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Safari is the new IE

nolanlawson.com

11–20 of 368 posts

Re: Safari is the new IE

#11
The article misses the point. The browser is a document viewer, not an application delivery platform. Back in 2005 we all thought that web-based applications were going to take the world by storm, but now that we have slick application stores on all major platforms, this isn’t the case.

If you need functionality like you describe, ship a native application via an app store. It’s a much better experience than web development.

Re: Safari is the new IE

#12
post #5

Agreed. However, it still has the best perceived performance. Just open a page with a heavy layout and scroll up and down, or type an address or search term in the location bar and "feel" how fast it loads. Apple really put some effort in making it "feel" extremely fast.

I agree except for the back button. I hate how swiping to go back takes you back to a screenshot temporarily while the page reloads. I attempt to scroll up and down and interact with the screenshot until suddenly the page isn't how I remember it due to the reload. It's such a terrible, terrible design and I check every new version in hopes that this would be addressed.

in 10.11 it seems like this is fixed and the page won't always need to reload.

Re: Safari is the new IE

#13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can of course install an alternative to desktop Safari, just not to Mobile Safari.

So I should delete my Google Chrome app then? Granted it doesn't take the default for things but I can still use it.

Google Chrome app on iPhones still use mobile safari's rendering engine lol

Re: Safari is the new IE

#14
As a primarily web-based advertising company, Google benefits immensely from a more feature-packed web. So does Mozilla, both because they depend on ad revenue and because they are betting very heavily on the web as a platform. Even Microsoft is heavily invested in web technologies, not only because of Bing but also because HTML5 forms the backbone of Modern (Metro) UI.

Apple, on the other hand, has no reason to want the web to flourish. They make money by selling hardware, and by managing a closed ecosystem of apps and services that revolve around said hardware. iAd focuses exclusively on apps, not webpages. Cross-platform web technologies that try to close the gap between web apps and native apps are a threat to Apple's bottom line. The more people abandon the web in favor of native apps, the more money Apple makes.

At least in the days of IE6, Microsoft didn't really care about the web. Apple nowadays, on the other hand, has every incentive to sabotage the web. I don't think it's just technological purism that makes them reluctant to allow alternate rendering engines to work on iOS. They need to ensure that apps are the only way for developers to bring advanced features to iOS users. Because they're not competing on the web like the others. They're competing against the web.

Re: Safari is the new IE

#15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can of course install an alternative to desktop Safari, just not to Mobile Safari.

So I should delete my Google Chrome app then? Granted it doesn't take the default for things but I can still use it.

The iOS version of Chrome doesn't use Chrome's rendering and JavaScript engines though, per the App Store rules it has to use WebKit [0]. So, any other browser app on iOS would have the same problems as mobile Safari.

[0] http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/06/28/chrome-ios (linked by the article btw)

Re: Safari is the new IE

#16
Safari isn't "lagging behind other browsers", it's just implementing different things. In fact, Safari is still the best browser when it comes to everything UI-related (animations, visual effects, …). You might disagree with Apple's priorities, but it doesn't mean other browsers are "better" per se, they're just different.

Safari's release cycle, however, is stupid per se.

Re: Safari is the new IE

#17
The definition of a web browser is enormous now. Even though Apple has massive resources, is it really fair to rant against them for not implementing every possible specification, five years old or not?

If web assembly is supposedly as fast as C, why can't we have web browsers with a smaller built-in feature set and implement new specifications as libraries?

Re: Safari is the new IE

#18
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can of course install an alternative to desktop Safari, just not to Mobile Safari.

So I should delete my Google Chrome app then? Granted it doesn't take the default for things but I can still use it.

On iOS, all 3rd-party browsers (and even the upcoming Firefox for iOS) are using the rendering engine of Safari. The complaint is not about Safari the browser but more about its rendering engine.
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