I am what many fancy or program-coding people on the internet would consider a physical impossibility. I am a regular user of Internet Explorer, albeit in a dual-browser setup with Firefox. And I see much good with it that is not shared with Firefox, although those things usually are shared with Chrome, such as the ability to copy tabs, or 60Hz YouTube videos. But I also see some elementary design flaws in which Microsoft was clearly appealing to IT setups instead of most home users.
1) Update rate
When new versions of IE are released, the few IE supporters that are left rejoice in an era of modernity, as more recent versions are state-of-the-art at release. But besides some problems in section #2 further down, even the most recent versions begins to show wear after mere three months, which keeps cracking up further later on. How? Major function updates are only added in new full versions, while updates to a specific version (say, IE 9) is near-solely security updates.
This is much more reminiscent of long-support versions of other browsers, than the snap-snap feature racetrack that the competitors' regular browser versions are. IE updates with new full versions between every 1 and 4 years. Firefox has new full versions every 6 weeks. Note for Spartan: Add functions whenever it's remotely feasible to add them. Don't wait two years for it.
2) Wild OS requirements
A very large chunk of peoples' experiences with IE is with older, and by this point literally unusable in regular use, versions of it. Windows 7 ships with IE8 (IE11 is the newest), and even BrowserChoice gives IE9 as the IE option, as it assumes that you don't have the needed service pack for the later versions.
"You need service packs for an OS as new as W7?" Yes. Being some leftover from the times when IE was a very tightly integrated part of the functions of Windows versions from XP and earlier, new versions of IE are usually playing on the new functions and abilities of an OS. This backfires heavily for users of not-up-to-date OS's: IE 10 and 11 requires Windows 7 SP1 at earliest to function. Firefox's recent versions can still run on Windows XP SP2 (out of 3 SPs).
While Spartan does appear tightly linked to Windows 10, continuing the old story, I will dedicate a note to Spartan: Make Spartan available for as many OS's as possible, not just W10. Make it W10, W8.1, W8.0, W7. Being on Linux could be a guaranteed loss project, but it'd help with reaching out to the new hipster/half-trendy OSs like Linux Mint and SteamOS.
