| Internet Explorer for Mac | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac OS X, showing itsEaster egg | |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | April 23, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-04-23) |
| Final release | 5.2.3[1]  / 16 June 2003 |
| Operating system | System 7.01 toMac OS X 10.3.9 Unofficially, toMac OS X 10.6.8 |
| Platform | 68k (up to 4.01),PowerPC (up to 5.2.3) |
| Successor | Safari |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Freeware,bundled software |
| Website | microsoft.com/mac at theWayback Machine (archived 2003-08-06) |
Internet Explorer for Mac (also referred to asInternet Explorer for Macintosh,Internet Explorer Macintosh Edition,Internet Explorer:mac orIE:mac) is a discontinuedproprietaryweb browser developed byMicrosoft for theMacintosh platform to browse web pages. Initial versions were developed from the same code base asInternet Explorer for Windows. Later versions diverged, particularly with the release of version 5, which included thefault-tolerant and highly standards-compliantTasmanlayout engine.
As a result of the five-year agreement betweenApple and Microsoft in 1997, it was the default browser on theclassic Mac OS andMac OS X from 1998 until it was superseded by Apple's ownSafari web browser in 2003 with the release ofMac OS X Panther (10.3).
On June 13, 2003, Microsoft announced that it was ceasing further development of Internet Explorer for Mac and the final update was released on July 11, 2003. The browser was not included in the default installation ofMac OS X Tiger (10.4) which was released on April 29, 2005. Microsoft stopped releases for the product on December 31, 2005, and they removed the application from their Macintosh downloads site on January 31, 2006. Microsoft recommended "that users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari."[2] A Microsoft browser would not return to the macOS platform untilMicrosoft Edge in 2019.
Versions of Internet Explorer for Macintosh were released starting with version 2 in 1996, to version 5 which received its last patch in 2003. IE versions for Mac typically lagged several months to a year behind Windows versions, but included some unique developments, including its own layout engine, calledTasman.
The first version of Internet Explorer for the Macintosh operating system was a beta version ofInternet Explorer 2.0 for Macintosh, released on January 23, 1996, as a free download from Microsoft's website. This first version was based on theSpyglass Mosaic web browser licensed fromSpyglass. Available for both68k andPPC based Macs runningSystem 7.0.1 or later, it supported the embedding of a number of multimedia formats into web pages, includingAVI andQuickTime formatted video andAIFF andWAV formatted audio. The final version was released three months later on April 23. Version 2.1 released in August of the same year, was mostly aimed at fixed bugs and improving stability, but also added a few features such as support for theNPAPI (the first version of Internet Explorer on any platform to do so) and support forQuickTime VR.AOL 3.0 for Macintosh used the IE 2.1 rendering engine in its built-in web browser.
On November 5, 1996, Microsoft announced the release of a beta version ofInternet Explorer version 3.0 for Macintosh.[3] This release added support forHTML version 3.2,Cascading Style Sheets,Java applets andActiveX controls. The final version, made available on January 8, 1997, also added support for theSSL andNTLM security protocols and thePICS andRSACi rating systems that can be used to control access to websites based on content ratings.[4] A problem with an operating system extension used in the Mac OS, called CFM68K Runtime Enabler, led to a delay in the release of the version 3.0 for Macs based on the68k line of processors. Four months later on May 14, Microsoft released version 3.01 which included a version for 68k-based machines.[5] This version also included features from the Windows version of Internet Explorer 4.0 such asAutoComplete and Monitoring Favorites that notified users when sites in their Favorites list have been updated. It also included support forJavaScript and introduced a Download Manager and aCookie Manager.
At the 1997Macworld Expo inBoston, on August 6,Steve Jobs andBill Gates announced a partnership between Microsoft and Apple. Amongst other things, Apple agreed to make Internet Explorer the default browser instead ofNetscape Navigator.[6]
Five months later on January 6, 1998, at the Macworld Expo inSan Francisco, Microsoft announced the release of the final version ofInternet Explorer version 4.0 for Macintosh. Version 4 included support foroffline browsing,Dynamic HTML, a new fasterJava virtual machine and Security Zones that allow users or administrators to limit access to certain types of web content depending on which zone (for example Intranet or Internet) the content was coming from. The most publicized feature of Internet Explorer 4.0 was support for Microsoft'sActive Channel technology, which was intended to deliver regularly updated content that users could personally tailor to their interests. However Active Channel failed to reach a wide audience.
At the same event, Apple announced the release ofMac OS 8.1. This was the first version of the Macintosh operating system to bundle Internet Explorer as its default browser per the agreement with Microsoft; however, version 4.0 was not ready in time to be included so version 3.01 was bundled on the CDs.
At the following year's San Francisco Macworld Expo on January 9, 1999, Microsoft announced the release ofInternet Explorer 4.5 Macintosh Edition.[7] This new version, which dropped 68K processor support, introduced Form AutoFill, Print Preview, the Page Holder pane which let a user hold a page of links on one side of the screen that opened pages in the right hand and support for Mac OS technology likeSherlock.
Another year later, on January 5, 2000, Microsoft announced a new version of Internet Explorer at the San Francisco Macworld Expo,Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition which was released two months later on March 27, 2000. TheWindows version ofInternet Explorer 5 had been released a year earlier, but used the Trident layout engine. The Macintosh Edition introduced a new rendering engine called Tasman that was designed to be more compliant with emergingW3C standards such as HTML 4.0,CSS Level 1,DOM Level 1, andECMAScript. It also introduced a number of features that were later added to other browsers such as complete support for thePNG image standard (which previous versions did not support at all),DOCTYPE switching, Text Zoom andXML source view. It also included an Auction Manager for tracking auctions in sites likeeBay and an Internet Scrapbook to allow users to quickly and easily store and organize web content (for example an image or a piece of selected text). Preview releases of the browser included a feature called the MediaBar which integrated MP3 andinternet radio playback, but this feature was dropped from the final version. The initial release was just for Mac OS 8 andMac OS 9, however two months after that release on May 15 aMac OS X version was released, bundled with the Mac OS X DP4 release handed out to developers at the 2000Worldwide Developers Conference. TheMac OS X Public Beta included another preview of the Mac OS X version of IE.[8][9] The release ofMac OS X 10.0 on March 24, 2001, included yet another preview of the Mac OS X version of IE 5. This was updated later, and the release ofMac OS X 10.1 on September 25, 2001, included the final version of Internet Explorer 5.1 for Mac OS X. IE 5.1 for Mac OS 8 and 9 was released on December 18, 2001.
According to Jorg Brown, one of the IE for Mac developers at Microsoft, after version 5 most of the team that produced IE for Mac were moved to another project. IE for Mac was relegated to something they were expected to work on in their "spare time".[10]
On June 17, 2002, Microsoft announced the release of version 5.2 (the first Mac OS X-only release) which included a few performance and security fixes and support for Mac OS X features, likeQuartz text smoothing.
In 2002, Microsoft reassigned developers to develop version 6 of Internet Explorer for Mac, intended to be used as the base for a new product.MSN for Mac OS X would be a subscription-only browser that worked with the onlineMSN service, incorporate features like an address book, junk mail filters and anMSN Messenger client. However, after hearing that Apple had started development of their own browser, they canceled the standalone browser development and concentrated on the MSN browser, which was released on May 15, 2003.
On June 13, 2003,PC Pro reported thatMacintosh Business Unit general managerRoz Ho had confirmed that aside from updates to fix security problems, there would be no new versions of Internet Explorer from Microsoft. Three days later on June 16, 2003, Microsoft released the final version for Mac OS X (PPC), version 5.2.3 and a month later on July 11, 2003, they released the final version for Mac OS 8 and 9, version 5.1.7. The last versions of Internet Explorer for Mac OS X (PPC) had a distinguishing blue logo that was the base for the logo used in Internet Explorer 6 for Windows (the Windows one just had a lighter blue, and it was less three-dimensional).
These are features found in Internet Explorer for Mac, which were not found in common contemporary browsers (with the possible exception of Internet Explorer for Windows). Some are still not features in many browsers.
These are features found in Internet Explorer for Mac and some other of its contemporaries.
Acid1 is included as an offlineEaster egg, accessible by typing 'about:tasman', in Internet Explorer 5 for Mac OS with the text replaced by the names of the developers.[11]
| Mac OS7,8,9 on68k andPPC | |||
| Version | Date | Notes | Layout engine |
| Version 2.0 | April 23, 1996 | ||
| Version 2.1 | August 1996 | ||
| Version 3.0 | January 8, 1997 | PPC only initially; 128-bit SGC encryption | |
| Version 3.01 | May 14, 1997 | Included with Mac OS 8; download manager | |
| Version 4.0 | January 6, 1998 | Included with Mac OS 8, final version for Mac OS 7, 8 (68k) | |
| Version 4.5 | January 5, 1999 | ||
| Version 5.0 | March 27, 2000 | Tasman v0 | |
| Version 5.1 | December 18, 2001 | Tasman v0.1 | |
| Version 5.1.4 | April 16, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.1.5 | July 5, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.1.6 | September 25, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.1.7 | July 11, 2003 | final version for Mac OS 8, 9 (PPC) | Tasman |
| Mac OS X on PPC | |||
| Version | Date | Notes | Layout engine |
| Version 5 | May 15, 2000 | released with Mac OS X DP4 | Tasman v0 |
| Version 5.1.1 | May 23, 2001 | Tasman v0.1 | |
| Version 5.1.2 | September 25, 2001 | released with Mac OS X 10.1 | Tasman |
| Version 5.1.3 | October 23, 2001 | released in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-053 | Tasman |
| Version 5.2 | June 17, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.2.1 | July 5, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.2.2 | September 25, 2002 | Tasman | |
| Version 5.2.3 | June 16, 2003 | final version for Mac OS X (PPC) | Tasman v0.9 |
