Whenever Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) integrates features from Mac OS into Windows, the Apple fans cry foul. “It’s a ripoff!” they say. “Apple did it first!”

Likewise, fans of the Opera browser are perpetually claiming Firefox ripped them off.

Nobody but historians and fans care who did it first; users just want to know who does it best. And copying the other guy isn’t cheating. This isn’t high school. Copying the competition is how the free market works. Companies improve their products by stealing ideas from the competition and improving them a little bit. When we see companies doing that, we shouldn’t cry foul — we should pat them on the back and say, “Well done!” (more…)

Soon after our first impression on the Internet Explorer 8 RC1, we decided to do the inevitable, a browser comparison with long time rivals Firefox, Opera, and the latest kid on the block, Chrome.

Note that this is not a review to find out which amongst these is the best browser around. It would be unwise to do such a comparison because, eventually, it boils down to personal choices, and for the same reason, there will always be controversy and related chest thumping about how “my” browser betters “yours.” Therefore, this is just a rehash of the features and drawbacks of these four mainstream browsers available as of today. (more…)

Microsoft’s overnight posting of the final Internet Explorer 8 pre-release build prompted ZDNet Australia to run it through some benchmark tests against its counterparts.

On the Sunspider JavaScript performance test, despite all the performance improvements Microsoft says it’s making, IE8 finished last by roughly 3,000ms.  It was narrowly bested by Opera 10 alpha, while bunched at the top of the performance ranks and separated by slight margins were Google Chrome 2.0.158.0, WebKit r40220, and Firefox 3.1 beta 1.  WebKit serves as the foundation of Apple’s Safari browser. (more…)