Bye-Bye Explorer

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on December 23, 2005

I don’t know when it was I last actively used Internet Explorer on any computing platform, let along the Mac. I’ve been using Mozilla’s Firefox pretty consistently since it was called Firebird. So I’m certainly not going to give much more than a passing thought to word that Microsoft’s support of the the Mac OS version of Internet Explorer ends in eight days.

Microsoft happens to be the Mac’s biggest software developer. Every time I buy a new Mac, I buy a box containing Microsoft’s Office for the Mac. But since Safari came on the scene, then Firefox, along with Opera, and Mozilla’s other browser for the Mac, Camino, there really hasn’t been much need for Explorer. Microsoft is even removing it from its Mactopia Web site. But should it disappear entirely? The BBC’s Bill Thompson has an interesting idea for Microsoft: Put the source code for Explorer on the Mac in public hands.

Why? Microsoft is currently fending of regulators in the European Union for, well, acting like Microsoft. Releasing its source code, he says, would be a step toward showing it is interested in mending its ways. Interested software developers could then start improving the browser and keep its legacy, such as it is, alive.

It's a fine idea and I have no problem with it, but I just don't see how Mac users would find that terribly compelling. I was in the audience in New York in July 1998 when Steve Jobs, fresh from the release of the very first iMac, mentioned bundling Explorer with the iMac. At this, a man sitting behind me hissed -- as did a few others.

Jobs didn't bat an eyelash and said "I use IE and I like it. You can make your own choice, and choice is good don't you think?" Applause followed.

Had I been ruder, I might have hissed too, as I was a pretty radical pro-Netscape partisan. It kinda went hand-in-hand with being a faithful Mac user, I thought. But over time Netscape got buggy and unreliable, especially after America Online bought it, and even moreso after the ill-fated AOL-TimeWarner merger. Thankfully, Netscape survived long enough was to spawn Mozilla, from which sprang Firefox, which is to me the best thing to happen to the Web in a decade. Safari is fine, but I rarely use it.

It's hard to remember what emotion the browser wars created so long ago, but Apple truly courted controversy by agreeing to bundle IE on all Macs. Of course there was also the larger matter of Apple's corporate survival, which Microsoft helped ensure by investing at a critical time. Bundling IE on the Mac was seen as part of the deal.

But all these years later, we have more browser choice than ever. The Unofficial Apple Weblog earlier this week brought another browser known as Shiira to my attention. Its creators describe it as "a web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa," its goal being "to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari."

Interesting. It has localized versions in French, Portuguese and Polish, and all the source code is publicly available. I'll have to give it try over the holiday weekend and report back on my first impressions here.

In any event, this to me sounds a lot more interesting than trying keep Internet Explorer alive, but like Steve said to that irritable crowd eight years ago, it's all about choice. My choice is to try and forget that big bulbous, blue e-shaped icon ever existed. I never really liked it anyway.

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