Ooooh! Some benchmarks are already in and it’s looking very promising.  Over 5 times faster than IE8 on Javascript execution.  IE7 isn’t on the graph but is mentioned in the results, simply because putting it on the graph would make the other results invisible.  Nice.  This is the browser we’ll be stuck with for the next loooong while as the remaining 30% of the internet finally gets around to upgrading from IE6.  See you in 2012, IE8!

But this isn’t IE’s day, it’s Safari we’re talking about!  Cool new GUI stuff, more native windows look (although I’m not sure that tab bar stuck on top of the window frame can be called native) and native text rendering (noooooo!  give me my Mac font smoothing back!)  Looking forward to playing with it.

What keeps surprising me is that Apple and Microsoft doesn’t realise web developers and regular users might need to keep their old browser versions around – at least while the new one is in Beta, and usually for as long as the older one is in use (cough-IE6-cough).  Safari 4 replaces Safari 3, and IE8 replaces all other IEs.  In the case of Internet Explorer there’s Multiple IE but I have yet to see a solution for Safari.  A bit strange considering you can download their nightly build (almost) every day and run it alongside your installed version. Safari 4 Beta out