Macintosh Users Urged to use Safari as Internet Explore Ends Support

December 18th 2005

Apple Safari

Microsoft will discontinue support for the Mac version of Internet Explorer. The support will end on December 31^st and the program will be removed from the MS (Microsoft) website Mactopia for downloads on January 31^st 2006. The initial announcement was made in June of 2003.

Many Mac users use Safari or Firefox as a browser. This could be a problem because some websites have sections specifically designed for IE (Internet Explorer). I usually use Firefox but ran into a problem on a virtual tradeshow website. A marketing website (Marketworks) I use also requires IE for some of its applications.

Apple is advising its users to start using Safari. MS will not be offering any more security updates for IE. Firefox on the other-hand has just offered an updated version 1.5 for the Mac and PC. Already some websites require the latest version of IE or Firefox 1.5 to handle some operations.

Camino, Safari or Firefox will still be available. There are many vulnerabilities associated with the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Macintosh users should also consider the Opera browser. Like Safari, this browser has a built in RSS (really simple syndication) reader. You can subscribe to news feeds without downloading and installing a separate feed reader plug-in.

It could be that there are so few Apple users that MS felt it was not worth their resources producing a program that few people were using. Either way, you may want to go to the MS website and download the latest IE version for your computer before it is gone forever. You will not have the opportunity after January 31^st.