This had the effect that Microsoft Internet Explorer was running at all times, and stole memory and visibility from Netscape. Because, obviously, that must be useful somehow. It used the IE shell for file windows, and could display a web page as the desktop. With Internet Explorer 4 and Windows 98 Microsoft included an 'Integrated Desktop'. Steve Jobs was BOOED as he announced IE would be the default browser. Otherwise Microsoft would not continue to produce MS-Office for the Mac. Shortly before the release of IE 4, Apple was forced to bundle IE for Mac as the default browser instead of Netscape. Microsoft claimed removal was impossible but a product called 98Lite did exactly that. Microsoft did not allow users to uninstall IE 4 from Windows 98. IE 4 was also made avaliable for HP-UX and Solaris, built with ported Windows libraries. IE 4 was bundled with Windows 98 First Edition, and Windows 95 OSR 2.5. With version 4, Microsoft began referring to IE as an 'operating system component'. But is archived here, as much software (stupidly) requires it. Internet Explorer is freely redistributable. Something that would have been unthinkable back then. In 1998, Microsoft was hit with an antitrust suit, much of which involved their browser bundling.īy around 2004, Microsoft had destroyed most of their competition, dominated the browser market, and let IE stagnate until released Firefox.Īfter Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft supplanted IE with 'Microsoft Edge' which eventually switched to the Google Chrome rendering engine. Microsoft fiercely pushed third party products to bundle Internet Explorer, and web sites to work only in Internet Explorer. Microsoft aggressively and abusively positioned Internet Explorer as part of their 'browser war' to eliminate all competition.

Home Internet access was still somewhat new and competed against proprietary services like CompuServe, AOL, and Microsoft's own MSN. At various points, Internet Explorer was also available for MacOS, Solaris, and HP-UX.Īt its 1995 release, Internet Explorer competed with the Mosaic web browser and Netscape Navigator.

It was initially based on Spyglass Mosaic. Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser application created by Microsoft primarily for Microsoft Windows.

Internet explorer browser for mac