Microsoft drops Mac IE

News.com ^ | 12/19/2005 | Colin Barker

[Panerai]

The minority of Mac users still browsing with Internet Explorer need to consider moving to another browser very quickly, as Microsoft plans to discontinue support for IE beginning Dec. 31.

The news, which came in a statement on Friday, may not have come as a complete surprise to Mac users: Microsoft announced back in June 2003 that it was ending Mac support for IE. Microsoft has not upgraded the software in three years, leaving IE 5--rather than version 6, which is available for Windows--as the most recent version available to Mac users.

While IE for Mac will continue to be available for another month after support ends, Microsoft is advising all users to move to "more recent browsing technology such as Apple's Safari." In other news:

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The lack of support for IE is unlikely to be an issue for Apple users, most of whom already use alternatives. The only potential difficulty could lie with some sites that have been designed to work with IE only.

This affects a minority of sites, but the issue hasn't completely gone away. In June, for example, Web-testing company SciVisum said that one in 10 Web sites in the U.K. failed to work properly with Firefox, the popular open-source browser. Firefox, Safari and other browsers such as Opera are available for Mac OS X.

[IncPen]

Hey Gates, don't let the screen door... window... nevermind...

[oolatec]

Can't even remember the last time I had IE on my Mac.

[ShadowAce]

Of course, I can't think of many Mac users still using IE....

[Izzy Dunne]

The minority of Mac users still browsing with Internet Explorer need to consider moving to another browser very quickly,

Why? Is it going to catch fire and explode?

If you haven't been using "more recent browsing technology such as Apple's Safari." , then you're not interested in changing things, so why do you need to change now?

[FLcitizen]

Can't even imagine defiling my Mac with MS IE.

[newzjunkey]

If you're a Mac user, there's bound to be a browser that you'll find is the right "fit" for you. Here are some popular choices:

For Mac OS X users: Safari is Apple's included web browser. Firefox and Opera are FREE web browsers. There's also Camino, a Mac OS X-only browser based on Mozilla technology.

WaMCom is a Mozilla-based browser for Mac OS 9 (Classic)

OmniWeb, one of the last commercially sold browsers, is a Mac OS X-only alternative.

If you absolutely "need" IE, Mac users will still be able to use IE5 (IE for Mac OS X) (IE for Mac OS 8.1-9.x), and it will probably run under the Rosetta emulation for the forthcoming Macs based on Intel processors. Another alternative is running Internet Explorer via Windows inside Microsoft's Virtual PC.

[Yossarian]

If you haven't been using "more recent browsing technology such as Apple's Safari." , then you're not interested in changing things, so why do you need to change now?

Here's a decent reason: IE isn't getting updated to fix security holes. So, if someone comes up with a new hack (for example, some kind of web address spoofing scheme), Safari or Firefox users will probably get a quick fix, whereas IE users won't get notified a problem exists.

The one bad side of this: some idiotic websites are hard-coded to only work with IE. I know, I could turn on the "debug mode" of Safari, and set the "user-agent" variable to read like IE, but it is easier to just fire up IE for those few sites.

[Old Student]

"Of course, I can't think of many Mac users still using IE...."

As far as I can tell, practically every user in Education (K-12 & Higher Ed) still uses MSIE. So does anyone who wants to access FEMA's website. Gonna be interesting.

[Izzy Dunne]

Here's a decent reason: IE isn't getting updated to fix security holes.

Well, that's true, but my point is that anyone using IE is not concerned about security. So the fact that MS won't "support" it any more is irrelevant.

[BigSkyFreeper]

The minority of Mac users still browsing with Internet Explorer need to consider moving to another browser very quickly, as Microsoft plans to discontinue support for IE beginning Dec. 31.

SKY IS FALLING! SKY IS FALLING! SKY IS FALLING! ...

[BigSkyFreeper]

Safari or Firefox users will probably get a quick fix, whereas IE users won't get notified a problem exists.

That is the case when it becomes "unsupported" software. Only people resistant to change will stick it out with IE, and that number isn't a very large majority.

[Anne Chin]

For Mac OS 9.x users (because they have slow old machines)
a pretty reliable alternative is Mozilla Wamcom
at http://wamcom.org/
Version 1.3.1
Old but will work where OLD IE fails.

Direct link to the download alternatives is
http://wamcom.org/latest-131/

but good to read the front page first.

[Siegfried The Red]

Huh. Time to switch to a real computer I guess, like a PC.

[theFIRMbss]

>Huh. Time to switch to a real computer I guess, like a PC

Or, maybe, Gates KNOWS
the switch to INTEL will make
Apple's cool OS

a serious threat
to Windows, so now Bill STOPS
playing with Steven . .

[Nasty McPhilthy]

What came first? The chicken, or the egg.

[bastantebueno55]

We still have Explorer on our school Mac's, but the tech guru is going to be removing it at the end of the school year. We also have Safari, and that is what I use, but many (teachers as well as students) are still using MSIE.

[sergeantdave]

In Safari, I get this whiney little notice every 15 minutes that says "Do you really want to stay connected??!!!?"

I looked in preferences for the off switch and can't find it. Where is the off switch hiding?

[Siegfried The Red]

Or maybe I just think PCs are better computers, no conspiracy theory necessary. :)