[KDE Dot News]
 faq
 flatforty
 contribute
 subscribe
 configure
 search
 rdf
 main


  Apple Announces New "Safari" Browser
Konqueror Posted by Dre on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @12:26
from the i-love-it-too dept.
In kicking off the Macworld Expo keynote, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new Macintosh web browser named Safari. Jobs said the browser was "based on standards", "works with any Web site", has much-improved performance over IE (page-loading speed is "three times faster", JavaScript performs twice as fast and it launches "40% faster" - comparisons to Netscape 7.0 shows similar performance gains on the Macintosh platform). The KDE connection: "[f]or its Web page rendering engine, Safari draws on software from the Konqueror open source project. Weighing in at less than one tenth the size of another open source renderer, Konqueror helps Safari stay lean and responsive." The good news for Konqueror: Apple, which said that it will be "a good open source citizen [and] share[] its enhancements with the Konqueror open source community", has today sent all changes, along with a detailed changelog, to the KHTML developers. Congratulations to the KHTML developers for this recognition of their outstanding efforts. Update @22:34: Dirk Mueller has posted an interesting mail from the Safari engineering manager as well as his response. Hats off to collaboration!


<  |  >

 
  Related Links
 ·   Articles on Konqueror
 ·   Also by Dre
 ·   Contact author

Thread Threshold:

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
Correct me if I'm wrong...
by Jon on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @13:17
Konqueror just got a massive update from some apple developers?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Congratulations!!
by Fredrik C on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @13:46
Just one more evidence of KDE programmers extraordinary skill, enjoy your fame you deserved it!

Who said anything about KDE code being slow?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Revolutionary
by Bart on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @13:52
This is so revolutionary! Khtml on Macs! Does anyone have any idea how long it'll take before Linux people can see these changes in Konqueror at least in alpha or beta form?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Konqi is pretty fast already
by Terry on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @13:58
But anything that incorporates Apple improvements is most welcome. The mention of sharing a backend common codebase is the real key to this budding relationship. Good work Apple and KDE developers !!!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari
by rick on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @13:59
Safari ist a great application and runs very fast under mac os x. congratulations for both developer groups, for KDe and apple!
mac os x makes realy fun!!!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari
by a.c. on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @14:01
Navigator
Explorer
Konquoror
Safari is only natural for exploring a conquerored land
They do have a sense of humour.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Konqueror did it!
by Roland on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @14:14
With Apple's support, Konqueror/KHTML will make the step from unknown marginalized browser to established browser web designers check against.

Apple's changes, while not revolutionary will also make Konqueror better.

Great news.

Now if only KDE 3.1 would be out :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Terrific news
by germain on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @14:19
Champagne !
This is extraordinary exciting...
Kudos to KDE and Apple, for
both their past and future shines !
[ Reply To This | View ]
Great!
by Moritz Moeller-Herrmann on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @14:30
Too bad that these efforts were not coordinated from the beginning, because right now, the changes in safari-khtml look very massive (and impressive!), so basically this is a fork. I hope that the fork will be closed soon, though, maybe in time for KDE-3.2?

Congratulations to the great KDE developers, who beat Mozilla. We KDE users knew it all the time :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Great
by gunnar on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @14:56
Congratulations!

KDE really rocks. i love it!

gunnar
[ Reply To This | View ]
What Else Are They Experimenting With?
by nowWhat on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:01
Apple started by borrowing KDE's JavaScript implementation (KJS)

Now, they've moved onto KHTML to help replace M$'s "Internet Exploder"

Methinks perhaps Apple might be getting tired of being tied down with crappy old versions of M$Office as well, so can we expect AppleOffice soon, based on KOffice of course :-)

Why don't they just buy Trolltech and free the code for all platforms; that way the community can port all KDE apps and frameworks to the Mac easier than currently being done by the good guys at the Fink project, and at the same time they can be ported over to windoze so we can destroy M$ in their own back yard!

Jingle Bells,
Bill Gates Smells,
Ballmer's Run Away,
Oh What Fun To See KDE Ride
Into One, Micro Soft Way... Hey!!

;-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Excellent news!
by cesman on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:13
This is a GREAT example for how Open Source works! Now if only others would realize the potential power in adopting OSS!

cesman
[ Reply To This | View ]
Next Step for Apple/KDE collaboration: scripting
by Suggester Engine on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:38
"Next Step" ... hmm a pun! :-)

... why not some ways to make migrating AppleScript to KScripts (coming soon!)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Someone...
by Darkstar on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:44
...call the guys at Slashdot!! Quick!!
;-)

--Darkstar
[ Reply To This | View ]
Not really a fork
by null on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:49
Shallom.

Apple did quite a bit of work coding a layer that sits between KHTML and Apple's own Cocoa framework for Mac OS X. This is not what Apple is contributing. The Changelog clearly shows a multitude of bugfixes, improvements and additions specifically to KHTML in areas including: ECMA (Javascript), CSS handling, HTML rendering, XML, Document Object Model and core services. Clearly this will result in a direct improvement to KHTML (and ultimately Konquorer) and, judging by the reaction of the KHTML developers, is much appreciated.

I agree that a more open appoach where communication could have started earlier would have been adventageous to both groups. However, Apple is not required to do so and was likely trying to keep this project as secret as possible. Now that the wraps are off Safari, I'm sure Apple's developers will be in contact a great deal.

Now if only the Eazel folks could explain what happened to all that investor RCF...
[ Reply To This | View ]
mouse gestures
by ac on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @15:53
This is great news.

By the way, now that konq has tabs, any chance it'll get "mouse gestures" too? At least that nifty right-left "back" click sequence from a certain Norweigan browser would be nice...
[ Reply To This | View ]
Posted from Safari
by Mark on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @18:38
This message is posted from safari. I thought Chimera was a fast browser. This is blazing fast.

I can't explain it. Super duper duper fast.

Wow! This is so exciting! :-)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Questions, and AtheOS note
by Ken Arnold on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @19:00
I look forward to trying this out tomorrow on the OS X box I have access to.

Just a small note that I didn't see here yet: AtheOS also used a modified KHTML, again with its own wrappers around KDE/Qt things.

I wonder how Apple handled KIO, KParts, etc. that make Konqueror more than just a plain old web browser (not that I particularly like all the default semantics in either Konqi or IE (the other browser that claims that title)).

Ken
[ Reply To This | View ]
Source !
by germain on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @19:04
Safari source code is now available at
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/webcore/

WebCore :
http://a1408.g.akamai.net/7/1408/1388/010303/www.opensource.apple.com/projects/webcore/WebCore-48.tar.gz

JavaScriptCore :
http://a1408.g.akamai.net/7/1408/1388/010303/www.opensource.apple.com/projects/webcore/JavaScriptCore-48.tar.gz
[ Reply To This | View ]
Thanks to the Open Source commnunity
by Enrique García on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @19:06
I have long been a Mac user, but had never felt so happy about it. Today I realized that Apple is truly supporting Open Source and viceversa.

Thanks to all of you for making it possible for us OS X users to have the privilege of such a quick browser in our platform.

emxgarcia
[ Reply To This | View ]
Congrats, KHTML Team!
by crichards on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @19:13
I used to be a GNOME-head, and didn't realize the power of KDE until I was "forced" to use it after installing SuSE 8 again so I could use Linux while I waited for time to install another distro. I found that KDE was incredibly well designed, but that Konqueror was no Mozilla. When I got a new distro installed, I installed KDE 3.1RC3, and Konqueror became my favorite browser. Its progressed so much, and these Apple enhancements will make KDE even better!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Congratulations!!!
by Raul on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @19:33
Congratulations to all the KDE developers. I am really
proud to be a member of KDE community as a KDE user on
Solaris. Time for SUN to switch to KDE!

I am really happy to see Konqui being appreciated and
elevated to the status it deserves.

Raul
[ Reply To This | View ]
Thanks for a great new browser..
by Sam Phillips on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @20:18
I'm a longtime Mac user just popping in to say thanks to all you KDE folks who have just given me a present via Apple.

Thanks for your time and effort.

It's amazing to see Open Source software working to enhance two seperate (and previously unconnected) strands of computing. And to the benefit of both.

I hope Apple send you guys a crate of Champagne..
[ Reply To This | View ]
KApple
by AC on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @21:28
While the naysayers keep claiming that open source isn't ready for "The Desktop", Apple goes ahead and writes a KDE compatibility layer for the Mac... I think that speaks for itself.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Many Thanks
by Mark Bennett on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @21:28
I'm another long-time Mac user who just wanted to say thanks to all you open source programmers that have made Safari a reality.

I have always wanted to surf the net with an "Apple" browser but after CyberDog I never thought it could happen. I always had this pipe dream that Apple could build a great browser, I even thought it would be neat if it had a way to notify Apple of incompatable sites so they could try to fix the problems.

Now here I sit, typing this using an Apple browser that has a small button which sends bug reports right back to the mothership.

Many thanks to all of you who worked on the KHTML open source project.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari is EXTREMELY FAST, although a bit buggy
by undotwa on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @21:38
I just downloaded safari and checked it out. boy is it fast. it's the fastest browser i've ever seen. Thanks K!!!
[ Reply To This | View ]
apple has done more than ibm or hp for linux
by vm on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @22:02
even tho' ibm spent $1b on an ad campaign and admitted to already recovering their 'investment' ( by selling over-priced products & services), apple's actual use of a well known O.S. product has given more visibility to KDE and Linux than anything ibm or hp claim to have done.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Has anybody else scoped out Webcore?
by Randall Helzerman on Tuesday 07/Jan/2003, @22:09
I downloaded the Webcore package and nosed around in it--is it really what it seems like
it is? Did Apple do a QT-ectomy-runaround? It looks like nothing less than a full-scale
replacement for QT written in objective C......
[ Reply To This | View ]
Congratulations and thank to KDE!
by JF Paradis on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @00:21
I am glad to see KDE emerging as another reference platform!

Written in Safari...

PS: But there is something else about OSS...

I maintain a few OS X desktops in our Creative Services department at work (and two OS X laptops at home). I also support an implementation of LTSP in a primary school. My main job is sysadmin of a large WinNT network where we are piloting Linux and FreeBSD for desktop and server replacements.

OSS has completely changed my work over the recent years and made it a much more interesting environment! Skills are portable from LTSP desktops to OS X to BSD and Linux file server...

Great!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Better browsing with Konqueror
by Jos on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @02:02
If Safari becomes more popular, it means websites will have to make sure pages are rendered correctly. So even more websites will become useable for Konqueror!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Report bugs to Apple is the key....
by Federico Caboni on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @03:04
Safari is just sweet...amazingly fast and pretty reliable.
The best thing is that little "Report bugs to Apple" button...
A lot of Apple users will report to apple developers about
not-so-compatible websites... so that they'll be able to fix
issues AND this will affect konqui too.... Both worlds are gaining
users and testers...
Way to go, Apple and KDE :)

(posted w/Safari Public Beta v48 ;) )
[ Reply To This | View ]
Konqueror for Windows?
by bobbob on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @03:11
Any guesses?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari
by Chris on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @03:31
There are some bugs in Konq 3.0 that prevent me from using it as default browser instead of mozilla.
Now I hope that most of them will get fixed by the safari changes and that Konqueror will really be the best browser for Linux/KDE systems.
When can we expect a Konqueror version that will include all these changes from safari? I'm impatiently waiting for it.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Jaguar goes global with Safari!
by John Hood on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @04:10
It still hasn't sunk in yet! The notion of using an Apple-branded browser seemed like a 'pipe dream' only a few days ago! However, here I am using Safari and looking forward to a brighter future-in-surfing courtesy of Apple and KDE. Kudos to everyone involved.

If anyone wants to contact me and discuss Apple/Open Source-related matters. Please visit:
http://homepage.mac.com/johnhood/
[ Reply To This | View ]
When will this merge with KDE?
by Stof on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @04:59
When will the changes merge with the "official" KDE?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari Means Konqueror Becomes Reference Platform
by Sascha Leib on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @06:02
Hello all,

I don't know if all of you really grasp what "Safari" means for Konqueror.

Think of it: all future Macs will ship with a KHTML-based web browser *as the default browser*.

Apple has a total market share of somewhere around 5 % (approximately the same as Linux) in the Desktop market. So first of all, KHTML's market penetration will double.

Secondly, while Linux users can usually decide on installation time whether to use KDE or Gnome, Mac users have to stick to "Aqua" (not a loss, Aqua is great!), so while about 2/3 Linux users (optimistic guess) use KDE, 100% Apple users will end up with a KHTML-browser in their Dock.

Thirdly, a number of (Linux) KDE-users will install Mozilla or Opera as default browser. Well, it's just how these tech-geeks are: more toys with more options are more fun. At least you guys need some kind of email client and Mozilla's is just great.

Mac users don't need another email client. Apple's "Mail" is professional grade and beats most costly professional mail-clients. And while there are still a number of other great web browsers for MacOS X (my favourites being "Chimera", "iCab" and "Mozilla" - in this order), very few will see a reason to change the default web browser.

So my estimation is that less than one quarter of Linux users is using Konqueror, but in a while, approx. 80 % Mac Users will use Safari. Or in other words, KHTML's market share will quadruple.

But wait, there is more to it: over 2/3 of Web designers and creatives is using Macs - while their usage on Desktop Linux should be somewhere below 1 %.

This means that KHTML's penetration on Web designer's workstations will increate by some 5000 % (in words: over five thousand percent!). In the future, almost every serious web designer will have a KHTML-based browser on (or under) his/her desk.

Web pages will be adopted to look good with KHTML - not the other way around.

This is the good and the bad news: Konqueror is out of the niche and starts to play in the major league.

All thumbs up for you guys.

/sascha

(Admin, Mac-Programmer and Web Designer)
[ Reply To This | View ]
one for apple!(?)
by Steven Hoomolya on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @06:41
I'm just impressed that Apple's front page for Safari explicitly acknowledges Konqueror, i.e. one does not have to search through a hierarchy of links before Konqueror is mentioned. (This is impressive! Where did you, if ever, learn about BSD code used in MS-WIN-NT/2000?) Could this be the start of sg. big?

Well, maybe ... I hope that cooperation between Apple and KDE developers continues, and that Apple will be kind enough to return the favour and, besides mentioning Konqueror in connection with Safari, include link to the Konqueror and/or KDE on the Safari home page.
[ Reply To This | View ]
How positive can you be!!
by jack on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @07:31
First of all, don't get me wrong. I'm an os X user, and i don't think there's anything like it. I hopefully look at the GNUstep project, but then that's the same technology.

Anyway, Apple could have made this browser completely open source?? why didn't they. Of cource this browser means recognition for the open source community, but it is also an easy way for apple to come with a new OS X browser.
What I mean is, they tage the good stuff, make something nice with it, but don't share the entire code (I understood that the KWQ part is NOT opensource.)

soowe being an 'MacHead' I'm surprised that there are only positive reactions..
[ Reply To This | View ]
Native QuickTime for Linux, (*)BSD...?
by Pinghead on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @07:54
Maybe that will be the next step for Apple to contribute to the open source community, who knows?

As I see it, one of the largest things missing is the multimedia support, in particular the web-multimeda formats, for making all our prefered OSs available to John Doe.

Even if MPlayer is a fantastic tool and has come a long way, I think they wouldn't mind help directly from Apple. :)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Congrats to all!
by Jack Kennedy on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @10:56
I'm typing this in Safari on OS X. Very impressive.

Just writing to thank all of you who've worked on KDE, because this would simply not be possible without you.

The great news is that because the majority of web designers are sitting on macs, we'll see more and more pages being tested to work with KDE.

Thanks to everyone again -- this browser rocks.

Now if only Apple would give us some tabs...
[ Reply To This | View ]
This is *the* biggest step KDE has ever made
by rokrau on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @13:38
Lots of other KDE components will get a closer look from developers now.

Congratulations to the KHTML and all the KDE developers.

Roland
[ Reply To This | View ]
Whomever said Apple has a 2.25% market share...
by Steven on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @16:03
Where did you get your numbers? Most people agree it is currently about 3.25 percent, but that is just of sales. Macs are far closer to 15% if you count all the computers out there, because they last longer. And Apple is on track to get 10 Million OS X users very soon.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Reciprocal Gestures
by Jeff on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @16:53
First I consider myself somewhat OS independent, meaning I love operating systems in general. I wish I had a strong justification to purchase that 17" PowerBook beauty, but I don't. I'm just wondering if the KDE/KHTML folks might find Apple making recipricol guesters by sharing their newly found unix expertise with the open source development of KDE. I use both Gnome and KDE and have likes and dislikes about each. If Apple's statement about being a "good open source citizen" rings true, I hope to see them contributing. The only thing preventing Linux distros from gaining desktop market share is the strength of its presentation to the end user. People will pay money for Linux, I do. But I don't see my father-in-law buying it just yet. Linux is very strong and very capable; It's a "do what I say, don't get in the way" operating system and I would love nothing more than to see linux get a top quality User Interface based on standards that third party application developers will embrace. You folks at Gnome and KDE have come a long way and your efforts are appreciated, I hope Apple finds it within themselves to contribute some of their unix UI expertise to your efforts. Good luck and keep up the great work!

Jeff, CA
[ Reply To This | View ]
Apple Market share
by Karikalan on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @17:07
OS X compatible CPUs:

Apple has shipped on the average 700K units each quarter for the past three years. In other words, 3x4x700 K units = 8400 K units or 8.4 Million computers. The overall market has shipped close to 100 Million CPU's on the average each year. So, 8.4/300 = 2.8% of the market.

Opensource + Apple is a potent combination. Apple bringing in its years of experience in human computer interface and usability issues, and the opensource community bringing in the technical knowledge! Sky is the limit...

Great news indeed..

Kari
[ Reply To This | View ]
snapback feature
by ic3man on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @18:04
now lets get the snapback feature in konqueror
[ Reply To This | View ]
X11 for Mac OS X also
by Mike on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @19:52
The same day as they announced the browser Apple also ( much more quietly ) announced a new version of the X windowing system ,designed by them, for use under OSX.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/x11/
I just tried it with Abiword and it worked much, much better than before. It both launched and ran faster. It runs the app in a window with OSX gumdrops, drop shadow, and it even genies to the dock. Would this make KOffice as viable on OSX as OS9 apps are under Classic? Would a special version need to be made?

BTW, Safari is great. Thanks for all the hard work. Apple licensed a commercial product to develop iTunes out of, based on that they could have used anybodys browser to build on. That they chose to use yours should be a great compliment. Here's hoping they "embrace and extend" some more.

Mike
[ Reply To This | View ]
Greetings from a hardcore machead!
by Andreas Hillberg on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @20:51
Hey guys!

I don't belong here really, I'm a hardcore mac addict to the bone.
First time I even heard about KDE was on the MacWorld Expo last tuesday.

I've never used Linux to be honest with you, used MS for a few hours my entire life.
I saw the expo, heard the words "KDE" and "Konqueror" and got really interested in what this was.

What have I found?
Well it really enlightened my view for the x86, which for me before was a dead world filled with ms users and Linux users which I never bothered finding out more about.

I've read alot about KDE, xfree86, Linux (although just the light beginner reading) and maybe it doesn't matter much, but KDE has gotten recognized by Apple, and you got a new user.
I'm definately getting myself a good machine, and Linux!

The big reason why I haven't done this step is first, I will NOT use any ms product!
Second, I agreed with me, myself and I that if I got a x86 it would be for games (game addict too). I've heard Linux doesn't have much games (as mac do).
Once I decided to swallow my pride and go ms, but I did ask a close friend (Hardcore Linux guy) on irc about it, and he showed me to http://www.transgaming.com .
And I promise to Jobs (we mac addicts do that instead of God), I haven't had a bigger smile on my face since I first tested MacOSX. It's christmas all over for me!

So here I am, I'm the new kid on the block!

In conclusion, you gained improved code for Konqueror, and ATLEAST one new member to your community!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Thank you
by Andrew on Wednesday 08/Jan/2003, @21:23
I would like to thank you to all the developers for starting this project. I am using Safari under OSX and it is fantastic! I got to your site following a thread on a Mac forum, and all I would like to tell you guys...is that without you I wouln't have a web browser like I do now.
I hope that the changes Apple has made will help you guys out too, and that you can maintain a good relationship to benefit everyone. Good job once again!

Andrew
[ Reply To This | View ]
Linux Speed increases?
by ac on Thursday 09/Jan/2003, @10:38
Does anyone have an idea of how much faster the KDE Konqueror will be after the apple changes are merged in?
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari breaks single day download record for Apple
by Janne on Thursday 09/Jan/2003, @13:22
"First introduced during Steve Jobs Macworld keynote yesterday, Apple's new Web browser, Safari, broke the single day download record previously held by iTunes, according to Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Safari has been downloaded 300,000 times in the last 24 hours -- the previous download record for Apple was for iTunes, which had two days of 100,000 downloads.

In fact, Schiller said that 20 percent of all Mac downloads from Apple.com in the last 24 hours came from a Safari browser."

It seems that KHTML just got ALOT of new users ;)
[ Reply To This | View ]
Safari : )
by James7609 on Thursday 09/Jan/2003, @15:17
Great day for Apple and Open Source in general. This could be the kick in the teeth M$ needed to start a chain reaction of awareness and change.

I was just so sure that Apple would use the Gecko engine, since they used to favour Chimera ( a Moz-based OS X browser ) for various keynote demos... mind you I had never heard of KDE or the Konqueror browser until Tuesday and now I use one as default ; ) )

A great day!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Apple Irrationality
by Cynic on Thursday 09/Jan/2003, @22:24
Cheerleaders, please wake up and smell the coffee. The ONLY reasons this stuff came back is because Apple is required to do so under the GPL. Apple are the leeches of the open source movement. Any why not? It's good business strategy. They must have some smart managers somewhere over at Apple, because I just can't believe Steve Jobs could come up with this brilliant strategy.
[ Reply To This | View ]
Konqueror & LiveConnect (Safari?)
by kartoffelsalat on Friday 10/Jan/2003, @00:45
I heard (read) some rumors that LiveConnect was implemented in Konqueror. Did not find anything on that topic doing a site search in www.konqueror.org and my Konqueror 3.0.3 is NOT able to liveConnect.

Does anyone know more about that? Did Apple do something with LiveConnect? Does Safari support it?

Java <=> JavaScript communication would be really neat!
[ Reply To This | View ]
Another POV
by Mike Hearn on Friday 10/Jan/2003, @05:10
I think this sucks.

So far most of the comments I've seen have been happy ones. I'm not happy. Let's remember a few things shall we?

1) Apple makes their money selling proprietary platforms. If you think the Mac, or Mac OS X is not proprietary, then you need a serious reality check.

2) Proprietary platforms are bad for software freedom and society in general.

3) Therefore, proprietary platforms are a bad thing, therefore in MacOS is a bad thing for all of us in the long run. Or are you all so blind you have not learnt anything from the past decade? Jobs would be the next Gates faster than you can say "WTF?"

4) This is not "Apple and open source working together". Apple were compelled to release these changes because KHTML is protected under the LGPL. If they had really been "working with open source" they'd have told the KDE developers as they were working, instead of producing an enormous patch dump which will be difficult to integrate (and a few of the items were already done by the kde guys). However they decided to pander to Jobs ego so he could go "tada" as he loves to do at Macworld.

I find this mindless sycophantic Apple-drooling disgusting. Wake up people! Do you not see what is happening? Is Safari open source? No. In fact, Apple have released basically jack all of their own code. FreeBSD has got a few minor patches and some test suites out of them. If you think MacOS is open source go try and fork it. Go on, I dare you. Just make sure you have a large budget for the legal costs.

I think Ian Clarke was right when he said for some people the fad was more important than the philosophy. KDE is working for a free desktop - Apple quite clearly is not. This is a dark day for KDE and free software in general.

Flames are expected. Go ahead, I've seen them all before.
[ Reply To This | View ]