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back to article Apple's new Safari snubs older Macs, drops Windows version

Apple has shipped Safari 6 to coincide with the release of Mountain Lion, but to take full advantage of the fruity firm's newest web browser, you'll need to be running its latest OS. Although Lion users can download Safari 6, not all of the browser's features will work on the older OS, and users of earlier versions of Mac OS X …

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        And there was nothing at all behind Nutscrape being a pain in the backside?

        Looking at it from a basic level:

        Windows comes with IE. The horror. The HORROR!

        Mac OX comes with Safari: Full out of box experience! Sweet!

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      {sigh}

      Microsoft did not get into trouble for having an monopoly in the desktop OS market. Monopolies are allowed.

      They got into trouble for (ab)using that monopoly to gain another monopoly in internet browsers.

      Monopolies are allowed. But you can't use one monopoly to create another. That's illegal.

      None of the above currently applies in any way whatsoever to the situation on Apple Macs.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      One rule for Apple, another for Microsoft

      Apple's strategy is simple. Maintain a smaller market share but charge a premium for their products to make huge profits and (on paper) rising market cap. That way they don't look so dominant and can get away with anti-competitive activities.

      Meanwhile, Microsoft is punished for being simply being successful at business and enabling 80% of the world's businesses to simply get on with life.

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  2. greenwoodma

    Scraping the Windows version is odd

    While I never used Safari on Windows as my main browser, I did find it useful to be able to test out web apps I was developing. While I know it uses the same rendering engine as Chrome it seemed to be closer to the Mac experiance than testing in Chrome. Surely I can't have been the only one using it to ensure Mac users got a good browsing experiance. Seems daft for Apple to scrap it if only for this reason.

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    1. ZweiBlumen
      Reply Icon

      Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

      Apple expect you buy a Mac for your testing...

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      1. Lockwood
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

        I did a web app, rendered just about ok on Safari for Windows.

        Reported to render like crap on iPad.

        Went to an Apple store to see what it looked like on one.

        Spent 5 minutes stood in doorway of store, in front of staff going "Why won't you overpriced piece of crap do what I want you to do?!" and only got approached by staff when I went to them to ask for help (I figured that 5 minutes of ranting was enough)

        Ended up being given a lecture on making stuff that works on IE only - ignoring the fact that I set foot in an Apple Store to _test compatibility_, got put in contact with their business support team.

        They wanted to sell me an iPad and not answer any questions. Useful.

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        1. Tom 38
          Reply Icon
          Joke

          Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

          I'm with you here mate, I couldn't get this thing to work in IE 6, so popped round PC World and gave them a right earful! That'll learn the cock munchers.

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      2. Jess--
        Reply Icon

        Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

        agreed, they assume that if you are building something that "must work on a mac" you have to buy a mac.

        I can see a lot of developers saying (probably quite rightly) "We will build this to the current accepted standards, if browser X on operating system Y fails to support those standards or degrade gracefully, tough"

        another option is to say "our testing systems consist of browsers 1,2,3,4 & 5 on operating systems A,B,C & D, if you want it tested on anything different you supply the required hardware"

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        1. Lockwood
          Reply Icon

          Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

          @Jess

          That's our new take on it.

          "You want us to make you a version of our stuff that's designed to your on your iPad?"

          "Yes"

          "Buy us an iPad"

          *click*

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          1. chr0m4t1c
            Reply Icon

            Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

            Maybe I'm mis-reading this, but are you saying that your response to customers asking for your software on a new platform is to ask the customer to supply the platform for development?

            I'm sure the customers are perfectly happy with that. How do your competitors feel?

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            1. Lockwood
              Reply Icon
              Facepalm

              Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

              Niche market.

              Most of the stuff we do with devices has a requirement that if you want us to develop something to use on Device X, and we do not already have a Device X, you need to get us a Device X to test it on.

              Maybe you are of the school of thought where you knock something up and hope it works without testing it in the correct environment.

              Do you work for RBS?

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    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Scraping the Windows version is odd

      They probably don't want to commit resources to the Win 8 x86 Desktop/Metro car-crash and have associated support problems from people wanting a Win RT Metro version which is impossible to supply and have decided that the iOS developer ecosystem is big enough to force people to buy a Mac now anyway.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fact: Chrome killed off Safari for Windows

    Good to see that even Apple is not arrogant enough to think they could compete with Chrome on Windows. Or even IE9 for that matter. Or any browser that still supports Flash.

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    1. durbster
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      Re: Fact: Chrome killed off Safari for Windows

      I'd say Safari killed off Safari. It was never outstanding at anything. Opera always had innovation, Chrome had speed, Firefox had versatility and IE had compatibility.

      Safari was always behind one or more of the other browsrs in ALL the above, so it never made a strong case for itself.

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  4. RICHTO
    Mushroom

    It's by Apple - Therefore it's the worst thing for Security

    Apple - the only company useless enough to make an OS and apps that are nearly as insecure as Linux.

    You really want to run this crap with a list of highly critical and unpatched vulnerabilities as long as your arm??! You might as well put your credit card data on a Linux server and give it to Sony.....

    http://secunia.com/advisories/50058

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    1. Ilgaz
      Reply Icon

      Time to remove win version

      As win version didn't release, it still has the security issues mentioned, publicized in rather gigantic security changelog.

      You don't have luxury to keep a vulnerable app on win. Time to remove.

      Administrators: it is msi installed. Should be centrally removable.

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  5. FordPrefect

    Ah so its fine to copy a chrome "innovation" but the other way around is evil? I hope google sue apple for copying unified search/URL bar, unlikely though as google appears to favour INNOVATION rather than litigation unlike apple patent trolls.

    As for dropping the windows version well I am sure all 3 worldwide users will be gutted by the change ;)

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    1. chr0m4t1c
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      I dunno, why don't you ask Opera about tabbed browsing?

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      1. durbster
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        Opera invented pretty much ALL the good features modern browsers have, several years before. I've never figured out why it's market share remained so tiny. It deserved so much more.

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        1. Al Jones
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          Stop

          There was a browser called InternetWorks (later Global Network Navigator and eventually AOL navigator) that had tabbed browsing back in '94 or '95 - long before Opera was available.

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  6. Steve Sims
    Happy

    Windows version

    I can't tell you whether or not there will be an official Windows version of Safari, but it doesn't really matter.

    I can tell you that you can go to webkit.org and download a Windows build of the latest WebKit Nightly.

    WebKit Nightly builds are basically Safari under another name. They tend to be very stable indeed and, being nightly builds from the WebKit source, they're even more up to date than Safari is.

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    1. Shell
      Reply Icon

      Re: Windows version

      They're also basically Chrome under a different name. Safari and Chrome are branches of the same WebKit engine I believe (and Apple, Google and others contribute to WebKit itself)

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Web developers use windows

    While they could be way more comfortable using Linux, these guys use win. They won't test the safari (it was main purpose of release) so people using Mac computers (you know, they do it) will suffer.

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    1. Greg J Preece
      Reply Icon

      Re: Web developers use windows

      "While they could be way more comfortable using Linux, these guys use win."

      We do? I use Linux, and only boot the other two when required.

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  8. Richard Wharram
    Unhappy

    Nooooooooooooooo

    I've used Safari as my main browser at home on Windows for a while now. I like the font-rendering. Fonts in Chrome just look thin and jagged.

    :(

    (I do use other browsers in situations where Safari doesn't work very well. I'm not a total tool.)

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  9. Alan Denman

    Only Apple can get blood out of stone.

    Apple's accelerated process means your purchase soon becomes obsolete unless you pay up.

    And even then you need to throw away and start again sooner than you expect.

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