Internet Explorer is Dead - Long live Project SPARTAN... Spartan... its manly...

[Sir T]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8230631/microsoft-is-killing-off-the-internet-explorer-brand

While Microsoft has dropped hints that the Internet Explorer brand is going away, the software maker has now confirmed that it will use a new name for its upcoming browser successor, codenamed Project Spartan. Speaking at Microsoft Convergence yesterday, Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela revealed that the company is currently working on a new name and brand. "We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10," said Capossela. "We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser called Project Spartan, which is codenamed Project Spartan. We have to name the thing."

Internet Explorer will still exist in some versions of Windows 10 mainly for enterprise compatibility, but the new Project Spartan will be named separately and will be the primary way for Windows 10 users to access the web. Microsoft has tried, unsuccessfully, to shake off the negative image of Internet Explorer over the past several years with a series of amusing campaigns mocking Internet Explorer 6. The ads didn't improve the situation, and Microsoft's former Internet Explorer chief left the company in December, signalling a new era for the browser.

"The Internet Explorer will likely have Microsoft in the name"

Capossela also detailed the power of using the Microsoft brand over just Windows or Internet Explorer, and showed off some research data on a new name for the company’s browser vs. Internet Explorer. Putting Microsoft in front of the new secret name increased the appeal to some Chrome users in the UK. "Just by putting the Microsoft name in front of it, the delta for Chrome users on appeal is incredibly high," says Capossela.

Microsoft is clearly testing names with market research, but it’s unclear when the company plans to unveil the final name for its Internet Explorer successor. Judging by Microsoft’s own research, it’s obvious the company will move as far away from Internet Explorer as possible, and it’s likely Project Spartan will have the Microsoft name attached to it.

[HaemishM]

They could have fixed the whole thing if they had just unfucked Explorer years ago and adhered to the goddamn W3C standards like good little monkeys. By the time IE11 came out, nobody gave a shit because they'd already written the fucking browser off.

[Trippy]

What no more IE?!?!

[Trippy]

[Samwise]

My first reaction was "is anyone going to be dumb enough to be fooled by a new name?"  But then I remembered that marketing people have jobs exactly because yes, most people are that dumb.

[jgsugden]

No, no, no... they're keeping IE, they're just making a NEW browser to go with it.  Clearly the new browser will be better - right?  ... Right?  ... ... Right?

[Torinak]

Have they said if they're using a new rendering engine? If so, cue another two decades of having to write web pages and apps twice, once the way that follows standards and once for the Microsoft Way (tm).

(incidentally, that's why Chrome used the much-maligned Webkit rendering engine--Google made a deliberate choice to use an existing rendering engine to avoid the IE problem. Of course, Apple has borked Webkit so badly that Chrome now uses a fork...)

[Trippy]

Yes they are using a new rendering engine:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/02/26/a-break-from-the-past-the-birth-of-microsoft-s-new-web-rendering-engine.aspx

[HaemishM]

I hope it's Webkit. 

[Hawkbit]

Not cool, man. Not cool.

[bhodi]

Grats to all you who now have an additional incompatible rendering engine to test against.

[Chimpy]

IE will still be around but it will only get security/bug fixes and no new whiz bang features. It will also only be installed by default on Pro/Enterprise SKUs (but able to be added/removed in features). They are keeping it around so the eleventy billion active x business applications will still work.

(This is from what was said by the Microsoft engineer giving us the demo of Win10 the other day.)

[HaemishM]

Grats to all you who now have an additional incompatible rendering engine to test against.

Yep. FML. 

[Yegolev]

Are they still using the name Cortana for their Siri clone?  These marketing people.

[jgsugden]

Grats to all you who now have an additional incompatible rendering engine to test against.

AKA job security.

[HaemishM]

And the main reason web developers drink.

[01101010]

And the main reason web developers drink.

Correlation does not prove causation!   

[Ironwood]

Are they still using the name Cortana for their Siri clone?  These marketing people.

Yes.

I don't get it either.

We have to do demos about a company called Contoso running Cortana.  Given what you know of my favourite swearword, you can imagine how many slips of the tongue I've made with them both.

[Lantyssa]

Were they really slips though?

[Ironwood]

That cunt Freud says there are no accidents.

[Trippy]

Grats to all you who now have an additional incompatible rendering engine to test against.

AKA job security.

It's not nearly as bad these days. All the major Web frameworks (jQuery, Bootstrap, etc.) come with browser compatibility stuff baked in. There will be a few months of confusion after the new browser comes out as people figure what needs to be added/changed in these frameworks but after that things will be fine. Those of you who have to support legacy sites that aren't using one or more of these frameworks have already been fucked for so long that supporting one more rendering engine isn't going to make much of a difference.

[Phildo]

Ah, good old Contoso.  Microsoft's example for just about everything.

[Fordel]

Are they still using the name Cortana for their Siri clone?  These marketing people.

Yes.

I don't get it either.

We have to do demos about a company called Contoso running Cortana.  Given what you know of my favourite swearword, you can imagine how many slips of the tongue I've made with them both.

It's not just the name, they are using her voice and personality as well. A a giant Halo dork I find this fantastic and hope it works and sticks. It's like telling a Trekkie their phone will have the Enterprise computer in it. It's a marketing gimmick that's absolutely working on me. 

[Ironwood]

I don't get it.  I've never played Halo.

[Fordel]

Cortana is an artificial intelligence from the Halo series. Similar to EDI from Mass Effect or GLaDOS.

[Sir T]

Its a blue naked woman you carry around inside your head and who talks to you all the time.

[Ironwood]

Cortana is an artificial intelligence from the Halo series. Similar to EDI from Mass Effect or GLaDOS.

Wow.  That makes me cringe now for all those demos I've done.

[Surlyboi]

I think the voice actress is different now. And considering how badly 343 has fucked the Halo franchise recently, the number of fanboys out there is getting smaller by the hour.

[01101010]

I think the voice actress is different now. And considering how badly 343 has fucked the Halo franchise recently, the number of fanboys out there is getting smaller by the hour.

And concentrated - because the one rabid fan I know defends everything Halo, including Cortana and by extention, Microsoft and all its products... though that is probably a convergence of Xbox fanboism too.

[Fordel]

Jen Taylor still voices Cortana unless that changed incredibly recently.

[Lantyssa]

Does she have a hook, like being dangerously insane or a child learning to interact with the world who ultimately grows into a sexy robot body?

[Fordel]

Bungie's AI's have a seven year shelf life before they lose their shit and start developing delusions of godhood before entering a catatonic state. They're personalities are all cloned copies of living people in the universe, so they come with a fully formed baseline that deviates depending on their intended job and life experiences. No sexy robot body, merely a sexy holographic body.

[Sir T]

... which you got to perv over before she got sucked into your head becasue reasons.

[Lantyssa]

Pre-programmed shelf-life.  Sounds like a Microsoft product.

[Fordel]

It isn't pre-programmed, it's a limitation of the technology in universe.