Microsoft is making a bold move with IE 11, by deprecating earlier versions much quicker than in the past. Yesterday, they discontinued support for IE 8, 9, and 10.
This is a much earlier lifecycle for discontinuing previous versions of the IE browser. The intention is to reduce the amount of support needed to keep multiple versions running concurrently, reducing the code base that has to be maintained for security and bug fixes. Updates will no longer be maintained or distributed for IE 8 thru 10.
According to Microsoft, they have adopted a new policy of only maintaining the current version of IE. Today, IE 11 is current. When IE 12 is released, IE 11 will quickly lose support. This appears to be moving closer to the continuous delivery model used by Chrome.
What if your application requires compatibility with older versions of IE? IE 11 has the capability to run an Enterprise Mode allowing backwards compatibility with IE 8 thru IE 10. So, if you thought you were getting off having to test using multiple browsers, that is not always the case.
Because compatibility settings may be implemented per site, you can develop using the newest IE 11 compatibility setting, and test using that. If you have legacy code, or use external sites, services, or software, then you have the ability to test in all four versions using the same browser. However, you have to set the compatibility setting for each.
This should really simplify testing for an enterprise. Instead of having to have multiple browsers available on a test machine for IE, you can have only IE 11. Then you setup different websites, targeting the different compatibility modes.
Have you implemented IE 11 yet. If you use IE, your browser is no longer receiving updates, and security holes may be exploited without response from Microsoft. Time to move on.
Cheers,
Ben