Internet Explorer for Mac - Is it really worth the effort to download it for your system?

Internet Explorer has been the world's most popular browser the past decade. In the famous browser war, it quickly and cleanly annihilated Netscape Navigator and sent it to never-to-return-land. Internet Explorer was launched in 1995 but the first two versions failed to gain a decent market share from Netscape Navigator, the reigning browser at that time. It was with version 3 that Internet Explorer became a force to reckon with. And since that time, the software has gone to become the world's favourite web browser. The 8th version has recently been released.

Internet Explorer and Macintosh systems

Internet Explorer was the default browser on Apple Macintosh systems for five years and replaced with the Safari web browser in 1993. Though always behind the Windows version in terms of features and updates, the Mac version of Internet Explorer had its own unique features. However, there have been no updates since March 2000 and its development has now been discontinued by Microsoft. This browser had its own quirks and caused a lot of problems to web developers when it came to cross-browser compatibility issues.

Downloading Internet Explorer for Macintosh

The browser was available for download from the Microsoft web site till January 2006. This link has since been removed and Microsoft recommends that Mac users move on to Safari that works much better and faster. However, the statistics of my web site still show a small community who continue to use Internet Explorer on their Mac systems. These might be genuine users or developers testing my web site in this browser. Any case, I am not concerned about these visitors at all as the numbers are insignificant.

Internet Explorer for Mac may still be available for download via Softpedia - mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/Internet-Explorer.shtml

The numbers clearly show that the browser is losing ground and its usage is negligible on my web site.