Topic: Apple releases Safari browser on Windows

[idolminds]

Neat, I guess.

I'll give it a shot just because thats the kind of guy I am.

[DrSbaitso]

Cool. WebKit's probably the best rendering engine out there, from my experience. Pretty much every site seems to work fine with Safari.

Although, it doesn't have the zooming and fit-to-width features Opera has.

[Xessive]

I don't see the point.. We've already got Firefox.

[Cools]

The point is that Apple thinks that by releasing Safari for Windows they can increase the market share of the browser in the same way that happened with iTunes when that application got released for Windows.

Only it won't make a difference since with iTunes there was simply no other choice when it came to synching iPods while there are plenty of options when it comes to browsers on a Windows machine. Safari is just not unique enough compared to even IE6/7 to be worth it, even if it's supposed to be "faster".

[Xessive]

The point is that Apple thinks that by releasing Safari for Windows they can increase the market share of the browser in the same way that happened with iTunes when that application got released for Windows.

Only it won't make a difference since with iTunes there was simply no other choice when it came to synching iPods while there are plenty of options when it comes to browsers on a Windows machine. Safari is just not unique enough compared to even IE6/7 to be worth it, even if it's supposed to be "faster".

Yeah, I hope it's not as heavy as iTunes though. iTunes usually uses around 40-60mb just to have it open. Then again I only ever use it to add album art. I love Winamp.

[WindAndConfusion]

The point is that Apple thinks that by releasing Safari for Windows they can increase the market share of the browser in the same way that happened with iTunes when that application got released for Windows.

Ha! You're wrong. It's all about the iPhone.

See, the iPhone is designed to let you run custom applications on it. The catch is that they have to be web apps, and Apple isn't providing much in the way of developer tools. So how will you know if a web app will work on the iPhone?

If it works in Safari.

(I learned something today!)

[idolminds]

Ah, Something Awful. Keeping me up late since 1997.

[Quemaqua]

I don't venture over to Something Awful too often, but that was worth it.  I needed a laugh.

[idolminds]

Check out the patch notes for Shadowrun they put up.

[Cools]

Ha! You're wrong. It's all about the iPhone.

See, the iPhone is designed to let you run custom applications on it. The catch is that they have to be web apps, and Apple isn't providing much in the way of developer tools. So how will you know if a web app will work on the iPhone?

If it works in Safari.

(I learned something today!)

If the applications are "pure" web applications, then you'll be able to test them out on any browser, in particular Firefox (since IE is buggy as hell to start with). No doubt it's going to be the same setup as with Tiger's Dashboard widgets which you can at least start developing and testing through any regular web browser.

Also, Apple will no doubt want anyone who develops applications for an iPhone to do so on a Mac through XCode and through the upcoming DashCode applications.

They'll no doubt release "iPhoneCode" or something like that as either an extension or a standalone application at some point. In which case since they'll build it on WebKit (the engine behind Safari, based on the original KHTML) that's where their testing of Safari on Windows could pay off if they decide to port the app to Windows.

[WindAndConfusion]

If the applications are "pure" web applications, then you'll be able to test them out on any browser, in particular Firefox (since IE is buggy as hell to start with). No doubt it's going to be the same setup as with Tiger's Dashboard widgets which you can at least start developing and testing through any regular web browser.

Yes, because web standardization is so good that developers can count on their applications running the same everywhere. Especially on different rendering engines.

[Cools]

Yes, you need mad coding skillz and a big full of IE hacks.