Effort meant to bolster Internet Explorer 10 support

(Updated with sell-out status) Microsoft is offering Mac developers a special QuickStart kit that includes copies of Windows 8 Pro and Parallels Desktop 8, according to an official blog post by Sandeep Singhal, the company's group program manager for Internet Explorer. The kit comes on a USB stick, and is heavily discounted, requiring only a $25 donation to a charity of the developer's choice. Singhal says that a "limited supply" of the kit is available.

The bundle is meant to get Mac developers testing Internet Explorer 10 in cases where they otherwise wouldn't buy a copy of Windows. Microsoft once developed a native Mac version of IE, but discontinued it in 2003, the same year that Apple launched the first version of Safari. IE remains the default browser in Windows, although Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox have eaten up much of Microsoft's marketshare.

Update: Preorders for the kit have already sold out.

by MacNN Staff