E nterprise software developer PeopleSoft Inc. has announced that it will support the use of Safari with its software by the fourth quarter of 2003. Support for such features as tabs and SnapBack will be supported in order to allow users of PeopleSoft applications to work faster and more efficiently, according to the company.
In the press release, the company specifically endorsed open standards. Rick Bergquist, chief technology officer, PeopleSoft, is quoted as saying "PeopleSoft is committed to open source standards - which significantly reduce total cost of ownership." Safari is based on a number of open standards, and Apple is using an open source rendering engine called KHTML to power the browser. Apple is also releasing their rendering code back into the open source community as improvements are made.
PeopleSoftis statement could be considered a poke at Microsoft, which has campaigned relentlessly against open source development in favor of a closed, proprietary approach to software. Appleis Ron Okamoto, VP of World Wide Developer Relations, is also quoted as giving props to the open source movement. The press release from PeopleSoft, in full:
Today at its 2003 Leadership Summit, PeopleSoft Inc. announced that it is the first enterprise applications vendor to announce plans to certify Appleis open source-based Safari web browser. This certification demonstrates PeopleSoftis continued commitment to open source software and provides choice for customers. The Safari browser delivers the fastest web browser performance in the Mac OS X environment and once certified will enable PeopleSoft users to be more productive.
Users of PeopleSoft applications will be able to take advantage of unique features of Appleis Safari browser including SnapBack navigation that enables a user to step back through a transaction with a single click rather than many. The new tabbed browsing feature will enable users to access multiple PeopleSoft application pages in a single window, an important feature in multi-lingual call centers where a customer service agent needs access to applications in more than one language on the same system.
"PeopleSoft is committed to open source standards - which significantly reduce total cost of ownership," said Rick Bergquist, chief technology officer, PeopleSoft. "PeopleSoft customers that run PeopleSoft pure internet applications on Safari will benefit from faster load speeds and increased performance."
"PeopleSoftis commitment to Mac OS X and open standards will attract a larger number of enterprise customers than closed proprietary technology," said Ron Okamoto, Appleis vice president of worldwide developer relations. "Mac OS Xis UNIX-based architecture and Safariis revolutionary features provide the stability, performance and usability needed for web-based enterprise applications. "
"PeopleSoft applications play an important part in our computing environment," said Annie Stunden, Chief Information Officer, University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We have a large number of Mac users and better access to PeopleSoft applications with increased productivity is great news for them."
PeopleSoft will provide support for Appleis Safari browser in the fourth quarter of 2003. This deepens PeopleSoftis commitment to the Mac platform and will complement its existing support for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.
You can get more information about PeopleSoft at its Web site.