As early as late last year, Microsoft has already announced that its upcoming Window 10 operating system will have a new web browser called Spartan.
Initially, the Redmondian company said that Spartan would not be replacing the classic Internet Explorer web browser, citing instead that it would just provide an option as Microsoft aims to recapture the browser market already dominated by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
In fact, it also mentioned then that Windows 10 shall actually come with Spartan as the default web browser but Internet Explorer 11 will still be built in once the OS is installed.
Apparently, Microsoft can no longer sustain the promise of having both the Spartan and Internet Explorer at the same time on Windows 10 because obviously one crosses the other out. Unfortunately for the Internet Explorer, it has been chosen to take the fall for and on behalf of the Spartan.
Preview version
To get things moving on and skip being sentimental over the Internet Explorer, Microsoft has released a preview version of its Windows 10 quite recently and its default web browser already features Spartan.
In addition to enhanced features, when compared to the Internet Explorer, Spartan also comes with a built-in voice assistant, named Cortana, which also makes searches and browsing easy for users, notes IBN Live of India.
Spartan features a design that focuses on the page and not the browser. It also comes with the ability to write or type on a webpage apart from making webpage sharing, reading, and discovery a lot easier for browsers. Users can actually make notations on what’s interesting directly to the webpage and share the ‘web note’ via e-mail or through social media.
Microsoft plans to have Cortana in Spartan initially in the US market but it may also include the feature when the OS is made available in other countries too.
Spartan also allows for clutter-free browsing with its Reading List that bundle together and saves all readings that interest the browser for easy access later on. It also comes with a Reading View that cleans up unnecessary images or design elements from the page to let the user focus on the content.
Consumer rollout
Microsoft is looking at having the consumer rollout of its Windows 10, along with the Spartan, towards the second half of the year, with most speculations indicating a late third quarter release.
The company is not asking its enterprise customers to discontinue using the Internet Explorer 11, which is supported by Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and the upcoming Windows 10. In fact, they can still make it the default browser through a group policy.
The Spartan web browser that comes with the preview version of Windows 10 is still an unpolished version and Microsoft will still make some adjustments and tweaks on it based on previewers’ feedback and the finetuned version shall be the one to come with the full version release of the Microsoft’s latest OS.