Internet Explorer for UNIX

[kidde]

I've recently aquired some binaries of this somewhat mythical (at least to me ) beast, namely:
IE 5 for HP-UX
IE 5 with 128 bit encryption for HP-UX
IE 5 for Solaris (SPARC)
IE 5 SP1 Beta for Solaris (SPARC)

It seems Outlook Express (and possibly WMP) is included in some or all of the above.

However, at the moment I lack the hardware to try anything of this out. If anyone else has the hardware and time to spare, maybe they could provide us with a screenshot or two.

Anyway, my question is: Is there any interest in this software here? If so, I'll be happy to upload all of the above to one of the servers.

[ppc_digger]

Weird, I thought I had these. Apparently I was confusing it with NetShow for Solaris. I'd be glad to have those. And I can upload Netshow beta for Solaris and Mac OS if you're interested.

[kidde]

That'd be great. I've uploaded IE for UNIX on Andy's server.

[ppc_digger]

I've uploaded NetShow beta for Solaris, SunOS and Mac OS to Andy's server.

[sunscreen]

As for the screenshots:

IE5 for Solaris:



Outlook Express for Solaris:


Looks and behaves like the windows version.

Does anybody happen to have the 4.0 version? I'd also be interested in the Wind/U porting kit (used in the unsuccessfull 3.0 port) and MainWin XDE (the kit used for the 4.0/5.0 ports)

[pepinho]

Wonderful screenshots. What a weird thing!

[Darkstar]

Anyone still have these? I'd like to try them out, but Andy's server is (still) down

-Darkstar

[orsg]

wikipedia links to archive mirrors:
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/brow ... up.ux11.gz
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/brow ... .sunos5.gz

[spunker88]

Why did Microsoft ever release IE5 for Unix? Does it have to do with that fact that they made IE5 for Macs and that OS is a Unix derivative meaning it wasn't that much more work to port it from Mac to Unix.

[linuxlove]

Well, at the time, the latest version of Mac OS would have been Mac OS 9 and most people were probably using Mac OS 8; both being based on Apple's own kernel instead of BSD like OS X is.

[orsg]

Why did Microsoft ever release IE5 for Unix? Does it have to do with that fact that they made IE5 for Macs and that OS is a Unix derivative meaning it wasn't that much more work to port it from Mac to Unix.

besides Mac OS classic having probably as much in common with Unix as MS-DOS has with NT, the GUI-Framework for OSX is also completely different from X11.
so yes, when having ported it once, it is probably easier to do another port, because usually you separate platform dependent from the independent files, but the gap between Mac OS (even X) to standard Unix is a large one.

As to why they did it...hmm maybe because they could? I don't know, but I like the idea of multiplatform programs

[louisw3]

Anyone still have these? I'd like to try them out, but Andy's server is (still) down

-Darkstar

http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/

These guys maintain a copy of every browser that was available.... It's GREAT for testing stuff.

[louisw3]

Why did Microsoft ever release IE5 for Unix? Does it have to do with that fact that they made IE5 for Macs and that OS is a Unix derivative meaning it wasn't that much more work to port it from Mac to Unix.

Every now and then Microsoft has a fleeting embracement of cross platform computing. Back in the old days they were a language company, and their stuff ran on all kinds of platforms, I'm talking CP/M days, and they had a special arrangement with apple and they release lots of stuff on the mac way back in the day...

So the OS X thing really comes from Gates & Jobs, not so much a technical thing.

From what I vaugely recall the HPUX & Solaris versions of IE are based on some Win32 to Unix porting tool that uses Windows NT source code, and that company was the source of the NT 4.0 & 2000 sp1 leak........

But my memory could be faulty, I'm sure someone else will know more of the specifics on this whole thing.

Speaking of which, I'm sure IE could be installed on Solaris sparc on Qemu, but I haven't bothered to look into it yet.

[bbraun]

From what I vaugely recall the HPUX & Solaris versions of IE are based on some Win32 to Unix porting tool that uses Windows NT source code, and that company was the source of the NT 4.0 & 2000 sp1 leak........

Several (many?) universities also had source licenses to NT4 and 2k at the time. There were various research projects between universities that were (attempted) to be based on the source, although actually building a bootable, usable system was time consuming at best. Universities (and their students) aren't usually known for being the most secure location for intellectual property and leaks were made there as well.

[louisw3]

From what I vaugely recall the HPUX & Solaris versions of IE are based on some Win32 to Unix porting tool that uses Windows NT source code, and that company was the source of the NT 4.0 & 2000 sp1 leak........

Several (many?) universities also had source licenses to NT4 and 2k at the time. There were various research projects between universities that were (attempted) to be based on the source, although actually building a bootable, usable system was time consuming at best. Universities (and their students) aren't usually known for being the most secure location for intellectual property and leaks were made there as well.

Oh?...

That reminds me, the Uni behind Xen, also had XP source access as they did have a modified version of Xp to run on an ancient version of Xen...

but that never leaked AFAIK.

[VSEAE15O]

This was when Bill Gates and Scott McNealy spent nights at each others' house and played golf everyday. The good ol' years.

[stithyoshi]

Just decided to get back into the osbeta scene after quite a while. I just bought an HP Visualize J5600, and once I procure a copy of HP-UX I would love to try this out and share a screenshot.

[jCuber]

If I install an OS based on Unix or Linux, I install it to get rid of IE..

[AltRN8]

This brings back some awesome memories. We ran this in a lab at an old job. It was actually pretty slick and people liked it. It was a bummer when then stopped putting it out.

If I recall it was during a time when MS was doing a hard "Windows integrates great with Unix environments" push. During the same time period when Unix Tools for Windows was still around and very popular.

[thymox]

I'm not a Microsoft or a Windowsy person, but it is pretty awesome to see some of the old-school Microsoft software that was available for non-Microsoft platforms. I've often wondered why Microsoft didn't push for their stuff on more platforms, I mean they clearly had the ability to do it.

[louisw3]

I'm not a Microsoft or a Windowsy person, but it is pretty awesome to see some of the old-school Microsoft software that was available for non-Microsoft platforms. I've often wondered why Microsoft didn't push for their stuff on more platforms, I mean they clearly had the ability to do it.

I think they only do when it suits them or helps them avoid antitrust lawsuits....

[AndroidBall]

Only way you could get IE on linux is if you use the Wine program. It lets you install windows applications on a linux based PC. But i must warn you it will be very slow and might crash multiple times...

[someperson]

...but it will pass WGA!

[dv220s]

I wouldn't want to try to run IE5 on UNIX. Not at all. I wouldn't even want to run it on Windows. I tried IE6 on one of the linux distros under CrossOver(fail) and it wasn't bad and it wasn't good either. It brought back bad memories.