Frequently, the question comes up, “Why do so many web pages look funny on my older (Mac OS 9) Mac?” I also frequently see folks using Internet Explorer or asking about it when using OS X. Here we’ll talk a about the state of web browser’s on OS 9 and IE for OS X.
Browsers for OS 9
Since Apple moved to Mac OS X, a lot of folks have made their software titles run on it. We’ve got more programs now on the Mac than ever before. OS X makes life much easier for the average program writer. The flip side of this is that the comparative effort to write the same program for the ever shrinking audience of OS 9 is often times seen as just not worth it.
If you’re doing the same thing every day, this may not be such a big issue. But with the web, it’s huge. Web designers are always trying to make web pages better, faster, and easier to use. The technology to do this requires web browsers that are fairly up to date, and so an older browser will have lots of trouble displaying pages that are counting on this newer technology.
Most browsers companies stopped making OS 9 versions some time ago. Here’s where you can find the most recent versions that will run on OS 9:
- Netscape Communicator 7.0.2
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (No longer available for download from Microsoft)
- iCab 3.0.3 (This may be the most advanced browser available for OS 9, but it’s $30)
Keep in mind that, other than iCab, these browsers are still pretty out of date, and probably won’t work any better than what you’re all ready using. iCab has a free version that doesn’t have all the features of the paid version. I’m afraid I haven’t used it, so I won’t be of much help here.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is one that comes up more often, since there’s a version that runs on OS X also. In June of 2003, Microsoft officially stopped developing IE for the Mac. They suggest you use Apple’s included Safari instead. In January of 2006, they took it off their web site, so you can no longer download it.
If you’re using IE under OS X, avoid doing so. It’s slow, crashes often, is severely lacking in features (compared with today’s browsers), and hasn’t had a security update in four years. You will have a much better experience using Apple’s included Safari browser, or the free Firefox browser.
It’s a hard habit to break for some folks. That blue “E” has become synonymous with the internet for many folks, especially those coming from a Windows background. But you will find it worth your while to switch!
I’ve kept a copy of IE around just in case, but I haven’t run into a web site that hasn’t worked properly with either Safari or Firefox in years. At least, not one that *did* work in IE for Mac. There are a few web sites that only work with Internet Explorer, but they’re not talking about IE on the Mac. They’re talking about IE on Windows.
In my humble opinion, this is generally a very bad design decision on the web designer’s part. You can either request them to support a cross platform browser or simply not patronize that web site. Again, we’re talking about very few web pages. Thankfully, the number of such web sites is getting ever smaller as Firefox and Safari gain market share on IE. (It makes it more and more costly to shut us Mac users out.)
Sorry, I won’t make my copy of IE available for download. I’m fairly certain that that would be breaking the licensing agreement, and I really don’t need to tango with Microsoft’s lawyers.
If your curious to see what other browsers look like and how they work, there are plenty of options available for OS X users. Here’s a couple:
- OmiWeb
- Firefox
- Camino (uses Firefox’s engine, but more integrated with OS X)
- iCab (mentioned above, also has OS X versions)
Happy browsing!
