Article: After the Beta…

As many of you know, Apple currently has a beta of Safari 3.0 on Tiger, while everyone was gearing up for Leopard. In the past, it often meant that whenever a new OS comes out, the previous one stops receiving browser updates.

Although this seems like a no-brainer, many computers will not be able to run Leopard. My Mac mini is handling it beautifully, but my “internet/note-taking/oversized PDA” iBook G3 can’t run it (which is fine). I’m just baffled that Apple doesn’t try to get all computers on the same page in terms of the Web. Here’s what I mean—this is the first major OS updated that really excludes a good chunk of OS X machines. Because of this, many will be forced to turn to alternatives, such as Camino or Firefox. Although these are great choices, it’s been proven that Safari 3.0 can run on Tiger.

Also, unlike, say iCal, web browsers are something that need periodic maintenance, such as security updates and bug fixes. At one point, it just doesn’t make sense to keep supporting older OSes (Camino will run on Panther at least), but I think Apple needs to rethink how Safari is handled. Even IE 7 works on Windows XP…