No IE for Mac?

I haven't used MSIE for OS X on my iBook for nearly a year now. I really like Safari, and before Safari came on the scene, I used Camino (f.k.a. Chimera).

MSIE for OS X is slow, slow, slow. I won't miss it at all.

Tom

EDIT: I really was amused to read this quote in the article from a Microsoft official:
Sommers said Apple is in a better position to create a browser with more features and that offers a smoother experience because "Apple has access to functionality in the (operating system) that Microsoft doesn't."

"They can do things because they're developing on their own (operating system) that we as a third party programmer can't do," she said.
That was exactly one of the arguments against Microsoft during the whole anti-trust brouhaha - that as both the dominant PC OS developer, and one of the dominant Windows application software developers, their application software divisions had an unfair advantage since they had "insider knowledge" in regards to OS internals and upcoming features and enhancements. ;)

EDIT (Again!): As I now see, the article also pointed this out. Once I read that quote, I was so surprised to see it that I stopped reading and edited this post with the quote before reading on! :D

I won't miss it, personally. Never mind the fact that this means IE will die as a browser in general; if web developers can't rely on a browser being cross-platform, they won't develop for it.

The stuff about Safari being better suited for the Mac, and MS not bieng able to as easily develop for the Mac is MS BS, by the way. The important thing to note is that MS is discontinuing the standalone version of IE on all platforms. The reason MS is having "trouble" developing IE for OSX is because they're trying to make IE seamless with (and necessary to) the OS. Apple's not going to release the secret of OSX to Microsoft so that MS can turn around and release software that enslaves OSX to IE.

Microsoft and open source...... the two shall never meet

Well, MS Office 2003 is also supposed to be pretty integrated into Palladium, from what I hear. Word is over-inflated, with a bunch of features I don't need (a talking paperclip? "It look like you're writing a letter!"). I'm waiting for OpenOffice to become more stable, and then I'm switching.

Originally posted by eustacescrubb
<snip>
I'm waiting for OpenOffice to become more stable, and then I'm switching.
I'm waiting for OpenOffice to mature as well, but not to switch from MSOffice on the Mac. I don't have it (too expensive). I've been using AppleWorks in the interim - my needs are simple, and it can read and write Word & Excel files.

In fact, my iBook is MS-free! :D

Tom

open office is supposed to be pretty sweet. that will be awesome when it's released. way to go to the people making that solution.

You can look at the lack of updates for IE for Mac in a few ways. I think few people have actually taken into account the true intentions of Microsoft here.

A week or so before announcing no more IE for Mac, they let slip that there were going to be no more standalone IE releases for Windows, so to update browser you'd update the whole OS. They've brow-beaten the market to death, pretty much dispensed with Netscape, and it's the sad situation now that MS can do exactly as they want with the internet.

The problem the lack of IE on Mac causes is that a whole raft of sites that only IE can handle will continue to only cater for IE. For now, that's ok, as Mac users have the current version. But how about when MS introduce their new standard (read 'proprietrary') features in IE 7 on Windows Longhorn? The sites that previously were IE-only will remain so.

Given that IE is said to have 90-95% of the browser market, where does this leave Mac users? At best, Mac IE users were 2-3% of this figure. And suddenly, those 2-3% of Safari users are a very small bunch compared to the all conquering IE.

I've not used IE for nearly a year on my Windows XP machine, it's neither the best nor the most secure solution. But if Microsoft has gauged the ceasing of Mac IE out correctly, Apple are going to be in big trouble.

I read the other day that Safari currently supports only 70% of major websites. Until this figure is nearer 95-99%, Apple is going to have a problem. Which potential switcher is going to buy a computer which can't access their favourite sites?

NB: for those on any platform who want to try a new browser, give Mozilla Firebird (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firebird/) a go. The OS X version is still in its infancy, but the 0.6 Windows beta version is quite frankly the best browser I have ever used. Stable, quick, and only around 6MB to download. Very very different to the main Mozilla suite, and worth a try. It makes you wonder what Apple could have done if they'd gone with the Mozilla code instead of the KHTML engine. Compatibility and speed are the major advantages Mozilla Firebird has.

as a web developer, and mac user, i have a big fear that developers are going to forget the mac platform all together. in the city i work in, web developers usually think of the mac as an aftertought. now, without a browser that at least "kinda" resembles IE on the pc, i fear that they are going to forget it all together. allot of the companies don't even own a mac for testing! even some of the projects i have worked on become IE PC only, since the money involved (or know-how) to create a true multi-browser, multi-platform alternative it too great for the developers to bear. of course, i'm not talking about your basic run of the mill sites here, but it still pains me to read a spec doc that says IE 5 pc only on it.

case in point: the bank i use has only reciently gotten there site to work seemlessly with IE 5.2 on the mac. it has been over a year since IE was released on mac os x, and it took them that long to even think about mac suport. this in not even a local bank, this is a Canada wide bank!

the only thing i can think of that could maybe make safari appear on developers radar is if apple markets the hell out of it, and get it in developers faces. if they don't, most web developers are going to treat it like any other fringe browser, and not worry about it when they are creating there code. right now, safari doesn't even really have a "hook" that is making developers sit up and take notice of it.