)瀏覽器。Microsoft is still deciding on a name, according to The Verge4The Verge： 一家美國(guó)科技媒體網(wǎng)站，提供新聞、產(chǎn)品評(píng)論、播客、視頻等內(nèi)容。.

Losing IE will feel for many like the end of an era.

Born in 1995, early Windows users first got to know Internet Explorer 1.0 in August. Over the next 20 years, 11 versions were released. At the peak of its popularity, Internet Explorer dominated the web. It was responsible for 95 percent of all website visits. Love it or loathe it, the iconic blue “e” was part of our lives.5loathe： 厭惡，憎惡；iconic： 著名且有象征意義的，典型的。

Back in those days when instead of Googling things, we asked Jeeves6Jeeves： 指Ask Jeeves，是一個(gè)由人工操作目錄索引的美國(guó)著名搜索引擎，搜索時(shí)，它首先給出的是數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)中可能存在的答案，然后才是網(wǎng)站鏈接。…

All computer images looked like pixelated clipart7pixilated： 像素化的；clipart： 剪貼藝術(shù)。...

We got to know its quirks, accepting its bugs as simply a part of life...8quirk： 古怪行為，怪癖；bug： （計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)或程序中的）缺陷，漏洞。

Then in 2004, Mozilla Firefox9Mozilla Firefox： 火狐瀏覽器。came along. It brought along customization, private browsing and extensions.10customization： 定制；extensions： 擴(kuò)展。In browsing terms,it was a mover and shaker, especially as IE began to be plagued by serious security concerns.11在搜索詞條方面，火狐瀏覽器具有相當(dāng)?shù)挠绊懥?，尤其這時(shí)IE瀏覽器正開始遭受嚴(yán)重的安全問(wèn)題。mover and shaker： 有權(quán)勢(shì)的人，有影響的人；plague： v. 使煩惱，困擾。Spyware, adware, and computer viruses used vulnerabilities in the way IE was set up to install itself on users’computers.12間諜軟件、廣告軟件以及計(jì)算機(jī)病毒利用了IE在用戶計(jì)算機(jī)上安裝時(shí)所產(chǎn)生的漏洞。vulnerability：脆弱性，此處指漏洞。

近日微軟官方證實(shí)，IE瀏覽器品牌將會(huì)就此終結(jié)，取而代之的將是Windows 10內(nèi)置瀏覽器“Project Spartan”。對(duì)于很多人來(lái)說(shuō)，IE的終結(jié)更像是一個(gè)時(shí)代的終結(jié)，盡管我們一直在黑它，失去的時(shí)候卻還不免傷感。謹(jǐn)以此文紀(jì)念那些年我們嘲笑過(guò)的IE。

There was a security scandal in 2006 when it was discovered it was possible for rogue websites13rogue website： 欺詐網(wǎng)站。to steal information or take control of users’ computers. In 2008,the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) recommended turning off the ActiveX controls inside IE because of security concerns.14CERT： 計(jì)算機(jī)緊急預(yù)備小組；ActiveX control： ActiveX控件，是一系列軟件組件或?qū)ο?，可以將其插入到網(wǎng)頁(yè)或其它應(yīng)用程序中。

In August 2014, CERT told users to ditch IE entirely until it was patched.15ditch： 拋棄；丟棄；patch： 縫補(bǔ)，此處指修復(fù)。Not good.

By then, Chrome was on the scene.16Chrome： 谷歌瀏覽器；on the scene： 出現(xiàn)。It arrived in 2008, lightweight and speedy with countless extensions and “apps” (often just websites) available from the Chrome store. Quickly it powered its way to dominance—it has 51% usage share worldwide according to StatCounter17StatCounter： 美國(guó)一家網(wǎng)站通訊流量監(jiān)測(cè)機(jī)構(gòu)，提供各種類型的統(tǒng)計(jì)報(bào)告以及網(wǎng)站流量統(tǒng)計(jì)服務(wù)。. What you might not know is Chrome almost didn’t happen because Google’s boss, Eric Schmidt, didn’t want to go through“bruising18bruising： 激烈的。browser wars” and Google was a comparatively small company at the time. As Chrome grew in popularity, IE appeared to be entering its twilight19twilight： 衰退期，暮年。years,at least reputation-wise.

Even IE developers knew they had a problem. In a Reddit20Reddit： 一個(gè)社交化新聞和娛樂(lè)的網(wǎng)站，用戶可以將在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上搜集或原創(chuàng)的內(nèi)容以帖子的形式在網(wǎng)站上發(fā)布，而后其他用戶可對(duì)該帖進(jìn)行投票，得分突出的帖子將被放置首頁(yè)。AMA (Ask Me Anything) in August, they hoped “sincerely” they could change the reputation of IE.

Despite its reputation lots of people do still use Internet Explorer. It comes second or third in most usage share estimates.

In fact it is so widely used that some people think Microsoft aren’t getting rid of Internet Explorer entirely, because it would really hurt the way some organisations operate.

So maybe Internet Explorer is not dead after all, just retiring.