"IE for Linux" hack offers one more reason not to boot Windows
A BRAZILIAN web designer got tired of having to boot Windows to see how web pages looked in IE, so he coded a little script allowing anyone to download, install and run IE on Linux.
What is the target public?
* WebDesigners that want to move to Linux but still need to test their sites on IE.
* People who have to open IE-only sites
Six years ago, if you dared to ask how to run IE on Linux, you'd get replies like this one, telling you 'petition Microsoft for one' -and wait until Hell freezes over, I'd add. Well, one realistic person named Sérgio Lopes, a 21 years old web designer and Linux user from Brazil, decided to make it easy for non-techies to install and run the Windows version of the Vole's web browser effortlessly.
IE 6.0 SP1 running on Linux thanks to WINE and the IEs4Linux installer
That's how 'IEs4Linux' was born, a script that 'automagically' downloads and installs not one but the last three release versions of Internet Explorer -6.0, 5.5 SP2, and 5.0- on any 32-bit linux desktop with the wine core libraries in place. The installer program by Lopes -released under a GPL licence- relies on 'wine' and a third party utility dubbed 'cabextract' to decompress the windows archives downloaded from Microsoft's site. The IEs4Linux program is at version 2.0 after a long beta testing period that spanned from April to August.
How about the legal stuff?
IEs4Linux is free software, open source, covered by GPL. But IE is proprietary, copyrighted, and you have to accept their license.
Note that to install any MS program included on IEs4Linux, you need a valid Windows license. IEs4Linux will not ask for it and you can run everything without any problem even if you don't have a license. But it is illegal and a I have not to do with this.
And you should accept Adobe Flash EULA too.
[Full History]
What is the target public?
* WebDesigners that want to move to Linux but still need to test their sites on IE.
* People who have to open IE-only sites
Six years ago, if you dared to ask how to run IE on Linux, you'd get replies like this one, telling you 'petition Microsoft for one' -and wait until Hell freezes over, I'd add. Well, one realistic person named Sérgio Lopes, a 21 years old web designer and Linux user from Brazil, decided to make it easy for non-techies to install and run the Windows version of the Vole's web browser effortlessly.
IE 6.0 SP1 running on Linux thanks to WINE and the IEs4Linux installer
That's how 'IEs4Linux' was born, a script that 'automagically' downloads and installs not one but the last three release versions of Internet Explorer -6.0, 5.5 SP2, and 5.0- on any 32-bit linux desktop with the wine core libraries in place. The installer program by Lopes -released under a GPL licence- relies on 'wine' and a third party utility dubbed 'cabextract' to decompress the windows archives downloaded from Microsoft's site. The IEs4Linux program is at version 2.0 after a long beta testing period that spanned from April to August.
How about the legal stuff?
IEs4Linux is free software, open source, covered by GPL. But IE is proprietary, copyrighted, and you have to accept their license.
Note that to install any MS program included on IEs4Linux, you need a valid Windows license. IEs4Linux will not ask for it and you can run everything without any problem even if you don't have a license. But it is illegal and a I have not to do with this.
And you should accept Adobe Flash EULA too.
[Full History]
posted by Opairah at
7:38 PM
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