Rich vs. Reach

Perhaps due to a rare and likely unrepeatable astral conjunction, today more than 90 percent
of browsers available on the market happen to have built-in support for the advanced capabilities
that the AJAX model requires. Internet Explorer since version 5.0, Firefox, Netscape from
version 6 and onward, Safari 1.2, Opera starting with version 8.0, and a variety of mobile
devices are all browsers that fully support the AJAX programming model.

For the very first time, a rich browser is not synonymous with a limited reach browser. Finally,
you don’t have to choose a particular browser to enjoy advanced, programming-rich features.
Designing highly interactive Web applications that implement remote scripting techniques is no
longer an impossible dream to chase but a concrete opportunity to seize—whatever browsers
you and your clients use.

Each platform and each vendor might have a particular framework and tool set to offer, but
this doesn’t change the basic fact that living the AJAX lifestyle is now possible with 90 percent
of the browsers available today. It’s a real breakthrough, and it is now possible to build and
distribute applications that were not possible before.