No more Internet Explorer for the Mac.
http://www.macnn.com/news/19751
from the article:
Roz Ho, the general manager of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, has
confirmed that no future versions of Internet Explorer will be released
for the Mac, according to PC Pro: "Ho says that the decision has been
made to make way for Apple's own Safari browser. 'Some of the key
customer requests for web browsing on the Mac require close development
between the browser and the OS, something to which only Apple has
access,' she explained. 'As part of the OS (operating system), IE will
continue to evolve, but there will be no future standalone
installations. IE6 SP1 [for Windows] is the final standalone
installation,' Microsoft's Brian Countryman said in a recent interview."
Lots of folks might just shrug and say 'good riddance, IE is a crappy
browser even under windoze'. But they shouldn't do that. This is bad
news and could be a signal of worse things to come.
At best, what is being presented here is a serious misunderstanding of
how applications work under Mac OS-X. To wit: they do NOT work like
they do under windoze.
Some facts to consider:
1) Safari and Camino (and Mozilla - formerly Netscape Navigator) all
have "engines" that get web-pages from the internet and render them
(make them presentable to you, the viewer) very quickly and they look
very good. What is important to note is that these browsers use very
different approaches to how they get things done. Even though Safari
comes from the Apple labs, so to speak, Camino can hold its own against
the Apple browser in both speed and presentation (each browser has it
own fan-base and they they regularly compete against each other for
bragging rights, both in sheer speed and in content presentation). This
would not be possible if Apple were using secret Operating System calls
that only they (Apple) knew about. So Ms Ho's claim starts to pick up
that smell of "bs" right off of the bat.
2) Apple makes the underlying code to Safari available to the world at
large (this includes that so-called part about 'close development
between the browser and the OS, something to which only Apple has
access', this part is called KHTML which came from the open source
movement - a group of programmers that make code available to the
world. The company Opera is using this same KHTML base code in its
latest version of Opera for the Mac, and adding features to their
browser that are not included in Safari. And yes, if you want to (and
have the skills and resources) you to can get this KHTML code and make
your own browser that will run as fast as Safari! That smell is getting
stronger, to the point of being downright rank!
Most likely those claims are not serious misunderstandings because the
MBU at M$ knows quite well how OS-X works, well enough that similar
versions of Office products on Mac OS-X look and run better than on
windoze machines (this opinion has been relayed to me many times by
windoze users that are in a position to use the products side-by-side).
No, these claims are not a misunderstanding by anyone at M$'s MBU.
Some things that will possibly come out of this: well it certainly will
have an impact on web-based development as programmers will have to
decide if they want to invest in windoze based machines. Right now, for
the most part, (uh don't start hollering, I am generalizing here -
grin) if it works well on a Mac on the web, it will work well on a
windoze machine on the web. This can change quite rapidly because in
the past, M$ has shown a great deal of reluctance to abide by internet
standards that everyone else tries to do (remember the browser wars
between Netscape and M$?). This is bad tidings (or great news for those
whose hobbies include conspiracy analysis) as M$ can start changing
things in web-creation programs effectively altering the standards,
thereby forcing users to buy windoze to use the features (that is how
monopoly power can be used).
It might be time to start looking seriously at alternatives to the M$
products that you use. Yes it is possible to be M$-free in your office,
but right now it is a little easier to fire up Word to work in certain
documents than it is to run those docs through a translator. Maybe the
next generation of word processors, spreadsheets, etc will do better at
direct reading and writing interchangeable documents (though the
current generation is quite good) and these warnings can be ignored.
Then again, maybe the MBU will use this same fallacious, mendacious bs
reasons to quit mac support altogether.
Don't think that is likely (after all, you might say Office for the Mac
is a whopping big cash cow that is a good chunk of revenue for M$)?
Then consider this: M$ is spending major bucks to kill Linux and to
some extent Unix (M$ is essentially financing the lawsuit against IBM
-- IBM should most likely win, but the money they are spending to
defend themselves could be sepnt on making better macs). M$ has bought
out Connectix (makers of Virtual PC for the Mac) and is suing the
makers of RealPC -- the competitor of VirtualPC. M$ has teamed up with
HP to deliver a total package (hardware and software) where they
control what is in and on the machine -- very similar to Apple with
Macs and the OS.
Hmm, bar the door and make sure the powder is dry!
Jerry
| The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
| be June 24. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
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