“Inside every browser is the core of the ideal client-side application environment, incorporating everything that I’d estimate half of commercial applications need. There’s the best dynamic, object-oriented, loosely typed programming language, bar none (JavaScript), transparently bound to an idiot simple yet extensible presentation layer (DHTML, CSS, XML, DOM, SVG…). Browser-based apps don’t require specialized development tools, or any tools at all. All that keeps your browser from being the perfect client app environment is speed, stability, strict adherence to standards, and offline capabilities. That is not too much to ask; it’s all within reach, right now. It’s a matter of adjusting our priorities and perspective,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld.
“It’s telling that the first thing an erstwhile Web application does is free itself from the trappings of a browser: It removes the navigation bar, the menu (when it can — OS X doesn’t allow it) and the status bar, redirects the right mouse button away from the default context menu and makes it impossible to resize the window. If you use the browser, the standard is to work like hell to hide it, and to solve performance problems by embedding Java or ActiveX objects,” Yager writes.
“It reads like a no-win deal until you realize that you don’t need a fat, clunky browser. You don’t need to host a browser in an application window. Just take the framework shared by multiple commercial browsers and bake it right into your project. That’s WebKit,” Yager writes. “At a total cost of nothing and with free lifetime updates, it’s as sweet a deal as you’ll find, and unlike many open source projects that you’d love to use but which vary in the quality of support, documentation, and maintenance, WebKit is driven by companies like Apple, Nokia, and most recently, Google, that rely on it for commerce.”
“WebKit is a framework that brings the benefits of a browser to all applications, across platforms, even ones that don’t use the network. It doesn’t hurt that WebKit is free and open source, that a Safari-workalike browser is included in the distribution, and that it uses middleware (HTTP) and object representation standards (XML) that bind it to all back-ends,” Yager writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Qka” for the heads up.]
Microsoft is once again on the outside looking in; stuck with proprietary, clunky code and an eroding, yet still dominant, market share generated mainly on the backs of the ignorant. Dominant for how much longer? Avalanches start slowly, but progress rapidly. Microsoft’s reliance on ignorance is effective only while ignorance remains. Tell your friends and family who may not understand to use any browser but Internet Explorer and, better yet, to Get a Mac the next time they’re in the market for a new computer.
I switched to WebKit at the beginning of the year and love it. It’s like Safari only better.
I agree. MS is looking increasingly irrelevant.
No mention of the use of WebKit by the iPhone or iPod touch. Weirdness abounds, but Sum Jung abides.
Chase is on crack. Chase, when you use Safari, you ARE using WebKit. How can WebKit be better than Safari when it’s part of Safari? It’s like saying your ass is better than you are.
Heheh. Me funny.
I disagree with MDN, IE is not that bad, downloading is faster (if you dont use a dl manager) but surfing the web is slower. Also many people will stick to windows when buying a new computer because its cheaper. For around $800 I got a quad core pc with 4 gb of ram and an ATI 4850 card, thats a very good gaming pc ( not that much games or applications for mac, and windows gets them first) . The only mac thats less than $800 is a mini, I think. But besides computers apple wins in music players and phones.
Chase is correct. The webkit nightly builds are real fast. They are the code base that will be Safari 4.
Cool Shite.
How will the ‘Windows not Walls’ marketing effort sound when most people will be running standards-based, open source WebKit-based browsers except MS?
@iphone 1st gen
$4$ you got less.
see this article on windows and usable ram (you don’t quite have 4 gb of usable memory)
sorry, apple wins again
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html
I think I will stick with FireFox. It is the best I have used, simply the best. IE7 can’t compare to it, Safari is just a wanna-be, and the rest don’t add up to much. Google can try if they like, but I think there time is better spent on other things.
iPhone 1st Gen,
You should read the article on AppleInsider that tells you how your 4GB of RAM are nothing more than wasted $.
@iPhone 1st Gen:
$800 for junk hardware that runs only Windows (and Linux if you can still stomach it after trying OS X). So… your point is? You like your iPhone and see why it’s so much better than other phones right? Well: iPhone is to other phones as OS X is to other operating systems.
My head hurts.
@ JoshtheiMacGuy;
Google has more than one coder, and they’ve got enough money to finance more than one project.
Google won’t go wanting for resources over Chrome, but I’m certain they’re giving your sage advice its full consideration.
@iPhone 1st Gen responders…. y’all beat me to it. Poor guy, he buys 4G of ram and thinks he’s using it. But then again, if it can run his games 10x faster than the response time of his eye then that’s what he wants. For me, I have a game console in the living room where everyone can play and not have to crowd around the computer.
Google is already able to get PC makers to pre-install Google Toolbar onto the Windows machines they sell. How much you wanna bet they’ll start getting PC makers to pre-install Google Chrome as the default web browser? It’d be *very* interesting to watch what happens to IE’s market share as a result…
Not long ago, IE’s market share was 95%. Now it’s 75%.