A South Korean software engineer has commemorated the retirement of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer with a specially designed gravestone.
Jung Ki-young designed the memorial to mark his love-hate relationship with the web browser. The headstone is engraved with Internet Explorer’s ‘e’ logo and the epitaph: “He was a good tool to download other browsers.”
The memorial was displayed at a café run by Jung’s brother in the southern city of Gyeongju, and a photo of the memorial quickly went viral.
Microsoft reduced support for the once-popular web browser last week, to focus on its faster browser, Microsoft Edge.
Jung said that it took him longer to ensure his websites and online apps worked with Explorer, which was first released in 1995, than with other browsers. However, because Explorer remained the default browser in South Korean government offices and banks for many years, his customers continued to ask for their websites to be optimised for Explorer.
“It was a pain in the ass, but I would call it a love-hate relationship because Explorer itself once dominated an era,” Jung said.
Jung said that he was surprised about how far the joke went online.
“That’s another reason for me to thank the Explorer, it has now allowed me to make a world-class joke. I regret that it’s gone, but won’t miss it. So, its retirement, to me, is a good death.”
