Microsoft aggressively and abusively positioned Internet Explorer as part of their 'browser war' to eliminate all competition. Home Internet access was still somewhat new and competed against proprietary services like CompuServe, AOL, and Microsoft's own MSN. At various points, Internet Explorer was also available for MacOS, Solaris, and HP-UX.Īt its 1995 release, Internet Explorer competed with the Mosaic web browser and Netscape Navigator. It was initially based on Spyglass Mosaic. Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser application created by Microsoft primarily for Microsoft Windows.