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MSIE 5.2 for Mac OS X Released
Jarrett writes "MSIE 5.2 now supports Quartz text smoothing and a slew of other reliability/security [hehe] improvements on Mac OS X. Its performance is noticably better, it seems to end the spinning beach ball problems, and is stable. It's available on Microsoft's Mactopia site" Posted With Mozilla(tm) on Mac OS X.
I use MS Office vX on my TiBook for work and school related things (no other program even approaches Excel in maturity and performance for my work and school applications). Anyways, after a searching the internet in vane for an OSX calendar/scheduling program, I came up empty handed. I was tempted by the dark side (MS) and installed Entourage off of my Office CD. It didn't work, giving me a funny error message and then crashing every time I tried to start it.
After checking online, searching for this error message for ~10 minutes, I decided to give the MS Customer support line a call. I didn't have to stay on hold for more than 10 seconds throughout the entire call. After a few voicemail selections, I was dumped to one support guy who, after asking a few questions, referred me to a Mac support guy. The Mac support guy stepped through a few troubleshooting hoops with me, figured out what the problem was and fixed it.
The entire phone call took less than 10 minutes and I was entouraging away. The tech support even told me how to use entourage as a calendar program and *not* an email program.
The point is, MS is a large company. They might break a few antitrust laws and stifle a little innovation here and there, but don't forget that this is capitalism. The consumer rules! Take advantage of what MS does offer. In my case it's good phone support and reasonable software. In the case related to this story, it's IE for Mac. Use IE for the Mac. Use Mozilla for the Mac. Make an educated decision about which is better. Use one or the other, both or neither. The educated consumer is the best thing to be in a capitalistic society.
You are already using a Mac, so you aren't forced to use one thing over another. MS will work hard making good apps for the Apple if they will be rewarded by consumers buying/using them.
Keeping
The quartz rendering is nice, but I havn't noticed many other improvements.
Bringing irony to the Slash-masses
Looks like the Javascript Prompt bug persists. If you're using any version of IE5 for MacOSX put this in the address-line and see the bug of which I speak:
javascript:x=prompt("This Text Should Appear")
Explorer is getting about one bullet-item per-month upgrade, just to keep us hoping. Meanwhile several browsers are poised to overtake Explorer in standards-compliance and standards-implementation, and have already overtaken Explorer in features we like, like disabling ad banners and popups.
The fact that IE 5.2 sets the Home Page to MSN is a sure sign that MicroSoft can't let go of its old nasty little indulgences. As if switching the whole west coast to MSN didn't get our attention.
-- thinkyhead software and media
OmniWeb is the browser that finally let me quit using IE. Mozilla, in its latest incarnations, is great but it still has little things that bug me. O.W. 4eva, yo.
It looks better than it did, and has fewer rendering problems, but it still seemed dog slow(compared to OmniWeb, Mozilla, AND IE for 9.x). Also, I quickly found a page that didn't load more than a third of the way, and needed a Reload to get the rest of it. I'll keep it, but it's not going on my dock. I've got two other browsers there already.
"Common Sense Ain't" -Unknown
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Yeah quartz rendering is basically one line of code in OS X 10.1.5 which is why the makers of Silk could do it globally for all carbon apps via a preference pane with more options than any app I've seen so far. Obviously not a huge 'feature' in an app if a freeware version which is better is available before any of the apps which take advantage of it are even out. Just a new Apple API.
/. pages with a significant number of posts. May have something to do with a lack of pipelining for http 1.1 .
IE 5.2 still lags way behind Mozilla on rendering
No tabs. I hate opeing a new freakin' window for every link that catches my eye and Mozilla also renders tabs in the background instead of throwing up a half-complete page in a new window I may be only marginally interested in to begin with. Plus pop-up/under control... sooo nice.
Mozilla still doesn't work with bad javascript, more of a feature than a bug though... whereas IE will render about any version of half-assed code you want to throw at it as long as you intended it to be a drop down menu. Mozilla also doesn't support M$ inline frames or iframes or any of the other M$ created tags or CSS stuff they created because they didn't want to take the time to make ASP compliant.
well that's the rant I suppose.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
MSIE 5.2 won't install without quitting my running apps.
So, it won't be installed for some time.
Maybe Microsoft is just jealous, wants to bring everyone else down to its OS level.
For some reason, Microsoft's IE/Mac and IE/Win teams are completely different; while IE5/Mac was hailed as having one of the best CSS1 implimentations, IE5/Win was still struggling with the box model (and happily making all your boxes too big, because the IE/Win team can't read, obviously).
So don't go lumping IE/Mac in with IE/Win - they're completely different browsers which happen to share the same name.
A List Apart: Why IE/Mac Matters
Get the new testing version of Mozilla. 1.01a I believe. Quartz rendering, and it's FAST, and very stable. Never had it crash once, looks great. I've stopped using Chimera altogether, it's so fast and stable.
Still have IE for the few sites that require it, but I can't remember the last time I used it.
They changed my browser preferences, without asking me, back to MSIE as my default browser. Jerkfaces.
Jeez, and now I see they put an installer log file in my document root!
Is there no end to the madness?
In the office, I have to have my needs met by a slurry of browsers.
IE (which does have a different code base than its PC counterpart--remember that IE6 in Windows is an embedded component of the OS, unlike the Mac version) is the most compatible with most Internet pages, but also the most annoying. Go to the wrong page, and you're in pop-up hell. The new font smoothing makes it a little more palatable, however. You can't use anything but IE if you hit pages that are loaded with JavaScript, complex style sheets, or ActiveX controls. Java support appears generally OK--better than in the OS 9 versions, but still lacking somehow. This browser works on corporate pages where all others fail, and is the only one that handles Apple's WebObjects properly.
OmniWeb is my browser of general choice. The current 5 beta has matured well with standards compliance and compatibility, and allows pop-up control. It may still choke on pages obviously created only for Windows users in mind. It's font smoothing is the best of the lot. The beta isn't always stable for some pages, such as CNN.
Netscape 6 is used when neither IE or OmniWeb are working properly.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
This is the same company that makes IE undeletable on Windows.
I installed it and as soon as I took a look at it's MSN default, it went off the task bar. Moz 1.0 does just fine on my Mac and let's *me* control it, not the other way around.
Mozilla still doesn't work with bad javascript, more of a feature than a bug though...
Actually this causes me all sorts of problems. I agree with you that the average browsing experience of mozilla blows MSIE out of the water, and I use it for all work-related tasks and such.
However, many important web portals I use to pay my bills (citibank, spring, verizon and 2 student loan companies) often use heavily crufted javascript. As a result, when I want to 'conduct business' online, I have to fire up IE. It just feels nasty. Any suggestions?
Howard Dean for president
really great find! i had been looking into thwarting this evil behaviour for a while now. thanks man
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Installation involves copying exactly one file into your applications folder (or wherever else you want it).
The middle mind speaks!
...I've had the update installed for about two hours. In that time, I've noticed:
.dmg and then make you run an installer? What nasty files are they hiding from view?
1) The installer requires you to quit all other apps. What is this, OS 9? Windows? Microsoft still doesn't get it. They give you the thing on a
2) It changes your homepage to msn.com. Nice touch. I'm *thrilled* by the first impression that this install is making so far... Makes you wonder what other prefs are being overwritten.
3) Within minutes of starting it up, I had the mother of all spinning beachball delays. It went on for over a minute. So much for being an improvement over the last crappy IE.
4) Text is now anti-aliased, as it has been with OmniWeb, et al. for what seems like years. Bogus.
"no other program even approaches Excel in maturity and performance for my work and school applications"
Gnumeric?
"Anyways, after a searching the internet in vane for an OSX calendar/scheduling program, I came up empty handed."
Not sure what your needs are, but Emacs has a nice calendar application. Also GNOME has a PIM application.
I use very complicated spreadsheet financial modeling programs at work, and I need to be able to read complex spreadsheets. For school, my professors need to be able to test my spreadsheet models.
Don't worry, though. I use Octave and Perl/Python whenever I can get away with it in school and in work. Recently, however, I am being forced to use MS .Net to develop a web application at work. ;-(
I'm going to approach it with an open mind and see if it is actually cool or not.
WRT emacs as a calendar program... Yeah right! (sarcasm). I didn't play umpteen thousand dollars for a Powerbook in order to use a program that clashes with aqua. I don't care if it's an aquafied emacs. I want something pretty!
Keeping
I trashed IE 5.2 and installed Mozilla 1.0. Now, my network configuration has mysterious flipped out and pulls down "255.255.255.255" for every DHCP field from my hub. Gee, I wonder which application manipulated my system preferences to cause that?
Damn do I feel special.
I was complaining about this crappy update hours before it was posted on slashdot!
(complaining because the drag-and-drop install method seems to have gone out of style, and because it sets your homepage to msn, and because i'm real bitter at microsoft for other recent mac fuckups.)
I still havn't installed it though, but if it fixes the spinning-beachball problem I may just break down and go for it.
__
Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
Whoa!! I'm pretty sure the IE 5.1 update showed up when I ran the Software Update utility in OS X. Wonder why 5.2 isn't showing up and is a download on the Mactopia website instead. Wonder if it has any connection with the iBrowser rumor that's been going around.
I didn't believe the rumors at first, and probably still don't, but this is a weird break from tradition here.
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
The anti-aliasing has gotten worse rather than better. Fonts now look fuzzier than they did with 5.1
Yes, it does set MSN as the home page, but changing the home page is an easy thing to do.
I think I will try it out for a couple weeks before I pass judgement.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
ok first this disclaimer.
-i hate microsoft. i'm forced to work with them at work, and for me the mac is the one true way to have an OS work.
- i love opensource. i push it whenever i can at work. and i'm in the position to do that.
- to me, microsoft = software mediocrity. and they've made bad software acceptable.
that being said, i use IE on the mac. on osX. i also fire up opera and mozilla at points, but i primarily use IE.
why? well, its the features. i LOVE some of the things that mac IE has. things that arent even in Win-IE. things that arent in Mozilla. or Opera, or OmniWeb. or iCab.
- the autocomplete in the URL bar also completes based on title. if i have a bookmark, or a recent history webpage that had a title of "booyah" and was at "foobar.com" i could type in booyah or foobar and it would pop me to the right web page. thats convienience and quite the mac-like intuition i love.
- the scrapbook - totally cool. yeah, theres similar in moz now.
- page holder. i like it, but dont use it all that much. again, also avail in moz
- aquafied text. ok, IE5.2 finally uses the 10.1.5 updates carbon -> aqua hook. it looks great! for a few weeks i was running Silk, but to tell you the truth, i've tossed silk away now. IE5.2 builtin does it MUCH BETTER than silk did.
- it feels more mac like. less so than omniweb or icab, but more so than opera, or mozilla. it has the right feel for mac.
- IE 5.x xml rendering. i use xml a bunch at work, and the builtin xml rendering is nice. why the heck cant someone incorporate this into moz?!?!?
i HATE how ie spins around for a while on silly javascript. that pisses me off. and hwo about a setting where popups / popunders are disabled?
that off my chest, i hope that soon the aqua mozilla adds these things i like. or if i could get tabs in IE. either way.