Windows Internet Explorer for Mac - Finally!

When I was using Debian as my primary operating system I installed a very handy application called ies4linux which allowed me to install and run Windows-based Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

These browsers are able to run on Linux all thanks to the Open Source implementation of the Windows API called Wine which acts as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. It has been very useful in the past for checking websites for compatibility across the different browsers and I’ve long hoped for a Mac OS X derivative…

Finally it seems some clever person has ported this application to Mac and it’s quite aptly called ies4osx.

Installing ies4osx was relatively simple and as with the Linux derivative it requires a Darwin-based installation of Wine called Darwine. Once everything has been installed you simply open up the browser you want to test on and the results are just awesome.

ies4osx runs off Apple’s X11 implementation and is able to install Internet Explorer versions 5, 5.5, 6.0 (SP1) and 7.0 BETA but it remains a little buggy. The stability issues all relate to the Wine implementation as I had similar stability issues using ies4linux. This is a great step for Apple users and now I can finally uninstall that dual-boot Windows XP from my MacBook Pro.