Microsoft Ends IE on the Mac 289
ron_ivi writes "Microsoft is
to cease IE support for Apple's Mac on Dec 31st of this year." And with this change, every mac on the internet will become even more secure than their Windows based counterparts.
CT Deja Vu 'eh? Sorry.
from the-dupe-dept. (Score:3, Insightful)
from the who-needs-ie-anyway dept.
RandomMacUser writes "A while ago, Microsoft stopped updating IE for Mac, freezing it at version 5. But according to this Microsoft webpage, all support will cease December 31, 2005, and any official distribution with cease January 31, 2006. Also, the webpage suggests 'that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari.'"
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/18
Would you like that article in English? (Score:5, Insightful)
If you'd like a better article regarding this, try out this article which is easier [cbronline.com] and it also contains a relevant quote: Instead of having to put up with awkward sentences like the following from The People's Daily article:
I hope everyone has "applied" firefox by now.
I'm not going to say anything about this remark: Other than this is an arguable statement. It's possible that whatever browser has the highest usage rating will have the most virii written for it. If Firefox becomes the dominant browser, it might even be safer to have IE installed on your computer to avoid the latest virus. Yes, a Firefox virus is fixed faster than an IE virus, but it's still a liability.
Not secure... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not if they keep using old unsupported software..
Nothing will force them to change from IE. Arguably this makes them even less secure.
Oh thank God... (Score:1, Insightful)
dupes aside (Score:3, Insightful)
Brain-dead comment (Score:3, Insightful)
Remove this brain dead inflamatory comment, and there's nothing really left of this story. I hope the person submitting it is proud of themselves. Especially considering this is a dupe of a previous front page story.
Furthermore, this comment is just plain wrong. When Microsoft stops support for IE on the Mac, are they going to remove it from all the Macs that already have it? No of course not, so the security situation will not change immediately. I hope Microsoft will continue to supply security patches, otherwise there is a danger that every Mac on the internet with IE will become less secure over time as exploits are found.
Out of curiousity, just how insecure has IE on the Mac been?
suggestion (Score:5, Insightful)
I sent an email to tell it's a dupe 20 minutes before the story appeared to everyone.
I was hoping it mattered.
I am disappointed.
Since during the last duped story someone suggested a way to avoid dupes, let me add my idea:
During the time the story is not yet fully released:
Allow subscribers to post.
Automatically give 5 moderation points to all subscribers and allow moderation.
Editors, please check the subscribers posts before releasing the story to everyone.
If all is ok, remove the subscribers posts and release story.
And Office? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Would you like that article in English? (Score:5, Insightful)
Utter nonsense.
In the context of the article this is doubly nonsense because IE for Mac is discontinued and vulnerabilities for it will never be fixed.
In a wider context, its still nonsense. If you're concerned about security, you use the browser with the more secure architecture - not the one with the least users.
I'm outta here... (Score:1, Insightful)
The cackhandedness of Slashdot editors to not notice duplicate stories on their own site is simply not forgiveable. Do you read each other's stories?
I guess it just goes to show the amount of care and consideration that goes into maintaining the site - none. I can't think of another site that duplicates stories, and also does so without acknowledging it, or withdrawing duplicates once they're posted - maybe it's a failing of the underlying Slashcode and the way it works, I don't know.
While I can tolerate the odd duplicate story, I know there are both human and machine ways to get around it. The thing is that it's not the dupes that are the thing that annoys me, it's your lack of dealing with the problem and your attitude towards them that I find sad.
So, while we'll all be sat here talking about holes in systems and applications and the like, please patch the one in your site; the fundamental, gaping, chronic, duplicate posting hole.
This will instantly be modded down as off-topic, but I don't care, just like IE5.x for the Mac, I'm outta here...
Re:Brain-dead comment (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless thats what they want to happen.
Would it be so bad for MS if the public perception of os x as more secure than windows was damaged a little?
Sad (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Cancelled TWICE? (Score:1, Insightful)
Mark me down for that why don't you, I've got karma to burn anyway.. MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Re:So much for Mac (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Give 'em a break (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not secure... (Score:3, Insightful)
IE is built in to the OS in the sense that it comes with Windows, and is impossible to remove.
First of all, the 'trident' rendering engine is used by many third party programs, so removing it would break them in the same way that removing a commonly used library would. That is fair enough.
The problem we all have with IE is the fact that you can't remove the front end, iexplore.exe. If you remove it from add/remove programs, it is just marked as being invisible. If you delete it, system file protection puts it right back. If you set an ACL on it denying everyone the permission to execute it, system file protection undoes your change.
If you run it, it asks if it is to become the default browser. Of course, the default answer is yes; so a user who runs it by accident will probably end up unintentionally switching back to IE.
The problem with this is that it's too damn easy to run IE by accident! Programs like mIRC and MSN Messenger hard code IE as their handler for HTTP urls, so when a user clicks on a link from IRC, or picks 'read hotmail inbox' from MSN messenger, IE runs and probably becomes their default browser. ARGH!