It would be great without those pesky bugs
Written: Jan 25 '03 (Updated Jan 30 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Fast browser compatible with everything on the Internet
Cons: What's up with all the blasted bugs under Mac OS 9.1?
The Bottom Line: Works most of the time, but crashes and has major problems far too often under Mac OS 9.1. Run from this one and get a copy of Netscape 7.0.
|
|
|
| HawgWyld's Full Review: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (Mac) |
For the life of me, I'll never understand Microsoft. Some of your more hardcore Mac users regard using Microsoft software as absolute heresy, so why doesn't everyone's favorite monopoly show Apple fans it can come up with top-notch software products when given the chance?
Take Internet Explorer, for example. My company has a strict policy -- we use Internet Explorer on our Macs at work, and no exceptions. About a month ago, I skirted around that policy and downloaded Netscape 7.0. Why? Why would I risk that?
Frankly, I would have been perfectly happy with Internet Explorer if it would have worked worth a damn. Under Mac OS 9.1, IE is a complete mess. What makes things even more odd is that I use IE on my Windows box at home and haven't bothered to replace it because it, actually, works pretty well. So, why not provide Mac users with a product that works equally well? Don't the folks at Microsoft realize they dominate the browser market and will continue to do so if they'll just put out a reliable product that won't irritate the fool out of people?
At work, my computer is a snazzy, ruby red iMac zipping along at 400 MHz and running under Mac OS 9.1 The thing has 128 megs of ram and achieves fantastic speeds on the Internet due to a T-1 connection. I'm a business writer for a daily newspaper, so I'm on the Internet quite a bit during the day, doing research and the like (and, goofing off on Epinions, of course).
My machine is equipped with the latest version of IE for Mac OS 9.1 -- version 5.1.6. Truth be told, the browser generally behaves very well and does what I expect it to do -- cruise around the Internet without too much trouble. However, there are a number of bugs that make using IE downright burdensome.
First of all, there's an error message which pops up constantly informing me that there's not enough memory available to run Macromedia applications (Flash and Shockwave). Macromedia applications show up all the time, so that's a pretty major problem to have. I figured 128 megs wasn't enough RAM, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Another reporter has a Mac at home running OS 9.1 and gets the same message on his machine, which has twice the RAM of my iMac. That, folks, sounds like a bug.
Interestingly enough, one of the photographers at work is running Mac OS X, and doesn't get the "out of memory" error when Macromedia applications are called. So, the problem in IE doesn't seem to pop up under that operating system. Still, IE is irritating if you don't happen to have OS X.
Also, IE handles Java horribly under my OS 9.1. I hate Java applications, anyway, but I'd at least like to be able to run them without crashing my blasted browser.
Now, what's really interesting is that the memory and Java problems are solved quite easily -- quit the browser and run it again, and the problems go away for a while. Very odd.
And, IE has major problems with images it can't access instantly on the Internet. If the browser has trouble, it will "hang" up the entire system for quite some time, leaving the poor user with nothing to do but tap his fingers and curse.
And, then there's Outlook Express, the e-mail client bundled with Internet Explorer. Outlook Express works most of the time, but seems to have trouble with certain "HTML e-mails" which download text and graphics from the Internet. At times, Outlook Express will crash when it runs across an e-mail it doesn't like, or will just plan hang up the entire system when it encounters problems pulling images off the Internet.
The solution when IE or Outlook Express has trouble? Either shut the applications down and restart them or force them to terminate. Either function hogs up time. Oh, and there are times when both applications simulate a Windows machine by crashing the entire system. Thanks, Microsoft!
The trouble IE has on the Mac confuses me. It works just fine on my Windows machine at home, but is nothing but aggravating at work. So, I've left it on my Windows system, but downloaded another browser at work because the Mac version of IE is trash. Now, IE works on the Mac most of the time, but when it fails it fails horribly. I'm not sure if the folks at Microsoft just plain don't care about Mac users or just aren't capable of providing a stable, reliable browser. In any event, grab a copy of Netscape 7.0 for the Mac. While I figured Netscape was just about dead, it seems like that company's determination to build a solid browser plus Microsoft's inability to do the same has given Netscape new life.
Want an alternative to this trash? See my review of Netscape 7.0 for Mac
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
HawgWyld
|
 - Top 200 |
|
Member: Ethan C. Nobles
Location: Benton, Ark.
Reviews written: 1429
Trusted by: 495 members
About Me:
The oxen are slow, but the earth is patient.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.