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The end of Internet Explorer 5 for Mac

Microsoft Says:

In June 2003, the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit announced that Internet Explorer for Mac would undergo no further development, and support would cease in 2005. In accordance with published support lifecycle policies, Microsoft will end support for Internet Explorer for Mac on December 31st, 2005, and will provide no further security or performance updates.

Additionally, as of January 31st, 2006, Internet Explorer for the Mac will no longer be available for download from Mactopia. It is recommended that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple’s Safari.

We all knew that was coming, they haven’t updated the thing in ages… I wonder why they didn’t mention Firefox or Camino (which is sometimes unfortunately forgotten with all the Firefox marketing). It seems a lot of Mac users still use IE on the Mac, despite it’s age. Simply because they think it’s the same as IE for windows (when in fact they don’t share any more than the name). Hopefully they will begin to migrate to something more modern. IE5/Mac had some advanced rendering for the time, but by today’s standards, it doesn’t do much.

[Via Slashdot]

5 replies on “The end of Internet Explorer 5 for Mac”

I remember when it came out and a PC magazine called it the best browser on any platform. They were right, it was and IE 4.5 Mac before it, but now that award goes to Firefox IMO as of 1.5.

Note that Microsoft ships an updated version of IE5 for Mac as part of their MSN package, dubbed “MSN Explorer” or somesuch. It also has updated standards support (not to the level of KHTML or Gecko, mind you).

Microsoft announced yesterday that they are planning to kill access to the MSN Service via MSN for Mac OS X software from May 31st onwards.

In a statement to customers and press, Microsoft is advising customers to “access MSN services and features with their preferred browser and by setting up a My MSN page as a portal to their favorite online destinations.” Customers will still be able to use the MSN Messenger service but will be unable to use MSN Explorer for Mac OS X. It’s not clear what prompted this action but it’s widely thought that the MSN Service isn’t that popular on the Mac platform.

For months users have been protesting against MSN for their lack of support for MSN software on Mac OS X. This latest move will likely be a knock to MSN software and support for the Mac and may lead to further announcements.

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