Alaska was, as with previous trips, absolutely beautiful. I'll post some photos soon (and by soon, I mean some time in the next couple of years :-)
Today Apple Inc. announced that they're going to offer their Safari web browser for Windows. This is exciting news and I'm thrilled to see that the world of web browsers, stagnant for so many years, is really moving again. I think that Mozilla and Firefox can take a lot credit for this revitalization and having one more "modern" browser on Windows -- where the overwhelming majority of users are accessing the internet, is good for everyone.
This will certainly solidify Safari's spot as the third most used browser, behind IE and Firefox and well ahead of Opera, but it's going to be a while before we see how much they can actually penetrate the Windows desktop. A lot will depend, I think, on how Apple choses to distribute it. Jobs' answer to that question was to reference the success of iTunes on Windows.
iTunes on Windows is a bit of a different creature, though, with a wildly successful hardware product, the iPod, pulling it onto Windows. Their other Windows offering, QuickTime, has two main channels onto the Windows desktop, the pull from the proliferation of QT files on the web, and the push from bundling it with iTunes for Windows.
There's no hardware pull, like the iPod, that I can see for Safari on Windows, and given the open formats of the web, there's not an obvious content pull like there is for QT. I'm guessing that they'll pursue a similar bundling strategy to QT and they're likely to get a decent installed base pretty quickly using that push. Speculation on how many of those users actually switch from IE to Safari, though, is much more difficult.
How successful they are at growing market share will be the main factor in how much they help web developers and the health of the open web. Anything that moves more users out of the IE experience and into a standards-based browser will make the lives of web developers better. Another successful implementation of agreed-upon web standards will definitely promote a healthier web. A healthy web and happy web developers is certainly a good thing.
There are still a lot of questions about how this unfolds, but there's one definite winner here: people who use the web. Choice and innovation are the real backbone of the internet and the more they are fostered, the better for everyone.
Posted by: James | June 11, 2007 11:21 AM
They will obviously bundle Safari with QT and iTunes, thus making eat up market share fairly quickly.
Posted by: Remmie | June 11, 2007 11:53 AM
I see a few pro's out of Safari for Windows:
-Shows the average user there are other browsers out there besides the ones installed by default
-Averaging out the browser market share
-Gives users more options to choose from
-Enables Windows/Linux to have all major layout engines: Trident (IE), Gecko (Mozilla), Presto (Opera), and now KHTML (Opera/Konqueror)
I wonder if WINE will work with Safari
Posted by: Corey Farwell | June 11, 2007 12:34 PM
Most notable regarding Netscape 9 is that they've dropped the dual engine (Gecko/Trident) strategy in favor of Gecko.
I as well am very excited about Safari's entrance. After a quick try I _realized_ it lacks some stuff I am used to in Firefox: extensions, live bookmarks, keyboard and mouse shortcuts, but offers at least a couple of enviable advantages: quick startup and pretty fonts.
Posted by: Percy | June 11, 2007 12:58 PM
Apple keeps trying to push iTunes on us with every QuickTime download. Their auto-update keeps trying to add in iTunes, even if we have explicitly chosen QuickTime-ONLY.
Perhaps they will start (forcing) nudging us to accept Safari installations on Windows platforms by quietly adding Safari to the QuickTime+iTunes+Safari bundle, errrr, to the QuickTime+iTunes bundle.
Sneak it into everyone's QuickTime just like MS snuck the blue-E onto every windows users desktop.. just bundle it :(
Posted by: roseman | June 11, 2007 12:59 PM
Wow... this actually floored me.
Though I'd hardly say that the web browser world has been stagnating recently. The last several years -- pretty much since Firefox and Safari hit the scene -- have seen quite a bit of innovation in that space.
Interesting thought: this may be the first browser since to be released since ~2000 (since Opera released its first Linux version) that is available in the same version on Windows and Mac, but not Linux. (I'm not counting IE, since the Windows and Mac versions didn't use the same rendering engine.)
Off to download the beta on my Windows box at work...
Posted by: Kelson | June 11, 2007 1:05 PM
Hmmmm. It looks ok and brings up the Apple start page quickly, except it doesn't render text at all. At all. Not even in the UI. Something's messed up. Maybe it's a weird setting on my laptop.
Posted by: Greg | June 11, 2007 3:41 PM
WOW!
People where I live think apple is 'cool', and these are 25+ old people who have a bit of cash and nice cars. They love apple. I hope they change browsers and try firefox as well. I have persuaded a few of them, but I think the non-apple GUI in Firefox is a problem.
My mate splashed out 1,000 on an apple computer. Thats more than he spent on his car :-)
monk.e.boy
Posted by: monk.e.boy | June 12, 2007 12:26 AM
"No hardware pull"? What about the iPhone?
Posted by: Roger | June 12, 2007 9:39 AM
One of the benefits of Safari on Win32 will be that many, many more web developers will be able to test their page in Safari directly, instead of relying on third-party comments or actually buying a Mac. Of course, there could be minor OS-specific rendering issues, but on the whole, Safari users should be better off than they were before.
Posted by: Ben Basson | June 13, 2007 10:23 AM
I watched the WWDC 2007 keynote online and I don't know if they were being deliberately provocative or if it was just an unintentional snub, but Jobs had a graph up showing the browser market share as a pie chart; IE was at 78% as I recall, Firefox at 15%, Safari at 5% and 'Others' at 2%... When he talked about expanding Safari's market share, it expanded to only cover Firefox and Other, without touching IE's.
If that was intentional, it was certainly irresponsible; the web would benefit from *more* diversity, not less. Also, wiping out a good open source program like Firefox would be a shame :) But I suspect it was just done to make the graph look nice ;)
Posted by: Limulus | June 13, 2007 12:19 PM
YASA VOB to iPod Converter is an expert and easy-to-used to convert VOB files to iPod converter.It has the ability to convert VOB into iPod Video and other various video formats.
www.vob-converter.com
Posted by: snyder73 | September 7, 2007 3:29 AM
Welcome back. Glad you had a safe, enjoyable trip.
I'm surprised, Asa, you failed to mention Netscape Navigator 9 which also came out last week (beta) while you were away. It's actually quite a nice product, based as it is, upon Firefox. Any comments?