MISHA  MS stopped active development of IE for Mac before Safari came out. IE for Mac was always one sold rev behind the Windows version, and it would take 1-2 years to catch up. Apple got fed up and did its own thing. And MS seemed only too keen to officially be able to drop development of something it had long ago unofficially stopped developing.

IE for Mac was consuming resources of the Mac BU without generating any revenue. Can't really blame them... and MS knows first hand what happens when you make your browser the default (as they did with IE on Windows, and Apple then did with Safari on Mac).

There's always Firefox.  
(Version 4.0.3)

AN.ONYMOUS  I understand your point Misha.

However, as I could not make reservations in Mexican Hotels using Safari AND Firefox, I managed (with much difficulty) to download an old copy of IE for Mac, and it worked perfectly!

In other words, Safari was not even able to replace the old IE.

While I was surfing to get an old copy of IE for the Mac,I remember that I found a site where it was explicitly stated that MS had stopped providing MS for Mac following Apple's specific demand.

As I had other urgency, I do not remember exactly where this was stated, but I should say that it was on a MS official link.

My advice, if you are travelling and you need to secure urgently a hotel reservation, keep a copy of MS IE for Mac in your machine.  
(Version 4.0.3)

MISHA  If a site is not loading properly under Firefox or Safari it is the fault of neither browser but rather of the site for being so horribly coded...

The story about IE is that Microsoft had basically abandoned it (but not officially killed it). More than a year after IE development stopped (but not officially), Apple released Safari. After Safari was out, THEN MS "officially" killed IE. But IE was already dead. Safari was just a convenient excuse to some how justify why they had stopped working on it.   
(Version 4.0.3)

ECHOROB  Turning on the develop menu and changing the user agent to IE works for me   
(Version 4.0.3)

GORDON142  OK, any site written specifically for IE is not going to work on such an ancient version of IE for Mac. It doesn't even support most of the proprietary functionality of IE on Windows (ActiveX, for instance) that would restrict other browsers. It sounds very much like the site was just looking for an IE user agent. The user agent in Safari can easily be switched. The days when IE was required for viewing large swathes of the web are past. Firefox adoption is nearly 50% in some countries, so trying to make money on the web and not supporting other browsers just doesn't work anymore. Since Firefox generally has very good standards support, sites designed for Firefox usually work fine in Safari. That said, even Safari itself has enough market share these days that most of the big sites test and tweak their sites specifically for Safari compatibility.  
(Version 4.0.3)

AN.ONYMOUS  I can willingly admit that Safari works fine in most cases. Even though I do prefer Camino by far.

However, I cannot agree with the opinion that Safari's market share warrants that everybody cares for having a Safari compatible website. The hotels I was talking about are among the best (although atypical) in the world (eg the best in central Mexico) and, being 100% booked months ahead, they just do not bother or even wish to hear about unhappy Safari or Firefox users.

I was just furious when I read that it was responding to Apple's demand that Microsoft made IE UNACCESSIBLE to Mac users. Even if downloading an old Mac version of IE is rarely necessary, it should stay a possibility.

Therefore, if Apple asked for IE's unaccessibility it is not Mac users' friendly.  
(Version 4.0.3)

PACMAN  -Replying to my own post.. It seems it doesn't work on my other computer running Leopard. Maybe it's because my Safari is already messed up.  
(Version 4.0.3)

MACUPDATE ADMIN  Try http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19202/safariblock

I don't see any animated .gifs, and I believe it is due to SafariBlock.  
(Version 4.0.3)

RONALD PRICE  Thanks, I'll try SafariBlock. Hopefully it works because I used to like Safari until it began inflicting debilitating physical pain.  
(Version 4.0.3)

RONALD PRICE  Nope, SafariBock didn't help. Maybe it needs a custom rule to block animated gifs. I may look into it.  
(Version 4.0.3)

PACMAN  OmniWeb and Shiira both allows you to disable animations.  
(Version 4.0.3)

BEFF  I have not updatet yet, do to your statement regarding 'Inquisitor'. Can you confirm this?

I'm running latest Leopard, and I do not like to see 'Inquisitor' be a miss, after an update.  
(Version 4.0.3)