IE vs Safari

I just finished reading THIS article. It is about the difference in text rendering between Windows and MacOS. It was very enlightening. This is one of those things that I wondered about kind of subconsciously but never really took time to research or ask questions about. Why does the web look like crap in IE on a Windows PC? Why does it look so elegant and beautiful in Safari on a Mac? The way Apple and Microsoft have chosen to render text on their respective platforms is the reason. And, I think it says a lot about these two companies and where they have come from and where they are headed. Now that Safari is available for Windows you can see the difference side by side in a direct comparison. (see pic above) Apple went to great lengths to bring the Mac way of rendering text to Windows so the web experience in Safari for Windows wouldn't suck like IE. Read the article if you want a technical explanation. Here is a little snippet that kind of summarizes the whole thing.

"Apple and Microsoft have always disagreed in how to display fonts on computer displays. Today, both companies are using sub-pixel rendering to coax sharper-looking fonts out of typical low resolution screens. Where they differ is in philosophy.

Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.

Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface."

The article mentions that when you poll people about which they prefer they choose what they are familiar with. Windows users prefer the Windows rendering and Mac people the Mac rendering. This makes sense to me, but still blows my mind. There is a principal involved here that I wholeheartedly believe in. People will accept the environment they are placed in for the most part. Unless it is too painful they will stay and be loyal to that environment their entire lives and be perfectly happy with it. Even if it is inferior to something else relatively easy to obtain. I on the other hand demand better, bigger, faster, in almost everything I come in contact with. It causes me a lot of pain because my expectations are usually way too high. In this particular case I cannot imagine why when placed side by side one would not choose the superior and typographically true Apple rendering.
I'm sure there are opposing views out there but I just won't listen to any. I am an Apple elitist. So there.