The author argues that Microsoft should create an open source version of IE so that it's marketing for IE would be more successful.<p>The commercial goal of the advertising is not to drive IE usage vs Chrome/Firefox on Windows - it's to get people to buy windows machines. They're [re]building the IE brand, dispelling negative perceptions around IE (and Windows, by association) and presenting IE as a superior browser to drive OS/computer purchasing decisions.<p>None of those goals are served by a cross-platform version - in fact, it would only present a risk if the quality and experience was not similar or better to the native version.
This is one of the most nonsensical posts I've seen in a while. Microsoft has no substantial commercial interest in getting people to use IE. I'd guess it's most important to make IE relevant so that people don't run away from Windows Phone because of it's presence, but other than that, there's not much in it for them. Sure, some ecosystem control, some ability to add proprietary extensions to the web, but on the whole, saying Microsoft's software being on only Microsoft's platform being like a dictatorship that puts it's leader's status above it's civilians having food? I'm not sure I understand.
Apple has actually stopped updating Safari on Windows months ago: <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/apples-removes-mentions-of-safari-for-windows-but-version-5-1-7-still-available/" rel="nofollow">http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/apples-removes-mentions-...</a><p>Filed under link bait, IMHO. There are so many better opportunities, even Windows Media Player for Mac would make more sense, if it was everything that people want iTunes to be, and you could use it as a Trojan Horse for Windows Phone sync, online services etc...
"Even Apple makes Windows versions of Safari. So, why would Microsoft chose to isolate the primary application delivery mechanism (browser) to only their OS?"<p>1.) Maybe because it would be pretty hard to port IE to an OS with a pretty different architecture and I'm not even sure what would be the potential gains of doing so.<p>2.) Safari is based on WebKit so a lot of the cross-platform compatibility bitchwork is already done by the WebKit project, not really Apple.<p>3.) It appears that Safari for Windows is dying if not already dead.