web.devReview()

Opera is a cross platform browser. The Opera browser is free but proprietary software.

Internet Explorer is a Windows only web browser (previous Mac versions have been discontinued). Version 6 is the most widely used browser on the web. Version 7 can be customised through add-ons to increase functionality for developers.

Apple have released a public beta of the Safari browser version 3, and it is available for download. The big news is that there are versions for Mac OS X and Windows XP & Vista. So now web developers who use Windows will be able to test their browser code on Safari with the need to leave their PC.

Apple also claims Safari has a performance advantage over both IE7, Firefox 2 & Opera 9 in html & javascript performance as well as application launch time.

It will be interesting how much Safari is adopted on Windows, and will it get much traction outside the design community who already have all the other major browsers installed.

Mozilla has announced that Firefox 1.5.x users will be pushed towards Firefox 2.0 in the coming weeks as part of normal upgrades. This is currently being beta tested but wider rollout expected in a few weeks. No further releases on the 1.5.x are planned or expected.