What is lost with IE gone?

Mac platform just lost a major supporter – Internet Explorer. The tea leaves have been around for any one who cared to read them. With the introduction of Safari by Apple, it was but a matter of time that Microsoft pulled the plug on IE.

For web developers, its one headache less. IE has been less and less compliant with the W3C standards and to try and accommodate a small user base has been a pain in the neck. That said, loosing a competitor in a market place is generally not good, especially one with so much muscle. It takes the drive to improve products out of the businesses. There are a lot of other competing technologies in web browsing that are available. But I have been less than thrilled with “Fire Fox” (even though every body and their brother seems to recommend Firefox), and even less thrilled with Camino. Both seem like unfinished products, and are good enough, but not very good.

In the end, Apple will have to carry the burden of developing Safari. Safari is a good browser, and I have no complaints with it. But I hope that with IE gone, Apple will spend MORE resources, and not less, on further development of Safari.