Those who use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to read web pages on a Macintosh will soon have to consider another browser. Microsoft will not support IE operation on Mac any longer as of Dec. 31 this year.
That will not be a surprise to Mac users. Microsoft declared the move as early as June, 2003. No upgrading has been made on IE for three years. This means that IE5, instead of IE6 which is used by Windows users, is the latest version that is offered for the Mac system.
Although Mac subscribers can continue browsing with IE for a month after the support ceases, Microsoft has advised them to shift to more current web browsing technology, such as Apple’s Safari.
The lack of IE will not be a problem for most Apple users because most of them use different browsers anyway. The only potential problem is that some web pages can only be accessed through IE.
That does not seem to matter much but it is not the only problem. SciVisum, a UK-based company offering web testing service, said one-tenth of web sites in Britain cannot be browsed with Firefox, an open-source browser which is in vogue.
Firefox, Safari and other browsers like Opera are all operational under Apple’s Mac OSX operating system.
