This is coming from a Firefox developer, Safari's main competitor. Sounds like someone is a little bitter and/or scared.
It's a great (though definitely shady) move by Apple. A few people will complain, sure, but they'll gain potentially millions of new Windows Safari users from the tens (hundreds?) of millions of Windows iTunes users.
Additionally, I would guess that most of the people switching to Safari because of this will be IE users, not Firefox users. Given the choice between a user using IE or Safari, which would you prefer? I think even Firefox fans would agree Safari would be better for everyone (except MS of course).
Apple's been doing similar things for a while now. Apple Quicktime comes with an update that tries to get you to install iTunes as well. I don't want iTunes. I have 2 options, install the update for Quicktime, and install the update for Quicktime+iTunes. Even if there is no update for Quicktime, the update box will jump up and give me only one option: Quicktime+iTunes.
And why does Mozilla Firefox come with Google as a default search engine? Oh, could it be because they're getting paid every time someone uses search through Firefox? Or what about this deal: http://tools.google.com/firefox/toolbar/bundle/
Kettle - Pot - black.
As a web developer, I'm all for displacing IE as default web browser! Getting a site to perform/look good in IE has given me so many headaches. I'd be delighted if people started using a browser that's standards compliant.
It's a great (though definitely shady) move by Apple. A few people will complain, sure, but they'll gain potentially millions of new Windows Safari users from the tens (hundreds?) of millions of Windows iTunes users.
Additionally, I would guess that most of the people switching to Safari because of this will be IE users, not Firefox users. Given the choice between a user using IE or Safari, which would you prefer? I think even Firefox fans would agree Safari would be better for everyone (except MS of course).