rare pattern thoughts in a blog

Let there be dancing and singing in the streets.

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.

Ordinarily, Microsoft would have tried to use its muscle to force just a (frankly) piece-of-crap product on the consumers -- in fact, I doubt us Mac owners would have been receiving free pre-installed copies of IE Mac on our new computers, but for Microsoft's arrogance and notions of force-feed marketing. If the browser had been from any other company, it would have disappeared years ago.

Why? Because the browser is just awful. It breaks so many webpages it's just not funny!

As a web designer, I think that, should my body be sufficiently recovered from the flu, on December 31st, 2005, I'll drink a toast to the death of IE Mac. Because IE Mac had so many bugs, I have wasted hours upon hours trying to get websites that look great on every other browser to function at all on IE Mac.

Of course, some clients will still require support of this broken browser. For simpler sites, it might be possible.

About the author

Laura Scott is a web designer and developer.