“You already know Safari. It’s the only browser that ships with OS X, in the same manner that Internet Explorer is the de facto browser for Windows,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld.
MacDailyNews Take: Actually, Tom, not quite. Safari is not woven inextricably into Mac OS X. Safari can be removed and other browsers can be used with no problem (if for some reason you like to go slower than us Safari users, that is). Try removing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer from Windows sometime and you’ll understand that while Safari ships with Mac OS X, it’s certainly not “in the same manner” as the way IE ships with Windows.
Yager continues, “Safari rose to greater recognition as the iPhone’s touchy-feely Web 2.0 client. You might be aware that OS X and Windows editions of Safari are released in parity, function identically, and are updated automatically through Apple Software Update in response to security and stability issues.
“You likely also know that Safari is implemented using WebKit, an open source framework for embedded HTML clients. It’s at that point that the relationship between Safari and WebKit becomes hazy. The common belief is that Safari is effectively a front-end wrapper for WebKit,” Yager reports. “I’ll set that record straight. The default browser on all of my Macs is named WebKit.app. There is another program in the Applications folder named Safari.app. When I launch WebKit.app, the menu bar shows the name “Safari.” WebKit is Safari, plus everything the independent WebKit project folds into its nightly builds. Those builds are released as source and as Windows and OS X executables that users are not warned away from, but encouraged to use.”
Yager reports, “Safari is WebKit frozen at a stable release, validated, supported (except for betas), and documented by Apple. That’s essential added value given that WebKit joins Core Data, Core Animation, and other Apple frameworks that provide developers with one way, a right way, to incorporate any application feature. The safe, supported WebKit and its vastly accelerated JavaScript interpreter will move developers to shift more applications to the Web. Steve Jobs spoke of this at the iPhone announcement. He just spoke too soon.”
Yager reports, “In my runs of the SunSpider benchmark, Safari 4 beta skunked Firefox, which is the primary browser for POSIX platforms. With Apple’s backing and a quick chain for distributing updates, Safari is a browser you need to have.”
“Safari/WebKit is the first browser to pass the Acid3 test for compatibility and completeness of a browser’s implementation of CSS version 3,” Yager reports. “The Safari 4 beta is mighty fast, very possibly the world’s fastest, and it’s well in front in such cutting-edge standards as HTML 5, CSS 3, accelerated JavaScript, and ARIA. If you’ve a mind to, you can check out what the WebKit team is doing after the Safari 4 beta. WebKit is my favorite open source project by far, and arguably the best software decision that Apple has ever made.”
There’s more in the full article – recommended – here.
