Apple takes Microsoft's path
Since Safari 1.2's release yesterday, much has been made in various user forums and other areas about the fact that it's available for Panther -- Mac OS X v10.3 -- only.
What makes this particularly interesting is that with this new release, Safari is making use of user interface technology, security technology and a couple of other things that are built into Panther, not Jaguar. It's a similar tactic that Microsoft has employed in its own Internet Explorer technology -- a tactic that ran Microsoft into legal trouble, at least temporarily.
I'm not sure how I feel about this yet; I don't suspect Apple is going to run into problems, since the Safari Web Kit is something that third-party developers can license and use in their own applications (in fact, the morning after Safari 1.2 was released, a third-party browser based on the technology was updated similarly).
Comments
I really can't tell the difference between the new Safari and the previous version. OmniWeb 5, on the other hand, looks VERY nice, with tons of improvements, but it's quite unstable right now.
Posted by: Alphax | February 3, 2004 12:11 PM
Safari 1.2 appears to be available for Jaguar too. ;)
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Posted by: Tommy H. | February 3, 2004 02:16 PM
Except for the part where IT ISN'T.
Read the system requirements.
Posted by: flargh | February 3, 2004 04:19 PM
So it isn't. My mistake. Must have been the big "Download Safari 1.2" button that threw me off. ;)
Posted by: Tommy H. | February 4, 2004 04:26 AM
Apple has been doing little shit like this for years, people just never like to accept it. Although they are doing it hardcore lately (specially with panther).
Example: If you have a Sawtooth G4, and Panther installed, you are stuck with a Rage 128. From my experience, friends, and xlr8yourmac forums, Panther for whatever reason, makes every video card but the rage 128 (including Apple OEM ATI and Nvidia cards) not work. Apple tech support had the issue in their database the first time I called (first day it was released), and still had it last time I called (yesterday). So they know of the problem, but refuse to fix it even though they know exactly what is causing the problem and how to fix it. Basically, they are trying to do is force people to buy G5s or something.
As for...
"I don't suspect Apple is going to run into problems, since the Safari Web Kit is something that third-party developers can license and use in their own applications"
The Internet Explorer SDK is freely available to implement into your own Windows applications just as WebKit SDK is available on MacOSX. So this point doesn't really have merit. Personally I think Apple should have the right to implement their browser into their operating system all they want, but I also believe Microsoft has that same right, as it really does make the OS better.
Posted by: James | February 5, 2004 02:05 AM
Re: Sawtooth G4 and Panther -- I'm running a G4/500 with a Radeon 8500 card and Panther quite nicely, actually.
Posted by: flargh | February 5, 2004 07:21 AM