I was used to working with graphic designers. I should explain that my background was at a BBC spinoff called “MMC”, coding Mac multimedia software for CD-ROMs like “3D Atlas” and Douglas Adams’ “Last Chance to See”.

I was supposed to go work for Apple in Cupertino, but the Apple recruiter screwed up my offer paperwork, and Microsoft snapped me up. In the summer of 1998 I moved from London to San Jose, California to write code for Mac IE 5 at Microsoft. New Look : How I set the look of Mac IE 5, possibly kickstarted Aqua (sorry), and invented translucent blurred windows, in the 1990s. This history has been compiled by Maf Vosburgh, the developer who conceived and executed the implementation of this major UI redesign: I also want to share a detailed history of MacIE 5’s bold UI design, dubbed “New Look” internally. Here are some anecdotes and thoughts from an insider’s perspective.

This was both the most important release of Internet Explorer for the Mac, and the last release. I’ve just posted a Twitter thread that goes into some details bout the events leading up to and just after the unveiling of MacIE 5 by Steve Jobs:ġ/ Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5 for Mac. Rather I want to focus on the inside story of how and why it was developed, and some of the people and personalities that shaped it’s success and eventual demise. I don’t want to delve into the details of what made MacIE 5 special because my friend Tantek Çelik has already documented that on his blog. I was 22 years old and I was thrown into the deep end of the browser wars, the Microsoft anti-trust trial, and the love/hate relationship between Microsoft and Apple. This anniversary is also significant for me as MacIE 5 was first product I worked on when I started working at Microsoft in summer of 1999.

It was also the first large third-party Mac application to ship for Mac OS X, and the first mainstream web browser to embrace standards compliant web content. This was both the most important release of Internet Explorer for the Mac and the last. Today (Jan 5th, 2020) marks the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition (MacIE 5).

How to get ie on mac