Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Mercury On-The-Go FW800+USB2 up to 1.0TB. Bus Powered, no external power supply needed. Macworld Editors Choice, CNET Very Good Starting from $99.97, 500GB $159.99. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Why Are Mac Users Still Surfing with Internet Explorer?

Charles Moore - 2004.03.24 - Tip Jar

It is a matter of wonderment and perplexity to me that Mac users - especially OS X users - continue to rely on tired old Internet Explorer for their Web surfing. Notwithstanding my abiding disdain for all things Microsoft, I will concede that at one time IE was a competent browser, perhaps even the best of a lackluster lot, but that day is long since passed.

Approximately two years ago, I did a timed comparison shootout of seven then-current OS X browsers, and IE pulled up dead last or next to last in all tests. Browser technology has advanced substantially since then, but IE for OS X is still at the same mediocre level of development it was in 2002, far behind modern browsers like Safari and FireFox, and Microsoft has terminated at all but maintenance development of the product, so it isn't going to get any better.

Meanwhile, Apple's Safari is proving to be an excellent and reliable, if less than imaginative, browser. Mozilla.org, IMHO, leads the pack with both Mozilla 1.6/1.7 beta and the FireFox betas, which are solid, reliable, standards compliant, and very fast. Mozilla claims that with the latest Mozilla 1.7 beta, released last Friday, size and performance have improved dramatically. When compared to Mozilla 1.6, Mozilla 1.7 beta is 7% faster at startup and 8% faster at window open time, has 9% faster page loading times, and is 5% smaller in program size. Camino, another variant based on Mozilla's Gecko browser engine, is also fast and uses OS X Cocoa interface standards exclusively.

OmniWeb 5 (based on the Safari WebCore and JavaScriptCore frameworks and still a beta preview) is a truly innovative and fresh face on the Mac browser scene, as is the new Opera 7.50 beta released last week, which my gut tells me is neck and neck with FireFox in the front row of the browser speedstakes.

I also continue to use iCab for its rock-solid "just works" dependability, great download manager, the best history and tabbed browsing implementation in the industry, and the deepest selection of page save options.

The OS text browser category also offers an embarrassment of great choices.

So why does anyone persist in using doggy old Internet Explorer, which doesn't even support tabbed browsing?

I suppose there is the odd website that refuses to work with anything but IE, although in many instances that can be circumvented by having mean non-IE browser identify itself as IE, which is a preference option with most browsers these days (and which places serious doubt on those market analysis surveys that find 97% or so of Web surfers using Internet Explorer).

I've very rarely run into websites that FireFox and Safari can't handle. Of course, I avoid Microsoft's own and closely affiliated websites as much as possible, and if some third party is stupid enough to restrict access to Internet Explorer only, then to hell with them - they're not going to get my business.

Incidentally, not all sites that say they require Internet Explorer or Netscape actually do. For example, my daughter's university's website makes such a stipulation, but it works perfectly well with Safari.

Unfortunately, while OS X enjoys a veritable garden of browser delights, things are not so flush on the classic Mac OS side, where browser development has a essentially ground to a halt except for iCab, which continues to release up to date versions that not only support the classic Mac OS, but even ancient 680x0 Macs. Bravo iCab!

With my WallStreet PowerBook and Umax SuperMac S900 tower both running OS 9, and my PowerBook 1400 in OS 8.6, I mainly use iCab, backed up by Netscape 4.8, which is still a decent-performing (although very dated) browser. If I were doing a lot of Web work with the WallStreet, I would probably also use Netscape 7.02, which is the last variant of the Mozilla family that supports the classic Mac OS, so there are alternatives to IE for Classic users.

So if you're still using Internet Explorer with either Mac OS platform, do yourself a favor and check out some of the alternatives. I think you'll be happy that you did.

Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and began writing for Mac websites in May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings

Soft Touch Keyboards, Wireless Mouse Options, Loving SeaMonkey 2, and More, 11.18. Also the future of browsing with PowerPC Macs and the multiple mouse input bug introduced with OS X 10.5.8.
4 Mac Browsers Updated Recently, 11.16. A look at the release version of Safari 4.0.4 and preview versions of Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4.0, and Opera 10.10.
More Mighty Mouse Alternatives, Wireless Safety, Switching to ClipMenu, and More, 11.11. Also Apple's AirPort Card as the best solution for Pismo, Color It and Snow Leopard, and later revision Mac OS X install discs.
Putting the SeaMonkey 2.0 Internet Suite Through Its Paces, 11.09. SeaMonkey is the successor to Netscape Navigator with its browser, email and news clients, and HTML editor. Version 2.0 puts it on par with Firefox 3.5.
More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Power Mac G5 Quad, Oct. 2005 - With two 2.5 GHz dual-core G5 CPUs, the G5 Quad was the most powerful PowerPC Mac ever and introduced PCI Express.
Group of the Day: Mac Network deals with all aspects of Mac networking.
November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Miscellaneous Ramblings ©1999-2009 by Charles W. Moore. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.