| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2001; 24 years ago (2001) |
| Stable release | 5.0 SP1[1]  / 30 October 2001 |
| Operating system | Solaris,HP-UX |
| Platform | PA-RISC andSPARC |
| Type | Web browser |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | microsoft.com/unix/ie (archive.org) |
Internet Explorer for UNIX is a discontinued version of theInternet Explorergraphicalweb browser that was available free of charge and produced byMicrosoft for use in theX Window System onSolaris orHP-UX. Development ended with a version ofInternet Explorer 5 in 2001 and support for it was completely discontinued in 2002.
In May 1996, it was reported that Steven Guggenheimer confirmed that they were looking into porting Internet Explorer to run on UNIX-like platforms, but were looking into how exactly it should be done.[2] It was further reported thatSteve Ballmer, then executive vice president of Microsoft, had shown an interest earlier in the month for a Microsoft browser to run on Unix as part of the strategy to wage thebrowser wars:
In pursuit of a larger share of the mammoth browser market, Microsoft has been dealing withPC andworkstation makers to have its IE browserbundled with newly shippinghardware. Ballmer hinted, however, that not having a Unix browser was posing an obstacle to thisOEM-based strategy to try and catch up with No. 1 browser makerNetscape Communications Corp., which holds some 85 percent of the worldwidebrowser market with itsNavigator product line. "We might just have to get one of those", Ballmer said of a Unix-based browser.[2]
In June, Microsoft entered into a contract withBristol Technology to develop a version of Bristol's portingapplicationWind/U (archived) to port IE for Windows to Unix.[3] At this time Bristol also had a contract with Microsoft allowing it access to Windows source code from September 1994 to September 1997.[3][4] The project was officially announced by Microsoft at the end of July 1996 that a native version of IE for "Solaris and other popular variants of UNIX" would be finished by the end of the year, which would have "equivalent functionality as that provided in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0", thus "delivering on its commitment to provide full-featured Web browser support on all major operating system platforms" as well as "supporting and promoting open standards, includingHTML,ActiveX andJava".[5]
However, following a dispute in March 1997 concerning each other's performance and because of contract negotiations with Bristol to access Windows source code after September 1997 failing,[4][6] Microsoft reversed course and decided to directly port the Windows version in-house using theMainWin XDE (eXtended Development Environment) application fromMainsoft,[7] the main competitor to Bristol Technology.[3] (Microsoft would later also use MainWin to portWindows Media Player andOutlook Express to Unix.[8]) Now well behind schedule, the 3.0 branch was apparently scrapped in favor of 4.0 (that was released for Windows half a year earlier), which used the newMSHTML (Trident)browser engine. Abeta of the Solaris version was made available on November 5, 1997,[9] with a final version expected by March 1998.
Tod Nielsen, general manager of Microsoft'sdeveloper relations group, jokingly declared that he wanted to hold the launch of the browser at theRipley's Believe It or Not museum inSan Francisco due to the skepticism by those who believed the project wasvaporware.[10] It was further reported that versions forHP-UX,IBM AIX, andIrix were planned[10] (note that at the time MainWin XDE 3.0 was only available for the "SolarisSPARC 2.51 platform", but MainWin XDE 2.1 was "available on Solaris SPARC 2.51, Solaris Intel 5.5.1,SunOS 4.1.4, Irix 5.3, Irix 6.2, HP UX 10.2 and IBM AIX 4.1.5".)[7] IE 4.0 for Unix on Solaris was released on March 4, 1998.[7] Later that year a version for HP-UX was released.
There are nine versions officially listed by Microsoft, listed below in bold.[11][12] It is not known why Microsoft omitted references to the other ones from its official list.
| Product | SSL | Platform | Version | Release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 Preview 1 | Solaris | 1997-11-05[13] | ||
| 4.0/4.01 | 40-bit | Solaris | 4.71.2011.4[11] | 1998-02-24[14] |
| 4.0/4.01 | 40-bit | HP-UX | 4.71.2004.9[11] | 1998-02-24[14] |
| 4.0/4.01 | 128-bit | Solaris | 4.71.2011.4[11] | 1998-02-24[14] |
| 4.0/4.01 | 128-bit | HP-UX | 4.71.2004.9[11] | 1998-02-24[14] |
| 5.0 | 40-bit | Solaris | 5.00.2013.1312[11] | 1999-02-02[15] |
| 5.0 | 40-bit | HP-UX | 5.00.2013.1312[11] | 1999-03-17[16] |
| 5.0 | 128-bit | Solaris | 5.00.2013.1312[11] | 1999-02-02[15] |
| 5.0 | 128-bit | HP-UX | 5.00.2013.1312[11] | 1999-03-17[16] |
| 5.0 SP1 Beta | 128-bit | Solaris | 5.00.2013.2002[11] | 2001-03-07[17] |
| 5.0 SP1 Beta | 128-bit | HP-UX | 2001[18] | |
| 5.0 SP1 | 128-bit | Solaris | 5.00.3314.1001[19] | 2001-10-30[19] |
| 5.0 SP1 | 128-bit | HP-UX | 5.00.3314.1001[19] | 2001-10-30[19] |
Notable items from the IE for Unix 5.0Readme:[15][16]
| SPARC 5, Solaris 2.5.1 | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4m; X11) | |
| Any Ultra, Solaris 2.5.1 | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4u; X11) | |
| Any Ultra, Solaris 2.6 | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; SunOS 5.6 sun4u; X11) | |
| HP 9000 C-180, HP-UX 10.20 | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; HP-UX B.10.20 9000/780; X11) | |
| HP 9000 K-250, HP-UX 10.20 | Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; HP-UX B.10.20 9000/802; X11) |
The homepage for IE for Unix was removed from Microsoft's website in the third quarter of 2002 without explanation, replaced with the message: "We sincerely apologize, but Internet Explorer technologies for UNIX are no longer available for download."[20] It was noted however, that while the homepage had been removed, the actual download page remained up for a time.[21] The reason given by Microsoft'sPR firm was that "low customer demand for this download did not justify the resources required for continued development".[22]
Microsoft'sInternet Explorer for Mac OS X was the last browser the company released for a UNIX-related platform until the release ofMicrosoft Edge for macOS and Linux in 2020.
Last Updated: October 29, 2001
