That's kinda big news...that Microsoft is giving up its browser battle on the Mac side. Up until now, they have really been superior on the Macintosh, but with the introduction of Safari, Microsoft does stand to lose considerable ground. Safari, although somewhat problematic in its still early stages, has great potential, particularily since Apple will assuredly bundle it with its own operating systems, as Microsoft has done with its.
I understand Microsoft's position, but I'm sure they're not happy about what's happened. They had Netscape moderately well beat out on the Mac, and was facing limited opposition from Mozilla, but still were leading the race. And, I'm sure they'll stay prominent on the Macintosh for several months to come, but once the successor to OS X is released, I'm guessing they'll not be around much, which will be interesting to see if Safari will fill the void left by IE's disappearance, or if all contending browsers for the Macintosh (Netscape, Mozilla, Safari are the main three that come to mind) will experience significant popularity gains.
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