Why South Korea Can’t Quit Internet Explorer - The New York Times | July 8, 2022
ioi_ab's bookmarks 2022-07-08
Summary:
"In South Korea, one of the world’s most technologically advanced countries, there are few limits to what can be done conveniently online — except if you’re using the wrong web browser.
On Google Chrome, you can’t make business payments online as a corporate customer of one of the country’s largest foreign-owned banks. If you’re using Apple’s Safari, you’re unable to apply for artist funding through the National Culture and Arts website. And if you’re a proprietor of a child care facility, registering your organization with the Health and Welfare Ministry’s website is not possible on Mozilla’s Firefox.
In all these cases, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, or a similar alternative, is the required browser.
When Microsoft shut down Internet Explorer, or IE, on June 15, the company said it would start redirecting users to its newer Edge browser in the coming months. The announcement inspired jokes and memes commemorating the internet of yesteryear. But in South Korea, IE is not some online artifact. The defunct browser is still needed for a small number of critical banking and government-related tasks that many people can’t live without.
South Korea’s fealty to Internet Explorer, 27 years after its introduction and now into its retirement, presents a heavy dose of irony: A country known for blazing broadband and innovative devices is tethered to a buggy and insecure piece of software abandoned by most of the world long ago...."