InformationWeek

November 17, 1997

Solaris Explorer

Pre-beta version of Microsoft browser is only semifunctional

fter Internet Explorer 3.0 for Solaris never materialized, Microsoft finally delivered IE 4.0 for Solaris Preview 1. While it might be easy to dismiss a Unix implementation of IE 4.0 as simply a necessity to compete with Netscape Communications' cross-platform browser dominance, IE 4.0 for Solaris ultimately brings the prospect of much-needed, high-quality end-user applications to the Unix desktop.

This pre-beta release, though, offers little more than a semifunctional browser. A version of Outlook Express, as well as push capabilities and a complete Dynamic HTML implementation, will be included in subsequent preview releases along the way to the expected ship date, which Microsoft says is the end of March 1998.

More Consistent
IE 4.0 for Solaris Preview 1 looks and feels like IE 4.0 for other platforms. Microsoft claims it's using the same HTML r endering engine for all IE 4.0 platforms, with just a few platform-specific tweaks, to ensure that pages look the same in IE 4.0 on all platforms.

Our testing shows that pages do look more consistent across IE 4.0 than they did with IE 3.0, which will be good news to Web developers, especially those who use the more advanced features of Dynamic HTML.

Installing IE 4.0 on Solaris offers some interesting challenges because of Solaris' different user interfaces and lack of administration standards. It requires a SparcStation 2 class machine with at least 16 Mbytes of RAM (32 Mbytes is a practical minimum). IE 4.0 Preview 1 for Solaris runs only under Solaris 2.51, though Microsoft says it will run under Solaris 2.4 and greater when it ships.

Microsoft has chosen to wrap the 30-Mbyte IE 4.0 distribution in a self-extracting archive that makes installation fairly simple (in contrast, Netscape compresses Communicator in the gzip format, so you have to obtain the gzip program to extract Communicator). T o install, you run the archive and choose a destination directory, and the archive unpacks into that directory. The archive checks which version of Solaris you are running and doesn't let you install unless you are running Solaris 2.51. Note that IE will fail to run unless you have the Domain Naming System spoofing patch, Solaris Patch #103663-01, installed.

We tested IE for Solaris under the two most common user interfaces for version 2.51 of the Sun Microsystems operating system, OpenWindows and Common Desktop Environment 1.02, and it worked predictably under both.

Microsoft went to some lengths to make IE 4.0 for Unix look and feel like IE 4.0 on other platforms. Of course, it also feels like a native X Windows application, due largely to the MainWin Win32 porting libraries that Microsoft licensed from Mainsoft Corp. (www.mainsoft. com) and heavily modified for use with IE 4.0.

Still, IE 4.0 for Solaris will never have all the features of the Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 versions of the brows er. The features that won't be in IE 4.0 for Solaris include ActiveX, multimedia controls (DirectX support), and the Active Desktop integration. When it does ship, IE 4.0 for Solaris will include a version of Outlook Express, Microsoft's mail and news-reading program.

Also, Data Connection Ltd. , a U.K. software company, will ship a Microsoft NetMeeting compatible product for use with IE 4.0 on Solaris. An update to the IEAK (Internet Explorer Administration Kit) 4.0 for Windows 95 and NT 4.0, possibly version 4.1, will build customizable distributions of IE 4.0 for Solaris.

Perhaps ironically, Microsoft is initially shipping IE 4.0 just on Solaris for Sparc systems. There are no plans to support Solaris for Intel systems, nor Linux, the Santa Cruz Operation, Ultrix, or OSF/1. Citing market-share concerns, however, Microsoft says it will ship versions for HP/UX, AIX, and Irix three months after the Solaris release. Netscape, of course, ships Communicator for AIX, Irix 5 and 6, HP/UX 9 and 10, and Linux 1.2 and 2, as well as SunOS 4.1.3, and Solaris for Intel and Sparc.

Making Little Sense
Five years ago, when widespread deployment of Unix as a desktop solution for the enterprise seemed like a realistic possibility, one could imagine Microsoft developing under Unix. In these days of Windows domination, however, it doesn't make much sense. IE 4.0 for Solaris, as well for other Unix platforms, can be seen only as a response to Netscape and little else. But Microsoft is using up some of its war chest to challenge Netscape and doing its first truly serious Unix development since it dumped Xenix about 10 years ago. That can only mean better software for Unix users.

The Preview 1 release of IE 4.0 for Solaris is available for download at www.microsoft.com/ie/unix/main.htm .

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