Microsoft drops Mac Internet Explorer

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That minority of Mac users who are still wedded to browsing with Internet Explorer (IE) need to consider moving to another browser very quickly, as Microsoft is to discontinue support for IE from 31 December.

The news, which came in a statement on Friday, should not have come as a complete surprise to users as 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, as on 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".

The lack of support for IE is unlikely to be an issue for Apple users, most of whom will use alternatives already. 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, Web-testing company SciVisum said that one in 10 UK websites 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.

Talkback

Interesting - Microsoft now knows it won't and can't own the browser market. A Macintosh in an IIS environment using integrated security will now HAVE to use Firefox, the only Mac browser that can do challenge/response...

via Facebook 19 December, 2005 14:28
Reply

You should mention that those sites that don't work with anything but MSIE don't work with Explorer for Mac either - they only work with MSIE 6 for Windows.

So this is even less of a loss for us Mac users!

via Facebook 19 December, 2005 15:57
Reply

Not like MS has updated IE for OS X since, what, 2003? So how are we affected by them "not longer supporting" it?

What's next, they drop support for WMP for OS X, which hasn't been updated in just as long?

via Facebook 19 December, 2005 16:42
Reply

This is part of the opening salvo of M$ vs. Apple. Mark my words -- the war is going from cold into hot.

via Facebook 19 December, 2005 16:51
Reply

It's not like IE is all of sudden going to stop working, MS just won't provide support for it any longer. And since they stopped development in 2003 I fail to see what is going to change for those Mac owners who insist on still using IE.
I would recommend they switch to a better browser, but they don't have to.

via Facebook 19 December, 2005 17:57
Reply

OK, so they stopped upgrading years ago and compatibilty even w/ the current IE is weak at best. This announcement is insignificant unless it forecasts some yet unknown change. It does not surprise me that they would drop the hammer on IE this month. The internet is ripe w/ speculation over Intel based Macs. This new mac may well be capable of running the current IE for Windows for all we know. I don't believe MS and Apple are firing shots at each other since they both provide a unique customer base to the other. I think MS knows that support as we know it is irrelevant because of soon to be released technology!!!!!!!!!!

via Facebook 20 December, 2005 00:26
Reply

found many old versions of itunes and internet explorer on http://www.oldapps.com

Its a really useful site. You shold atleast check it out.

via Facebook 20 December, 2005 09:45
Reply

Good riddance to IE MAC. It is the only browser with more pathetic standards support thas IE Win.

via Facebook 20 December, 2005 09:57
Reply

The biggest abusers of standards are the government and local authorities. You cannot use the transport for London site with safari or Firefox to pay fines!

I don't care that IE support has been dropped, it was always crashing, it just annoys me that, the people who should be adhering to standards the most, do not!

via Facebook 22 December, 2005 15:26
Reply

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