BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Monday, June 16, 2003
Microsoft breaks alliance with
Apple. Last January, I
wrote about Apple's announcement
that it would take on Microsoft in the software arena. Now
the
first casualty: Microsoft
will no longer develop Internet Explorer for the
Macintosh.
Microsoft seems to be playing this
very low-key, saying simply that Apple's Safari is all that Mac users
need, and that, in any case, Web browsers have become an integrated
part of the operating system. That was Bill Gates's argument during
all those years of the antitrust case, and he must find it satisfying
now to be able to say it about someone else -- even though the truth
of that proposition was always dubious at best.
But this is actually huge news,
Microsoft's first step away from Apple since Gates and Steve Jobs
embraced in the late 1990s. Microsoft claims that it's not going to
walk away from the really important products, such as the Mac version
of Microsoft Office, but who knows? If the next version of AppleWorks
is as compatible with Office as has been rumored, then all bets may
be off.
I've switched to Safari for nearly
all of my Web browsing, mainly because it's incredibly fast -- much
faster than Explorer or Mozilla. But it's still in beta, you don't
get page numbering or headers when you print (note: if I'm wrong,
send directions!), and there are a few sites that it doesn't work
with at all -- such as Blogger.com,
the engine that drives Media Log. For that, I use Mozilla.
I love my new iBook, and I would
hate to think that it will be my last Mac. But Microsoft's latest
could be the beginning of the end for Apple.
posted at 11:02 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
