Microsoft officially ends IE Mac development and support
Microsoft has begun to advise Mac users of Internet Explorer (IE) to switch to rival browsers such as Apple's Safari, according to a report by BBC News.
"Microsoft initially said it had stopped work on the browser in June," according to the report. "No more security updates will be provided as from the New Year."
The browser itself will be removed from Microsoft's Mactopia site and no longer be available for download beginning January 31, 2006. Microsoft had been developing a version of IE 6/7 for Mac OS X before canning the project in June.
On its website Microsoft recommends that Mac users switch to "more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari".
"Microsoft initially said it had stopped work on the browser in June," according to the report. "No more security updates will be provided as from the New Year."
The browser itself will be removed from Microsoft's Mactopia site and no longer be available for download beginning January 31, 2006. Microsoft had been developing a version of IE 6/7 for Mac OS X before canning the project in June.
On its website Microsoft recommends that Mac users switch to "more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari".
Comments
And I've still got to use a couple of sites that only work in IE on Windows so the dreams of never having to use Windows again are still a dream.
With IE7 being WindowsXP or later it also looks like I'll have to buy a copy of XP too.
See, this is a bad thing!
Not much of a loss IMHO. What I'd much rather see is an update to Windows Media Player with at least some minimal bugfixes, or some kind of QuickTime plugin for Windows media formats
Originally posted by pmjoe
Stopped development in June and "no further security or performance updates"? Hasn't IE for Mac gone for years without security or perfomance updates to the software? Didn't the latest 5.2.3 version come out in 2001 or something like that?
Not much of a loss IMHO. What I'd much rather see is an update to Windows Media Player with at least some minimal bugfixes, or some kind of QuickTime plugin for Windows media formats
They rolled IE into MSN I think and it had some updates after 5.2.3.
If you want windows media in Quicktime then just use the flip4mac components...
http://www.flip4mac.com/
It'd be nice though if some official components came out, be it from Microsoft or Apple.
Why do I need to have Internet Explorer 5.5 or above?
ActiveX® is only compatible with Internet Explorer 5 or above. Netscape currently doesn't support ActiveX®.
internet banking plus has been optimised to work with the latest browsers. For the best performance and experience we recommend you use IE5.5 or above.
Can I use this service on an Apple Mac?
Unfortunately Apple Mac computers do not support ActiveX®. We may review this at a later date.
What is the ActiveX® control and why do I need to accept it?
ActiveX® is a technology created by Microsoft, which can enhance the experience of using Internet Explorer. Once you have registered for the service a small piece of software (an ActiveX® control) will be downloaded to your PC. This component is used to create the digital safe on your PC.
Ah well, a small price to pay to stay away from a PC and IE.
David
For the love of me, I can't understand when people use Microsoft-only technologies in something that's important and necessary in a lot of people's lives. I can understand it in online music stores and things like that, but banking?
It puzzles me.
I find Opera,Safari, Firefox more satisfying than IE - I regularly try to install Firefox in my friends computers
On Windows I try and avoid it, although that is nigh impossible wiith Microsoft Windows updates and other tools which specifically demand IE.
Originally posted by iMac David
I use FirstDirect as my main bank account, and this will end up causing issues for me. Their Internet Banking Plus service can't be used by Mac users - I quote from their faq:
Quote:
What is the ActiveX® control and why do I need to accept it?
ActiveX® is a technology created by Microsoft, which can enhance the experience of using Internet Explorer. Once you have registered for the service a small piece of software (an ActiveX® control) will be downloaded to your PC. This component is used to create the digital safe on your PC.
Ah well, a small price to pay to stay away from a PC and IE.
I'd tell them that IE and ActiveX unenhances the experience of having a secure computer and that you refuse to use that technology for those reasons. To be honest, I'd switch banks. Internet banking is a great thing, but I'd never use IE especially on a Windows PC to access my bank account.
Originally posted by iMac David
I use FirstDirect as my main bank account, and this will end up causing issues for me.
Switch to Lloyds TSB. Works perfectly with any browser.
Laughs aside, this really won't affect me in any way. I'm perfectly content to bask in Safari's glow. Gotta love RSS feed detection! So long, I say.
I have to agree with what Gene Clean previously said. Banks shouldn't discriminate like that. I can see VH1 or other music sites doing that with making Windows Media-only streams and files (which they all love to do for some reason
Originally posted by NOFEER
hey guys bfd it was dead long ago, ms just got around to announcing it. it's a mess anyway. they killed it to reduce their embarrassment. it was junk always was junk and now they admit it was junk. how many will jump from safari, firefox to vista??? once you taste freedom it's hard to go back.
M$ killed IE for the Mac because it does not generate revenue. This new announcement was really just a reminder of an announcement that Microsoft made about two years ago. When it was first announced, Microsoft planned to kill IE as a standalone app on all platforms. The Windows version of IE was supposed to be rolled into Longhorn. M$ announced that it would develop a new browser to be integrated into the Mac version of its MSN client. Since then, Microsoft's plans have changed somewhat. Owing to the tremendous security problems with IE, Microsoft was forced to unbundle the browser from Longhorn (now Windows Vista) and release a new version early. It has also repurposed MSN. But what has not changed is that Microsoft has not released an IE:mac upgrade to the public since 2003.
Originally posted by mmbarthez
Isn?t IE the only browser that the US Patent Office will accept?
Planning to patent somethin' soon?