Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 12th Jan 2007 19:03 UTC
Apple A few days ago, Adam explained on his blog why it would make sense for Apple to port Safari to Windows: "Maybe it's making a leap of faith, and yes, the browser market is one where making a noticeable entrance will be challenging, but the less of a jump into the deep end buying a Mac is, the easier it is to make your Apple brand accessble, available, and not scary. The best way to start? Safari on Windows." Yesterday, Mary Jo Foley dug up from deep within Mozilla's Wiki the following prediction by the Mozilla Foundation: "Apple may have Safari on Windows with likely ties to iTunes and .Mac." This line has now been changed into a more general statement ("WebKit may be ported to Windows" - which already happened) but point remains: does it make sense for Apple to port Safari to Windows?
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RE: No
by sbergman27 on Fri 12th Jan 2007 20:00 UTC in reply to "No"
sbergman27
Member since:
2005-07-24

"""First of all, it doesn't make any sense to port Safari to Windows...it doesn't make Apple any money so why bother?"""

You are counseling the tried and true American business strategy of short-sightedness. (Hey, I live in Oklahoma; I should know!)

You sound like the folks who think that OSS developers should restrict use of their apps from Windows users in a mean-spirited attempt to force them to use Open-Source OSes. In my opinion that is most distasteful.

Actually, there are good reasons for a port. Safari, like all non-IE browsers suffer from a lack of net-presence.

Web developers cannot be bothered to support it because not enough people run it.

Yes, yes, I know. We're all supposed to be able to simply write to standards and have everything work. That is the holy grail. But it's not yet in our reach, is it?

A (quality) Windows port of Safari would be of benefit not only to Apple, but to us all.

Edited 2007-01-12 20:03

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5

RE[2]: No
by ma_d on Fri 12th Jan 2007 20:25 in reply to "RE: No"
ma_d Member since:
2005-06-29

Safari is usually on the list of things to support right after firefox. I think it actually has a higher percentage than Opera... It gets supported as it is by most quality web software.

But I agree, a Windows version of Safari might bring apple some extra media and could make users more comfortable with switching later.
However, I'd argue that for Apple their application suites are enough to get people to switch and they shouldn't be ported (iTunes was ported to sell iPods). If they port iLife it might adversely affect them, besides a lot of Windows machines probably lack the balls to run the graphics.
I don't think Safari is a real attraction to OS X at this point.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 4

RE[3]: No
by makc on Sat 13th Jan 2007 00:30 in reply to "RE: No"
makc Member since:
2006-01-11

Plain marketing. Safari isn't one of the best browsers around, yet being better than IE at standard compliance.
I'll stick to FF on every OS that runs it...
My guess: doesen't make technologically sense, but this is advertising, a whole different business where Apple excels ;)

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 1