Dec 27
Keep Internet Explorer for Mac alive
2005 at 02.09 am posted by Veerle
As you probably have heard Microsoft is stopping support for it as of December 31, 2005. Back in the day this was a great browser but those days are long gone and Mac users have other options like Safari, Firefox, Camino etc.
As a webdesigner IE Mac can be challenge to support and users of this browser should realize there are other better options. Hiding your CSS for IE Mac can be a solution but that’s not always possible in certain projects.
Just when we thought we are finally done with it there comes along a technology commentator called Bill Thompson who thinks it would be a good idea for Microsoft to release the code without any copyright restrictions to the open source community. According to Bill Thompson this would prove that Microsoft is a changed company and that it would confound many of their critics. Do we need another browser? I don’t think so, life as webdesigner is already complicated enough and the less browsers the better. Choice is good but “trop c’est trop”. Let the dead rest and move on. So what do you think do we need another Internet Explorer for Mac?
32served
1
I hope they drop it, bury it and put a nice, thick layer of concrete on its grave.
2
The problem with IE for mac was mostly the bugs concerning CSS, otherwise it was a quite good browser. So if the project is to continue IE Mac “without” bugs well… why not ?
We already have to deal with IE PC, Opera, FF, etc. and I don’t think a browser that have a correct use of CSS will really generate more work for webdesigners.
But with Safari that is installed with MacOS X and FF/Opera that are really better than IEMac now, I don’t know who will make the effort to install this software. For now, all the people i know who use it do it because it was already with the OS and because they think that’s the browser everybody use. :)
3
It’s more about company ethics than about the code itself. In that sense Bill is right, discontinuing a product should quasi-automatically mean releasing the code.
4
It was the worst browser ever made on mac… Let it die in peace…
I’m happy with Safari and Firefox and when I web design/develop a site I do it for Firefox first then I tweak the code to minimize the bad effects on IE for windows…
5
There’s more than enough patents in the code to make open sourcing it impossible anyway, but even if they could they shouldn’t. More rendering engines is a bad thing.
Also, Microsoft is buying Opera anyway ;)
6
That was just a rumour and Microsoft is NOT buying Opera:
Opera Denies Microsoft Buyout Rumors
7
I’m in favour of this move. Doing so would enable us to get an insight in all the rendering quircks it has, and we’d be able to figure out *exactly* what the expected outcome is of CSS.
The mere fact that the code would be open-source does not automatically have to mean that a community will form around it (with some marketshare), and it’s development will continue.
8
Veerle, you should write “trop c’est trop”, to be correct in french.
(I’m french, sorry for my english… ! I read it better than i write it).
9
IE had its glory days years ago. Now I think it’s time to drop it. Less competition in this case is better. With Opera, Firefox, Safari, and a few others here and there we have more than our fill of browsers. I kind of wish they would give up on it in Windows as well ;) They could do that and just preinstall Firefox on all Windows machines
10
PaKaL: Have you used iCab? Or how about old versions of Netscape/Mozilla or Opera? IE Mac was a *great* browser for *any* system, in its time.
It supported more CSS than any of its contemporaries when it came out, and still seems more compliant than IE6 on Windows. That could be personal bias, though.
Also, I know a few of the largest companies in the U.S. (i.e. Wal-Mart), use nothing but IE on their Macintosh machines for their design departments. Which I see as a reason to continue to support or develop it.
11
I think it would be a good idea to release IE mac for open source however since there is little to no chance of that happening I hope they finally get rid of it. IE Mac has been a thorn in my toe for all too long.
12
Envolve!
13
Kenneth Love: I think that those design departments will be forced to use a better browser at last, which will probably result in better websites of those major companies.
14
You won’t see the future if you still in the past…
The best solution is something like firefox who’s running the same way and respecting “standards” on all platform…
I test all my developpement on Mac, Windows and Linux with FF…
And only after that I “play” for IE on Windows… IE was and will be a Windows only product and it’s good enough…
15
Michal: notice the smilie behind my last statement ;)
Cos we all know that actually Opera is buying Opera.
16
Let it die. Can someone ask if they can stop the other IE versions too? ;)
‘Trop is teveel’
17
The biggest issue is that a large number of banking sites and the like still don’t work right outside of MSIE mac. I know my IT dept’s trouble desk doesn’t work in a non-MSIE browser. And they don’t give a rat’s ass either.
Makes it kind of difficult for a small creative shop in a big public company to get stuff done.
18
How wonderfull would our world be if all browsers would use the same, fully standard compliant engine? It’s a good thing that one of the browsers is disappearing, one less to worry about. We’re going in the right direction. Now lets see wait and see what IE7 brings. *cross your fingers*
19
I think that MS would do the www a great deal of good if it would drop IE period. For all platforms. it has too many propriety hooks in it to be a true w3 complient citizen. IE??? ... Bah HumBrowser!
20
I think that we don’t really need another IE. There alot of other alternative right now Camino, Safari, Opera, OmniWeb and IE isn’t better.
21
once something is dead...it should stay dead...especially IE for Mac.
22
Choise is a very good thing. The more browsers the happier. really!
As longas they are near 100% standards compliant. that is.
I develop on linux, so I can check everything I make in Firefox and Konqueror very quick. They have a completely different rendering engine. (konq = khtml = safari engine).
Yet the output, provided I make good valid CSS looks narly 100% compatible!
Now, ie (and ie for mac) are another story. They contain Bugs. The fact that they show CSS different is due to bugs in that software.
I am confident that an open sourced ie for mac will become standard compliant in no time. And then there is one browser less to be worried about.
23
Agree there is no need for IE when a new mac ships with safari.
24
They can make a new IE but only if it uses Safari as the rendering engine…
25
Can’t wait until people stop using IE for Mac. I work in an office where people still use it regularly, which I means I cannot get away with any designs that aren’t 100% pixel-perfect in IE/Mac.
I couldn’t be happier to see this browser finally DIE!
26
No, no, no no.
27
ie mac… three little word.... DIE DIE DIE!
28
We (http://www.choppingblock.com) removed IE from our tech specs for website design projects about a year ago when MSFT declared they would no longer provide support for it.
29
Well, it looks like I’m really late on this discussion, but to add my thoughts, I think that - as a designer (which I am) - you have to explain to a client that if they want their website to comply with out-of-date software, it will add time to the development of the site. If they’re willing to pay the money for this, then that’s fine, otherwise it’s literally not worth the time spent.
There’s an interesting article here about browser market shares written by a guy who used to work for the BBC. Obviously that’s a big site, and his findings are based on the statistics of 32 million user clicks into that site. To save you reading, on page 5, he reveals that 30% of Mac users still use MSIE 5.x.
The report is dated October 2005, and the author (and probably anyone in web design) was quite disheartened by this. Why should people continue to use such a bad piece of software, when Safari ships with the operating system? It doesn’t make sense to me, that’s for sure.
I’d agree with most of the comments already posted, in that it would make my life much easier if I didn’t have to worry about IE5 for Mac. However, it’s still around, and some people are still using it. But given the numbers of people using it, I think it’s quite justified to charge IE5/Mac compliance as an additional fee in your development costs.
30
Do anybody knows were it is possible to still download the latest version IE for mac. I switched to Mac like 8 weeks ago. Alot of our clients aparently still use IE on mac, so i need a version for testing purpose, but i can’t find one. Any help would be great.
Thanks.
31
Anthony Rose said:
You can still download all the versions at the browser archive.
32
Thanks Veerle,
This really helps me out.
Cheers
Anthony