Microsoft is finally taking Internet Explorer out to pasture. It's done. Internet Explorer has reached the end. In its place, Microsoft will be turning torwards its successor, codenamed Project Spartan. The successor will carry on with a new name and a new brand — something Microsoft has desperately needed to do for quite some time now.

Don't get too excited though, because even though Microsoft is killing off its antiquated web browser, it doesn't mean that it's really gone. Rather, Internet Explorer will exist on some versions on WIndows 10, mainly for enterprise reasons; but, for all intents and purposes Project Spartan will be the default browser for Windows 10 users.

While Microsoft has been researching names for Project Spartan (using Chrome users in the UK), the company found out some interesting information (that the rest of us already knew): No one likes Internet Explorer, they don't even like seeing the letters IE paired together.

"Just by putting the Microsoft name in front of it, the delta for Chrome users on appeal is incredibly high," says Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela.

The real question is, how much retention will Project Spartan have? What does it need to compete with Chrome and Firefox?

[Verge]

Catch me on Twitter @TatiMo_GZ