Apple has removed Microsoft Internet Explorer from the Dock on demo Macs in Apple Retail Stores and added Safari as the Dock’s default browser. Safari 1.0 beta (v60) is now also the default browser in the System Preferences “Internet” pane’s “Web” tab on all demo systems. Internet Explorer remains on the demo models’ hard drives in the Applications folder.
“According to a store employee, that’s now Apple’s standard configuration for demo systems. That’s probably a pretty good clue to the company’s plans for the future. For now, though, Macs sold to customers still have IE not only on the drive, but also in the Dock,” reports Henry Norr in the San Francisco Chronicle.
MacDailyNews take: Get ready for Apple to drop IE altogether once Safari sheds its beta status. The new configurations on Apple Retail Store demo Macs show clearly where Apple is headed on this issue.
G-R-E-A-T
I am very glad to see that! Of course, there will still be the naive and ego-driven webpage designers that will use the latest MS-only codes for their fancy graphics, but the majority of coders will realize that it is more important to reach 100% of the viewers with the info than it is to be cute for 90% of them. If they stay with W3C (http://www.w3.org) standards, the whole world can view their pages, but if they opt for MS specialized codes, then just their MS American buddies will see it.
I feel this move is just the start of a very bitter battle between Gates’ ego and the world of open standards. The internet should be based on ONLY open standards. I will also predict that Gates will get more and more angry out of a frustration because his $40B isn’t enough to buy and control open source codes. People will continue to prefer open source codes/standards because its evolution will be much faster than the tight fistedness of Gates’ control over his dinosaur-like engineering department. IE will eventually be forced to comply with standards, and it will evolve into something much more like Safari… but 5 years too late.
Nature and humaity has never allowed anything to large to last too long; Rome fell, Ming fell, Hitler fell, mountains erode, and seas dry up. The era of Technology gave way to the Information Age. Now, it is poised to evolve into the Free Information Age; free, instant info for all so others may grow and become strong. And Gates is trying to put up a toll booth so he may conrol and profit from it. The weak stand, cry, and conplain while Steve Jobs is busy building a free (and easier to use) bypass around him, going to the same destinations.
Jobs has always been able to see the future and actually create it. I’ll trust him, again, with this move. Steve, drag IE to the trash. We’re all behind you!
To Aryugaetu, you forgot to mention the USA empire in your list of things crushing under its own weight otherwise I agree 100%.
To Kerryb:
Nothing like turning a Mac site into a political forum. I am sure that where you are from is a Utopia without faults and problems. Get a grip and go surrender to someone.
Pete
What’s the big deal? I got rid of IE from the dock and replaced it with Chimera months ago. Now, the Safari icon is next to Chimera and is the browser I use most often.
I haven’t used IE in months. With so many browsers available for the Mac: Chimera, Safari, iCab, Omniweb, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, Links…
I don’t see any reason at all to put IE in the dock.
For me dropping IE is still a bit premature. I run into a site every few days that will not work correctly with Safari or Chimera. Thus I’m forced to launch IE to get through that site. Immediately after, I’m back to Safari, but IE still lives in my dock – albeit at the far end of it……
Aryugaetu… well said. Amen! I took IE out of my dock the day Safari was released. Good riddance!
Bye Bye IE and, about time too. I personaly use iCab to taxi around in and not Safari, at the moment, as I don’t have a Jag to run the Safari.
Great they finally got rid of that stinkin browser, now if they will only do the same to motorolas stagnating lousy G4!
Good… it’s about to get rid of a bloated and overly sslow Browser that is IE for Mac!!!
I am forced to use IE 5.2 because of certain web sites (county records access). If I try to even pull up certain pages I am told I have to use Microsoft IE! It just simply won’t alow another browser to access the county records site. This totally BLOWS. Another Microsoft product shoved into our faces. Also I was told that I had to use Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer. After much talk the county is trying to see how I can access public records on Mac OS X using IE not just Windows and IE. WhatEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey guys and girls… I have used Safari since day one. Its works really well and I do not have the problems with web sites that I.E. 5.2.2 gave me. If Microsoft wants to hold us mac-pak back while they develop for windows OS, then they deserve to be placed in the applications folder along with the calculator.
Safari is on all 3 of my macs to stay!
Arg! Whenever I click on an ftp link in safari (ftp://…), IE automatically launches! This is nuts! If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know! Can’t Safari handle ftp://?!
I had the same problem with IE launching apon clicking ftp links. The whole internet config options list is still under the hood, but Apple pulled most options from the Inter control pa.. uh pref panel. Download the “More Internet” pref pane from versiontracker.com and you’ll be able to specify lots of apps again with a gui. This fixed the problem for me.