IE 11 will not be able to use Project Spartan engine

This probably comes as a shock to no one, but Microsoft is truly putting the infamous yet still widely used Internet Explorer to rest. We all expected that when Microsoft formally acknowledged the Project Spartan web browser, but now it is making that even more formal as well as technical. While Windows 10 will still ship with both the Spartan browser and Internet Explorer 11, it will draw a hard line between the two in terms of browser engines, with Spartan exclusively using the new "Edge" engine, leaving IE to become legacy.

This is a significant deviation from Microsoft's previous strategy. It planned not only to ship both browsers but to also let them use the two engines interchangeably as the need dictates. This would basically make Spartan simply a different "skin", albeit an advanced one with Cortana integration. After some thought, however, Microsoft realized it would hamper their goal of finally ridding itself of IE's dying legacy.

Microsoft presents various reasons for this decision. The easy technical answer is that shoehorning IE to support the new engine would be a huge undertaking with very little benefit in the long run, given the comopany's commitment to Spartan. IE 11 on Windows 10 would also have to behave similarly to IE 11 on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, which adds to the burden of maintenance. And lastly, the previous multi-engine strategy would become a point of confusion for users and developers alike. There would be no clear differentiation between Spartan and IE, at least in terms of web capabilities and support of new web technologies.

Unless Microsoft changes its mind again, the future of IE is now clear. It will be relegated to legacy support duties, particularly in enterprise scenarios that require some archaic web technology that have already been considered obsolete or bad practice. IE 11 can also be used for those sites, hopefully rare, that can't be handled well by the new engine.

This will leave Microsoft developers free to focus most of their attention on Spartan, which, by the way, still has to get a formal name, and its Edge engine. That engine is promised to be more forward looking and more up to update in terms of web technologies, giving web developers more tools without having to worry about supporting legacy baggage. As time goes by, IE's engine will be able to support less and less modern and popular websites, which will effectively drive users off it and into Spartan's arms, which is exactly what Microsoft hopes to accomplish.

SOURCE: Microsoft