While a small number of people might find it disappointing that WordPress no longer supports Internet Explorer, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. For starters, this change will make Gutenberg more stable and effective. It has also been measured by Gutenberg developer Riad Benguella, who found that dropping IE11 support reduced the size of the JavaScript build files by 84.9 kB. That reduces the size of the scripts, resulting in lower maintenance costs and faster build times.
It is also worth noting that a majority of WordPress users use IE11, so if you plan to continue using this browser, you might want to switch to a new browser. WordPress has been warning users of IE11’s demise for 17 months now. Dropping support for IE11 won’t impact those who use more modern browsers, but it will affect those who are still using IE11 in order to view their blogs.
The decision to remove support for Internet Explorer 11 will only impact built-in features, meaning that themes and plugins will still work. WordPress plans to drop support for IE11 in two phases. Keeping the code compatible with IE11 adds extra development time to the WordPress platform, while the usage of the browser is steadily declining. While this decision may not be immediately practical, it is likely to save the company money and developer time.
Inbound marketers don’t have all day to devote to managing websites. They have personal lives and work schedules, and WordPress editors do not operate alone. Users may need various add-ons and extensions to work with their websites. To make access easier, WordPress should support an extensible browser. Browsers must integrate with current operating systems and primary productivity tools. This way, it will be easier for everyone to use WordPress.