What is Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition Preview?

The version number "5.5" attached to this beta is highly misleading. At the time of release, June 2000, the current version of Explorer for Mac OS Classic was 5.0. When stable releases resumed, they were numbered 5.1 (December 2001) through 5.1.7 (July 2003). Because there never was an official IE 5.5 for Mac, this beta gets mistaken for the state of the art, when it's actually three years behind.

There do not seem to be any major issues with this unofficial beta release. It is OK. Not as full featured (compared to Classilla or WaMCom Mozilla on Mac OS 8.6/9.x), but runs well enough.
Note: Read Compatibility section below; "If installing on Mac OS's pre 8.6".

From the included ReadMe file:

"Welcome to the Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition Preview for MacHack 2000 attendees. This release is an unfinished product and is only available as a technology preview for attendees of MacHack 2000. Microsoft offers no support or warranty on this preview release. Please consult the EULA in the Internet Explorer 5.5b1 folder before using this beta.

This document outlines some of the features of this release. As with any beta product, caution should be used when using Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition. Furthermore, the feature set of this preview are NOT reflective of the final product and are subject to change. Lastly, this Preview is not Carbon compliant..."

Download Internet Explorer 5.5b1 Macintosh Edition Preview for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.6 up to Mac OS 9.2

Compatibility notes

If installing on Mac OS's pre 8.6 and you find it crashes on 1st run. Try installing the included "Microsoft Internet First Run" app manually (double-click and install this 1st), it's located inside of the "Microsoft Internet Self-Repair" folder. I found this helped in getting IE 5.5 to run happily on earlier systems.

• Minimum System Requirements:
  • Macintosh with a PowerPC processor
  • Macintosh OS version 7.6.1 or later (with Appearance Manager installed on pre-OS 8 Systems).
  • 8 MB of available RAM with Virtual Memory on
  • 12 MB of available hard disk space for Internet Explorer
  • QuickTime version 3.0 or later; version 4.0 or later is required to use the Media Toolbar
  • Internet Software:
    • Open Transport 1.2 or later
    • For dial-up connections, OT PPP or similar PPP connection software (control panel) with PPP (extension)

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver