Microsoft retiring Internet Explorer

To those who have become accustomed to seeing the blue “e” as a desktop icon for Internet Explorer, it’s time to say goodbye.  Microsoft has decided to retire the web browser and replace it with a new name called “Project Spartan.”

Windows chief Terry Myerson is committing the company to a 2015 launch.

"We continue to make great development progress and shared today that Windows 10 will be available this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages," Myerson noted at a Microsoft conference in China.

Microsoft assured Window’s users in January that they would offer free upgrades to Windows 10 for users of Windows 7 or later in an attempt to keep users and make up for lost revenue by selling services such as Office over the Internet.

The announcement was also made by marketing chief Chris Capossela as he revealed the change at a Microsoft Convergence conference and  made the revelation, reported by tech news site The Verge.

“We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10,” said Capossela.

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“We’ll continue to have Internet Explorer, but we’ll also have a new browser . . . code-named Project Spartan. We have to name the thing.”

But in a market dominated by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users, few are likely to shed tears over the loss of Internet Explorer, said Toronto IT consultant Aaron Lazare, reports the Toronto Star.  

Microsoft will be partnering in China with Lenovo and Tencent for the new Windows offering. China will be offering the upgrade as well with 2,500 service centers and retail outlets in the country.

Both partnerships are obvious moves by Microsoft to make Windows available in China, and a way to combat issues of software piracy in the region.

Microsoft is even offering its Windows 10 upgrade to customers who have non-genuine copies of Windows. This is a concession by Microsoft as there have been previous attempts to tackle software piracy in China.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's operating systems unit director, announced the plan at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China, reported by Reuters.  

The new perspective on pirated versions of Windows is unprecedented and an attempt by Microsoft to get legitimate versions of its software onto machines of the hundreds of millions of Windows users in China.  Reports say three-quarters of all PC software is not officially licensed there, they said.

We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10," he said in a telephone interview with Reuters. The plan is to "re-engage" with the hundreds of millions of users of Windows in China, he said, without elaboration.

Whether Microsoft was referencing the Greek definition of “Spartan” in the renaming process is unknown, and it could intimate a few things.  The Spartan’s of ancient Greece became the preeminent social system with a constitution completely focused on military training and excellence. A “Spartan” existence was characterized by minimalism in consumption and lifestyle.  Spartan women had considerably more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world at the time.

Even in its own time Sparta was the subject of fascination as a democratic city-state.  At the city’s peak around 500 BC the size of Sparta would have been some 20,000 – 35,000 free residents, including numerous helots and perioikoi—serfs or indentured servants. At 40,000 – 50,000 it was one of the largest Greek cities.

If Project Sparta is the representation of excellence, conscientious consumption and a model of democracy, then the name is well chosen.  But it’s a polemic because the roll out will be in China—but then perhaps not.  Positions of significant power in the state structure and in the military are occupied by members of the Communist Party of China that is basically controlled by a group of less than ten people who make all decisions of national significance.

Who among us has not felt that we are controlled by our computer software?  Just saying...

The art for Microsoft, from their point of view, is in making us believe we are in control of computers, when in fact we are benign bystanders hoping when we try access the internet or use our computers the darn thing will work.

Does that mean we are helots and perioikoi in Project Spartan?

Resource
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/17/8239033/windows-10-release-date
http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/17/microsoft-to-replace-internet-explorer-with-new-browser.html

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