Safari and IE 7, separated at birth?

I develop sites for both Windows and Apple machines- because it's my job. I use both Apple & Windows operating systems. Safari still has a ways to go before it's a mature, smoothly functioning browser. As such, it's still a MAJOR improvement over the Mac IE- no contest. It's good that Safari "borrowed" the tabbed browsing and RSS capabilities from folks like Mozilla and Opera :). But in terms of Firefox- on either platform? Give me the advanced extensibility and customization of Firefox. It's light years ahead of either Safari or IE. I have extensions which REALLY make my life useful as a designer and easier as a power surfer. There's even an extension that will automatically "tweak" the browser for broadband use and it's a no-brainer. Oh yeah, it just works. It's amusing to hear folks "talk about" IE 7 in this thread. I've been a beta tester for 2 months now and it's default is NOT brushed metal, fyi. Its rss 2 implementation is pretty slick- click on Tools|Feed Discovery (or just press the "Feed" button) and you're taken to, for example: http://www.tuaw.com/rss.xml, this site's weblog. Click Favorites and store where you want. Effortless. Speaking of the tool bar, icon size has a new, much improved small icon setting. Want even less? Press F11 or click on the "Full Screen" button and you're presented with full screen plus an auto-hide menu. Until you mouse up to the top to use it, it's hidden. Nice. Security issues? Supposedly revamped, but, as with ALL MS programs, stay tuned. Supposedly it's been re-engineered specifically to address security but MS doesn't have anywhere near a satisfactory record in this regard. It's also an area that I have no specific technical expertise/information on so I have to pass on commenting. It could very well be a "deal breaker." The phishing filter and pop-up blocker are nice, but hardly revolutionary. There's now a process to specifically manage all add-ons. You can add/remove/disable and find new add-ons from one panel. What kills me about most Apple sites is the level of defensiveness and lack of knowledge re: alternative software-such as Firefox for example. Another example: you see one screenshot and dozens of people start ranting. Is it representative of IE 7? No. Is it particularly informative? No. Has anyone independently sought further information? Obviously not. It should be embarassing when ignorance is the primary source of fuel for someone's preconceived biases.

Yeah sure, it looks just like a browser. Not entirely. Have you seen this picture: http://www.tweakers.net/ext/i.dsp/1119690774.jpg ? The sidebar looks just the same as Safari's sidebar. And why is that sidebar on the right side? In Windows XP it always stands on the left side, in OS X on the right side. (While the Win XP side is even better think). So I think I know what product has inspired them.

Here is the link again since it didn't seem to work. http://podman.notlong.com

Ok, first of all, I'm not taking any sides here. I just think that most of you are horribly misinformed. Ok, yes, the way the new IE7 displays rss feeds is very similar to the was Safari displays it's feeds, but this isn't the "new techology" they are showing. If you guys watch the video at Channel 9 (mms://wm.microsoft.com/ms/msnse/0506/25055/RSS/rss_longhorn_platform_2005_MBR.wmv) you'll see that there is much more to longhorn and rss than just IE7. There is a whole rss subsystem built into the OS that ANY program can use, not just IE. Maybe you guys should do a little more research before making comments that make you look stupid.

You people ought to get out more. It's a browser and wow, brushed metal? Why the hell are you so wound up about it?

either you love Microsoft or you hate Microsoft ... either you love Apple or you don't know Apple

Bad idea from Microsoft. The brushed metal looks stupid on Safari already.

I think it best if we leave penises out of the discussion entirely.

Other than the fact that they're both browsers there's pretty much no similarities. It looks as much like IE 6 as it does Firefox and Safari and Camino and EVERY OTHER BROWSER BECAUSE IT'S A BROWSER!! Safari is lightyears better than IE6 and will probably be better than IE7, no need for the penis-envy.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery... but to pass off someone else's idea as your own is just immoral.