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miacomet · Dec 19, 2005, 10:50 AM

IE on the Mac: Bubbye
News on Monday that Microsoft plans to discontinue support and development of its Internet Explorer Web browser on the Macintosh hardly came as a surprise.

It has been nice to know thee.

Randman · Dec 19, 2005, 10:52 AM

IE is still around??

miacomet · Dec 19, 2005, 10:54 AM

I almost forgot about IE too.

Dark Helmet · Dec 19, 2005, 10:57 AM

I thought this is what they were saying when they said they discontinued it 2.5 years ago.

euphras · Dec 19, 2005, 10:58 AM

Last night i stumbled over it when booting an old beige beast. I thought "duuh, it comes in colours"

andreas_g4 · Dec 19, 2005, 10:58 AM

Since the day Safari was released, I have opened the IE maybe three or four times. I don't think I'll miss it too much. God was that a crappy browser.

miacomet · Dec 19, 2005, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

I thought this is what they were saying when they said they discontinued it 2.5 years ago.

That's exactly right, but now they are about to really do it. No more downloads after 1.31.2006.

RAILhead · Dec 19, 2005, 11:00 AM

Who? What?

turtle777 · Dec 19, 2005, 11:03 AM

Won't miss it.

-t

typoon · Dec 19, 2005, 11:09 AM

What's this Internet Explorer everyone keeps talking about?

RGB · Dec 19, 2005, 11:32 AM

In the OS 9 days, it was actually a great browser. But made the jump to OS X awfully poorly, and the rendering fell behind the active projects from other developers. I cringe whenever I see someone on a school computer dig up IE instead of Safari or Firefox from the applications folder.

cmeisenzahl · Dec 19, 2005, 11:44 AM

Good riddance, what a piece of &^$*#*. ;-)

Big Mac · Dec 19, 2005, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by RGB

In the OS 9 days, it was actually a great browser. But made the jump to OS X awfully poorly, and the rendering fell behind the active projects from other developers. I cringe whenever I see someone on a school computer dig up IE instead of Safari or Firefox from the applications folder.

Yeah, a considerable portion of Mac users will continue blindly using the crippled, ancient, discontinued abomination that is IE 5 for OS X - even on brand new Macs. People will continue to equate IE with the Internet, and Apple has little choice in the matter. If Macs were no longer shipped with it, the masses would assume Macs are not compatible with the Internet. I nearly upchucked every time I saw rows of G5s in computer labs being put to waste running IE.

Kevin · Dec 19, 2005, 12:29 PM

Good riddence. I only used it in OS 9 because the others SUCKED even more.

goMac · Dec 19, 2005, 12:41 PM

Interesting post on Slashdot from someone on the IE6 Mac team:
http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.p...p;cid=14288661

macaddict0001 · Dec 19, 2005, 03:05 PM

They had support?

turtle777 · Dec 19, 2005, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by macaddict0001

They had support?

-t

osiris · Dec 19, 2005, 03:31 PM

I thought MS dropped IE for Macs years ago.
Oh well, no skin off my back.
Ciao, baby.

Kerrigan · Dec 19, 2005, 04:14 PM

Sadly it still handles scrolling and Flash animations better than Safari or any other Mac browser.

-puts on fireproof suit-

sek929 · Dec 19, 2005, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Sadly it still handles scrolling and Flash animations better than Safari or any other Mac browser.

-puts on fireproof suit-

Yep, what crashes Firefox runs fine in IE.

To bad everything else about IE is goddawful.

rickey939 · Dec 19, 2005, 04:49 PM

Goodbye "Scrapbook"...my favorite feature.

The Godfather · Dec 19, 2005, 07:52 PM

The eBay feature is still unmatched.

Ado · Dec 19, 2005, 09:22 PM

Well miss you mosaic.....

JoshuaZ · Dec 19, 2005, 10:39 PM

Sigh... memories... sweet.... memories...

Screw it. Was using Camino before Safari. I hated IE in OS 9 and OS X.

Kerrigan · Dec 19, 2005, 10:57 PM

One thing which I never quite understood was why Mac users went from having arguably the best web browser during the OS8/9 years, only to suffer through several years of having terrible web browsers with OSX.

To me it just makes no sense. Back during OS9, Internet Explorer had all the features of its Windows counterpart and then some. It was responsive, windows re-sized quickly, scrolling was smooth, and most importantly, pages loaded quickly and correctly.

I'll never forget how bad web browsing became after the switch to OSX, and it wasn't Microsoft's fault. Remember how people on these forums would always beg Apple for a "Snappy" version of OSX? The fact is that OSX was so unuseable for a few years that NO company could make a decent web-browser, be it Microsoft or Netscape or Omni or iCab or any of the others. They ALL were unpleasant to use.

Now, why Microsoft never bothered to release a significant update to crappy-carbon-port IE is a good question. Frankly I think that the answer if obvious. In its early days OSX represented such a miniscule portion of the computer market (I'm guessing that the market share for for OSX hovered below 1% until around 10.3). Why would MS want to make a high quality web browser for an unuseable OS and release it for free?

Kenneth · Dec 19, 2005, 11:27 PM

a tribute

paul w · Dec 19, 2005, 11:33 PM

I just had a tech support guy on the phone. He knew I was on a mac, knew all about network utility, and so on. When it become time to fire up a browser he told me to launch...IE. I laughed in his face. I told him that as of now, IE was no longer supported. So which browser should I launche instead?

"Um, well, um, whatever you use to, um view web pages..."

Me : "You can't even name ONE - ONE other browser on the mac?"

Him: "Um, no, I'm sorry - I know there's a Mac only one..."

Me: "Ever heard of...Firefox?"

Him: "Um, yeah, I thought that was Windows only."

Weyland-Yutani · Dec 20, 2005, 12:19 AM

I think IE 5 for Mac OS 9 is the single best software Microsoft ever created, for any platform. I remember it fondly.

I have never been able to withstand any version before it, after it or any Windows version. Thanks Microsoft for IE5 for OS 9. Much abliged.

Safari is probably the best browser for the Mac overall today, but it has many faults still. It is reasonably fast and reasonably compatible and very standards compliant, but could do with more features - features we are saying goodbye to with the end of IE5 for Mac.

I never cared much for the OS X version of IE5. It always felt like a hack.

cheers

W-Y

driven · Dec 20, 2005, 12:27 AM

Holy snot!! I have this on my machine! I didn't even realize it was installed!

Cubeoid · Dec 20, 2005, 12:37 AM

good riddence.

Railroader · Dec 20, 2005, 02:18 AM

Kevin · Dec 20, 2005, 06:26 AM

Originally Posted by Weyland-Yutani

I think IE 5 for Mac OS 9 is the single best software Microsoft ever created, for any platform. I remember it fondly.

It was better than any browser for the Mac out at the time, but it still sucked in it's own way. I still have to use it at work from time to time.

It really chokes trying to open more than 2 pages at a time.

I never cared much for the OS X version of IE5. It always felt like a hack.

Because it was.

rickey939 · Dec 20, 2005, 06:35 AM

I'll miss the really annoying pop-ups.

Randman · Dec 20, 2005, 07:22 AM

What's a pop-up?

rickey939 · Dec 20, 2005, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by Randman

What's a pop-up?

Well, you see, there is the birds and the bees...umm...nevermind.

olePigeon · Dec 20, 2005, 11:00 AM

I guess we're screwed. I can't tell you how many webpages use client-side ActiveX controls and you have to use Internet Explorer. We have to do that at my work because the Student System uses ActiveX.

typoon · Dec 20, 2005, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

I guess we're screwed. I can't tell you how many webpages use client-side ActiveX controls and you have to use Internet Explorer. We have to do that at my work because the Student System uses ActiveX.

Yes but they don't Make Active X for Mac. I don't think it did or ever ran on IE for Mac.

olePigeon · Dec 20, 2005, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by typoon

Yes but they don't Make Active X for Mac. I don't think it did or ever ran on IE for Mac.

Yes it did.

CharlesS · Dec 20, 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Yes it did.

Um, no, I'm pretty sure that it didn't.

Personally, I'm relieved that this is finally happening. Now stupid people will have to stop using IE on OS X and then blaming Apple when it sucks.

Big Mac · Dec 20, 2005, 06:02 PM

There was some limited Active-X support in IE 5 - at least that's what one was led to believe when seeing an IE support file named Active-X something or other. But it wasn't true Active-X support. If it had been, wouldn't the Mac have been vulnerable to many of the Active-X security exploits?

Amorya · Dec 20, 2005, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

There was some limited Active-X support in IE 5 - at least that's what one was led to believe when seeing an IE support file named Active-X something or other. But it wasn't true Active-X support. If it had been, wouldn't the Mac have been vulnerable to many of the Active-X security exploits?

Actually, we had pretty extensive ActiveX support.

Problem is, ActiveX applets are platform specific. So to run them on the Mac, the authors had to make a Mac specific version as well as the Windows one. As you can imagine, hardly anyone did.

Amorya

The Godfather · Dec 20, 2005, 10:59 PM

Isn't Windows Media Player another app that had no updates since 2001?

olePigeon · Dec 20, 2005, 11:17 PM

Originally Posted by Amorya

Actually, we had pretty extensive ActiveX support.

Problem is, ActiveX applets are platform specific. So to run them on the Mac, the authors had to make a Mac specific version as well as the Windows one. As you can imagine, hardly anyone did.

Yes.

TETENAL · Dec 20, 2005, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by Amorya

Problem is, ActiveX applets are platform specific. So to run them on the Mac, the authors had to make a Mac specific version as well as the Windows one. As you can imagine, hardly anyone did.

Name one!

SirCastor · Dec 21, 2005, 04:55 AM

As many others have said, In the OS 9 days, IE 5 was top of the game. I remember everyone's response at the time was along the lines of "I don't want to like it, but it's awesome!" It was a wonderful browser. What I genuinely will miss is being able to see an approximation of how my web designs will look in Windows, without actually having to have a windows box. It wasn't exact, but it was close.
Surprisingly, it was somewhat standards compliant (far more than it's windows Counterpart.). I'll miss it. At least I've still got it here, just in case.

Kevin · Dec 21, 2005, 06:04 AM

Originally Posted by SirCastor

As many others have said, In the OS 9 days, IE 5 was top of the game. I remember everyone's response at the time was along the lines of "I don't want to like it, but it's awesome!" It was a wonderful browser.

You know, I was one of those people. But I have used IE 5 for OS 9 since, and don't understand why I thought it was so great. The competition must have really sucked at the time. I still have to force quit it every day to get it out of the stalling loop.

Millennium · 01:15 PM

The release of IE5/Mac may well have been the most important event in the history of the Web browser to date. It was the first browser to really get serious about standards-compliance. You could do things with IE/Mac then that other browser makers have only caught up to in the past year or so.

However, as Microsoft does with everything else, they grew complacent and rested on their laurels. Whether this was the fault of the Tasman team or the fault of their bosses, I don't claim to know, but either way the browser was allowed to stagnate. Other browsers caught up with it and eventually surpassed it. The rest, as they say, is history.

Firefox would do well to learn from this. It would seem that their 2.0 release isn't going to be including any significant improvements to the browser engine and its standards-compliance. They're focusing on other things, like a new bookmarking system. This is all well and good, but all the while they work on the fluff, other browser makers are rapidly catching up to it in the things that really matter. Compare the latest developer releases of the Gecko, KHTML/WebCore, Opera, and iCab engines, and Firefox's standards compliance already comes in dead last. Among actively-developed browser engines, only Trident (the engine from IE/Win) does worse.

Firefox users should not have to wait until 2007 for Acid2-level CSS support, not when every other browser developer (except Microsoft, which hardly counts) can get it right in a matter of months. I'm seriously considering switching to Safari when its next revision comes out. I want to use software developed by teams that have their priorities straight, because this tells me not only how good the software is now, but how good it is likely to be in the future. The Firefox team, sadly enough, seems to have lost their way as far as this goes, and I mourn for it. I hope someone takes a clue-hammer to them soon, or it may very well become the next IE/Mac.

Big Mac · Dec 21, 2005, 07:51 AM

Is it really that difficult for them to improve bookmarking that they need to divert resources from standards compliance? That's terrible. If Firefox slackens on the compatibility front Mac users will have few recourses when we come across sites not liked by Safari in the future.

hart · Dec 21, 2005, 09:43 AM

last night in my Flash development class my old school died-in-the-wool windows using programmer friend turned to me and said "You know, Microsoft is discontinuing support for Internet Explorer for the Mac." (significant pause in which I'm suppose to panic at the patheticness of my chosen platform which will NEVER BE ABLE TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET AGAIN WITHOUT IE!!!!)

"Yeah," I said "they did that a couple of years ago." Really, I thought they did. So now they're REALLY doing it? It sounds like a parent trying to bring a recalcitrant child into line with idle threats. "If you don't eat your peas, I'm going to discontinue your browser. I really mean it this time." uh, huh. Whatever. Peas, shmeas.

Occasionally I run into something that seems to only work in IE but I'm sure there will be workarounds like there always are. For that matter there are things that don't work in IE.

It IS disconcerting that most average users still use IE, altho most average users don't know what a browser IS, much less that they have choices. Internet Explorer and AOL ARE the internet, didn't you know?

driven · Dec 21, 2005, 10:10 AM

hart brings up a good point. I can't believe the folks that are turning this into real FUD. I was shopping over in worst-buy the other night and was dorking in the computer isle. I heard some woman trying to talk to a sales person. (I was only half-listening actually until I heard "mac"). She (apparently) was considering getting a Mac at the Apple store and wanted to compare to a PC. The sales guy said "Oh, don't get a mac ... you won't be able to run your programs or browse the internet. Microsoft is even dropping their browser for it because the market is so small.".

I felt like doing one of those (cough)bulls---(cough) remarks. :-)