Is it just me, or did we have a month of good, old-fashioned, internet time in the web browser universe just now. After years of dawdling (the pace of Mozilla Development), inactivity (Internet explorer 6 was released in 2001), or announcements of minor interest (and, yes, I count Safari in here), the past month saw:
- The claim by a Microsoft employee that IE 6 is the last
“standalone” version of Internet Explorer. - Microsoft dropping IE support for the Mac entirely.
- Microsoft paying AOL $750 million to settle claims arising from the “cutting off the air supply” days.
I’m not sure what this means. Maybe it’s just the usual shenanigans, coupled with coincidental timing. But when you throw in Safari and Firebird, it feels like something’s shifting (on the other hand, the shift hasn’t fully registered out there yet).
What’s going on? Got any theories?
Inconsistency of Significance
Just to pick a nit - the announcement of Safari is a minor event, but the cancellation of Mac IE is major even though it happened as a consequence of Safari's release?
Otherwise, you're quite right - there's ground shifting under our feet.
Don't forget about Opera!
The past 30 days also saw the release of Opera 7 for Linux!
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2003/05/19/
The writing's on the wall that MS is taking us to a destination of their - not our - choosing. Linux is mainstream and ready now. Time to switch!
IE 6.55555555555_
There is browser re-development happening, unfortunately when the ground moves in the Internets page-rank-poor neighborhoods, it doesn't make the news.
www.powercons.com or http://www.webattack.com/get/powercons.shtml