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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
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
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.
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.
I used to have IE to the point where it would set itself as the default browser every time it was launched. I had to search for every file that was changed that day to find where this preference is stored since MS didn't consider that I might want to use another browser. Here is the fix:
t
Edit the file Library/Preferences/com.apple.internetconfig.plis
Look for the key: IEAsDefaultNoBotherPrefKey, and delete the entire key segment. Save it (keep a backup in case). Change the default browser in Internet in System Prefs and then launch IE. When it asks if you want IE to be your default browser, hit no.
Now, why MS had to put this in the internet config plist is beyond reason. A hint to MS: We don't want you junk in the system. It is OK if it is bundled and easily separated, but we want the option to be able to get rid of it all. If it were in the MS Prefs, I would have just deleted those and gone on with my life, but now, I may just delete IE instead and never have to worry about this again.
You see? It's like I've always said. You can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than you can with just a kind word.
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
...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.
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?
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.