History of Internet Explorer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- This article is about Internet Explorer for Microsoft Windows. For the Apple Macintosh version, see Internet Explorer for Mac.
The following is a brief history of Internet Explorer.
Contents |
Early beginnings: Spyglass Mosaic
Internet Explorer is derived from Spyglass Mosaic. Originally, Spyglass licensed the technology and trademarks from NCSA for producing their own web browser but never used any of the NCSA Mosaic source code [1]. In 1995 Spyglass Mosaic was licensed by Microsoft, in an arrangement under which Spyglass would receive a quarterly fee plus a percentage of Microsoft's revenues for the software.
The browser was then modified and renamed as Internet Explorer. Microsoft originally released Internet Explorer 1.0 in August 1995 with the Internet Jumpstart Kit in Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. Version 1.5 was released later for Windows NT that supported basic table rendering. Version 2.0 was released for both Windows 95 and Windows NT in November 1995, featuring support for SSL, cookies, VRML, and Internet newsgroups. Version 2.0 was also released for the Macintosh and Windows 3.1 in April 1996.
Internet Explorer 3.0 was released free of charge in August 1996 by bundling it with Windows 95 OSR2. Microsoft thus made no direct revenues on IE and was liable to pay Spyglass only the minimum quarterly fee. In 1997, Spyglass threatened Microsoft with a contractual audit, in response to which Microsoft settled for US $8 million [2]. Version 3 included Internet Mail and News 1.0 and the Windows Address Book. It also brought the browser much closer to the bar that had been set by Netscape, including the support of Netscape's plugins technology (NPAPI), ActiveX, and a reverse-engineered version of JavaScript named JScript. Later, Microsoft NetMeeting and Windows Media Player were integrated into the product and thus helper applications became not as necessary as they once were. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were also introduced with version 3 of Internet Explorer.
Second stage: browser wars
Version 4, released in October 1997, was shipped with Windows 98 and was modified to integrate more closely with Microsoft Windows. It included an option to enable "Active Desktop" which displayed World Wide Web content on the desktop itself and was updated automatically as the content changed. The user could select other pages for use as Active Desktops as well. "Active Channel" technology was also introduced to automatically obtain information updates from websites. The technology was based on an XML standard known as Channel Definition Format (CDF), which predated the currently used web syndication formats like RSS. This version was designed to work on Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT, and could be downloaded from the Internet, free of charge. It supported Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Outlook Express 4.0 also came integrated into the browser and replaced the aging Microsoft Internet Mail & News product that was released with previous versions.
In September 1998, Microsoft released version 5 of Internet Explorer. Bi-directional text, ruby text and direct XML/XSL support were included in this release, along with enhanced support for CSS Level 1 and 2. The actual release of Internet Explorer 5 happened in three stages. Firstly, a Developer Preview was released in June 1998 (5.0B1), and then a Public Preview was released in November 1998 (5.0B2). Then in March 1999 the final release was released (5.0). In September it was released with Windows 98. Version 5.0 was the last one to be released for Windows 3.1x or Windows NT 3.x. Internet Explorer 5.5 was later released for Windows Me in July 2000, and included many bug fixes and security patches.
Version 6 was released with Windows XP in October 25, 2001. It mainly focused on privacy and security features, as they had become customer priorities. Microsoft implemented tools that support P3P, a technology under development by the W3C.
United States v. Microsoft
- For more details on this topic, see United States v. Microsoft.
In a legal case brought by the US Department of Justice and twenty U.S. states, Microsoft was accused of breaking an earlier consent decree, by bundling Internet Explorer with its operating system software. The department took issue with Microsoft's contract with OEM computer manufacturers that bound the manufacturers to include Internet Explorer with the copies of Microsoft Windows they installed on systems they shipped. Allegedly, it would not allow the manufacturer to put an icon for any other web browser on the default desktop in place of Internet Explorer. Microsoft maintained that integration of its web browser into its operating system was in the interests of consumers.
Microsoft asserted in court that IE was integrated with Windows 98, and that Windows 98 could not be made to operate without it. Australian computer scientist Shane Brooks later demonstrated that Windows 98 could in fact run with IE files removed [3]. Brooks went on to develop software designed to customize Windows by removing "undesired components", which now known as LitePC. Microsoft has claimed that the software did not remove all components of Internet Explorer, leaving many dynamic link library files behind.
On April 3, 2000, Judge Jackson issued his findings of fact that Microsoft had abused its monopoly position by attempting to "dissuade Netscape from developing Navigator as a platform", that it "withheld crucial technical information", and attempted to reduce Navigator's usage share by "giving Internet Explorer away and rewarding firms that helped build its usage share" and "excluding Navigator from important distribution channels" [4].
Jackson also released a remedy that suggested Microsoft should be broken up into two companies. This remedy was overturned on appeal, amidst charges that Jackson had revealed a bias against Microsoft in communication with reporters. The findings of fact that Microsoft had broken the law, however, were upheld. Seven months later, the Department of Justice agreed on a settlement agreement with Microsoft. As of 2004, although nineteen states have agreed to the settlement, Massachusetts is still holding out.
Third stage: major development ceased
In a May 7, 2003 Microsoft online chat, Brian Countryman, Internet Explorer Program Manager, declared that on Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer will cease to be distributed separately from the operating system (IE 6 being the last standalone version) [5]; it will, however, be continued as a part of the evolution of the operating system, with IE updates coming bundled in OS upgrades. Thus, IE and Windows will be kept more in sync: it will be less likely that people will use a relatively old version of IE on a newer version of Windows, and newer versions of IE will not be usable without an OS upgrade.
This also partially accounts for the slow development of Internet Explorer and Windows Vista: the development team that was working on Windows Longhorn and the next version of Internet Explorer needed to pause its work during the development of Service Pack 2, to add what were seen as missing features like popup blocking and security patches to Windows XP. Critics argue that Microsoft should make the browser technologies specific to each revision of the operating system and forego backward compatibility [6].
Present: what's next?
On February 15, 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the new browser version at the RSA Conference 2005 in San Francisco [7]. The new beta version is expected to be released in the summer of 2005 (3. August), a change in direction from when it said it would release the next version of Internet Explorer only with the next version of Windows, Windows Vista. It will be available to Windows XP SP2 and later only, including Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 [8]. The new version of Internet Explorer is intended to defend users from phishing as well as deceptive or malicious software. Web standard evangelists see such announcement as a result of the rising usage share of other web browsers, noticeably Mozilla Firefox.
Based on a post from the IEBlog, version 7 will finally support PNG alpha channel, and will fix some of the incorrect implementations of CSS. Further, according to another post in IEBlog, the browser will support tabbed browsing, a feature found in most other modern browsers. On July 27, 2005, Beta 1 version of Windows Vista and Internet Explorer was released on MSDN subscribers for download (not for public).
Beta 2 will feature several major CSS bug fixes, and improved support of HTML and CSS, e.g. HTML 4.01 abbr element, CSS 2.1 selectors, :hover on any element, etc.
Release history
Release history of Internet Explorer. Service packs are not included unless significant.
| Key: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Old Version | Current Version | Future Version |
| Major version | Minor version | Release date | Significant changes | Shipped with |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Version 1 | 1.0 | August 1995 | Initial release. | Plus! pack for Windows 95 |
| 1.5 | ? | ? | ||
| Version 2 | 2.0 Beta | October 1995 | Support of HTML tables and other elements. | |
| 2.0 | November 1995 | SSL, cookies, VRML, and Internet newsgroups. | Windows NT 4.0 | |
| 2.01 | ? | Bug fix release. | ||
| Version 3 | 3.0 Alpha 1 | March 1996 | Improved support of HTML tables, frames, and other elements. | |
| 3.0 Alpha 2 | May 1996 | Support of VBScript and JScript. | ||
| 3.0 Beta 2 | July 1996 | Support of CSS and Java. | ||
| 3.0 | August 1996 | Final release. | Windows 95 OSR2 | |
| 3.01 | October 1996 | Bug fix release. | ||
| 3.02 | ? | Bug fix release. | ||
| 3.03 | ? | Bug fix release. | ||
| Version 4 | 4.0 Beta 1 | April 1997 | Improved support of CSS and Microsoft DOM. | |
| 4.0 Beta 2 | July 1997 | Improved support of HTML and CSS. | ||
| 4.0 | October 1997 | Improved support of HTML and CSS. | Windows 98 | |
| 4.01 | November 1997 | Bug fix release. | ||
| Version 5 | 5.0 Beta 1 | June 1998 | Support of more CSS2 features. | |
| 5.0 Beta 2 | November 1998 | Support of bi-directional text, ruby character, XML/XSL and more CSS properties. | ||
| 5.0 | March 1999 | Final release. | Windows 98 SE and 2000 | |
| 5.01 | ? | Bug fix release. | ||
| 5.5 Beta 1 | December 1999 | Support of more CSS properties. Minor changes to support of frames. | ||
| 5.5 | July 2000 | Final release. | Windows ME | |
| Version 6 | 6.0 Beta 1 | March 2001 | More CSS changes and bug fixes to be more W3C-compliant. | |
| 6.0 | August 27, 2001 | Final release. | Windows XP | |
| 6.0 SP1 | September 9, 2002 | Vulnerability patch. Last version for Windows prior to Windows XP. | ||
| 6.0 SP2 | August 25, 2004 | Vulnerability patch. Popup/ActiveX blocker. Add-on manager. | Windows XP SP2 | |
| Version 7 | 7.0 Beta 1 | July 27, 2005 | Support of PNG alpha channel. CSS bug fixes. Tabbed browsing. | Windows Vista Beta 1 |
| Upcoming releases | ||||
| Version 7 | 7.0 Beta 2 | ??? 2005 | Improved support of CSS 2.0 and HTML 4.01. CSS bug fixes. | |
| 7.0 | ??? | Final release | ||
Footnotes
- ^ Memoirs From the Browser Wars, May 12, 2005.
- ^ Microsoft and Spyglass kiss and make up, May 12, 2005.
- ^ Microsoft to abandon standalone IE, May 12, 2005.
- ^ Is Longhorn holding back Innovation?, May 12, 2005.
- ^ How to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 98, May 12, 2005.
- ^ U.S. v. Microsoft: Court's Findings of Fact, May 12, 2005.
- ^ IE7 Platforms and Outlook Express, May 12, 2005.
- ^ Gates Highlights Progress on Security, Outlines Next Steps for Continued Innovation, May 12, 2005.
References
- "Microsoft Windows Family Home Page". Windows History: Internet Explorer History. URL accessed on May 12, 2005.
- "Index DOT Html and Index DOT Css". Browser History: Windows Internet Explorer. URL accessed on May 12, 2005.
- "IEBlog". Windows Vista & IE7 Beta 1 Available. URL accessed on July 27, 2005.
- "IEBlog". Standards and CSS in IE. URL accessed on July 29, 2005.
