All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Microsoft is forging new ground today with its first release of a Unix-based browser - Internet Explorer 4.0 for the Sun Solaris platform, preview 1.0.
From a features standpoint, the Unix version of IE 4.0 will support dynamic HTML, scripting, Java, Microsoft's component object model, and nearly everything that the Windows version contains, including Active Desktop channels. Although the Unix browser will not support the desktop integration features for which Microsoft has recently drawn the wrath of the Justice Department, it will have the "look and feel" of Unix, and can be integrated with Unix-based email programs.
To be posted on the Microsoft site today, the new Unix browser is just an early implementation, and primarily intended for developers and network managers - definitely not for the faint of heart. The final version will be available in Q1 of 1998.
"This is the first Unix app Microsoft has put together for some time," said David Fester, group product manager at Microsoft. "Corporations that want to standardize on IE need a Unix version."
The second preview release of IE 4.0 for Windows 3.1 users will also be posted to the Microsoft site today, and finalized versions of the remaining Unix versions - for HP, IBM, and SGI Unix flavors - will be rolled out over the course of 1998. A final Mac version is due by the end of this year.
