No more IE for the Mac
Last week, Microsoft announced it was discontinuing development of Internet Explorer for the Mac, not surprising due to Apple's release of Safari. About two weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was discontinuing development of stand-alone versions of Internet Explorer for Windows, something I didn't know about until this morning. It turns out that Microsoft's dropping of new "standalone" IE Development is part of a grander strategy that (surprise!) once again takes advantage of its near-monopoly. Development of Internet Explorer will continue, but the new versions of IE will only be found in the new versions of Windows which will be offered to consumers at higher prices than we have ever seen before.
This attempt by Microsoft to gain more revenue by once again twisting the consumer's arm may backfire. Many websites are optimized specifically for IE, a bad idea in the first place; and Microsoft is counting on those websites remaining in the IE camp to pull this off. My advice: don't! Everyone needs to be writing code to W3C standards. Not only does writing to standards help optimize everyone's experience, but it also prevents the kind of proprietary blackmail like the one I'm discussing.
Even more importantly, open source efforts and even Apple's move to develop its own browser may mitigate any advantage Microsoft hopes for. I don't know if you've been running Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org); but if not, take a look at it. It's certainly as fast as IE or Safari and surpasses Safari's handling of some sites while holding its own with IE.
If I lost the entire use of Internet Explorer for Windows, I'd simply move my prime surfing to Mozilla; and I'll certainly do that before shelling out $199 for a new operating system that has a new version of IE, if IE was the only reason for it.
On the Mac, I keep a version of Mozilla around. Most of the time Safari runs just fine, but I go to a few sites where Safari does not display the pages correctly. Mozilla does. I only use IE on the Mac anymore as a last resort.
I may start making "IE-less" browsing my everyday experience. I'm going to do everything I can not to subject myself to Microsoft's schemes. I already started down that road by moving most everything I do to the Mac and by moving my web management and development work from Front Page to Adobe's Go Live. Moving to something other than IE for my web browsing is only one more little step down that road.
This attempt by Microsoft to gain more revenue by once again twisting the consumer's arm may backfire. Many websites are optimized specifically for IE, a bad idea in the first place; and Microsoft is counting on those websites remaining in the IE camp to pull this off. My advice: don't! Everyone needs to be writing code to W3C standards. Not only does writing to standards help optimize everyone's experience, but it also prevents the kind of proprietary blackmail like the one I'm discussing.
Even more importantly, open source efforts and even Apple's move to develop its own browser may mitigate any advantage Microsoft hopes for. I don't know if you've been running Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org); but if not, take a look at it. It's certainly as fast as IE or Safari and surpasses Safari's handling of some sites while holding its own with IE.
If I lost the entire use of Internet Explorer for Windows, I'd simply move my prime surfing to Mozilla; and I'll certainly do that before shelling out $199 for a new operating system that has a new version of IE, if IE was the only reason for it.
On the Mac, I keep a version of Mozilla around. Most of the time Safari runs just fine, but I go to a few sites where Safari does not display the pages correctly. Mozilla does. I only use IE on the Mac anymore as a last resort.
I may start making "IE-less" browsing my everyday experience. I'm going to do everything I can not to subject myself to Microsoft's schemes. I already started down that road by moving most everything I do to the Mac and by moving my web management and development work from Front Page to Adobe's Go Live. Moving to something other than IE for my web browsing is only one more little step down that road.
posted by Andy Foster at
3:58 PM
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