Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course you're right, they're not identical, but I don't think there's any practical difference between them here - they both initiate the view; but using the window namespace seems more readable, and is an established idiom. Maybe it is intentional, but I don't think so?
but that would assume a browser, right?
It does, but as catshirt says, that's probably reasonable. Especially as jQuery assumes a browser (and relies on the window namespace) too - so it wouldn't be suitable for a browserless environment anyway...