Monday, June 11, 2007

You Got Apple In My Windows!


So let's say you're a PC guy, but you've kind of got a thing for Steve Jobs. It's okay. I don't swing from that side of the plate myself, but there's nothing wrong with having a man crush. *cough*Gay*cough* Excuse me.

So what's a boy to do? Abandon the PC world entirely and become a loyal Mac user? Hell no. Are you crazy? Instead, just grab enough Apple gear to make you feel hip and trendy, and to bring you a step closer to your personal lord and savior, the turtle-necked one. But until now, that gear has been few and far between. Sure, you can snatch up an iPod with all the trimmings, and there's iTunes and QuickTime - does anyone on a PC use QT? - but what about the basics, like a browser? Well, rejoice - your time has come.

In his infinite wisdom, Jobs has decided to take on MS in their own backyard. That's right - you can now get Safari, Apple's home-grown browser, for XP and Vista (in beta form, for now). No more must you suffer with regular IE and Firefox offerings - now you can browse like an Apple god.

For anyone who's used Safari on the Mac, you know that it's a very good piece of software. It's certainly the browser of choice on OS X, but I think that's because many Mac users probably haven't given Firefox a fair shake. Still, it'll be interesting to see if Apple can make a dent in the Windows browser market.

Historically, Apple has had little reason to compete in the Windows arena. They've always been more focused on bringing users over to their own walled garden, as opposed to venturing out and sharing their goods with others. That's part of the reason I've never been a Mac fan - that and the fact that the machines seem too simplistic. I mean, why can't they just put a damn eject button on the front of the box? I'm sure they could design a nice touch-sensitive button that would look great and add $100 to the selling price of the rig. But this is a topic for another article.

You can grab the beta here, with or without QT bundled (go without). Who knows - maybe a little Apple is just what Windows needs to spice things up a bit.

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