Apple releases Safari 3.1 | Hacker News Reader

Apple releases Safari 3.1

macworld.com

32 pointsnaish18 comments

I started using Safari 2 on XP a few weeks ago and have been thoroughly impressed with it - it is now my default browser mainly because of its speed and look. There is one problem though that makes no sense: it cannot open an image file link within the browser - it has to open another app. This is especially problematic as my webapp is loaded with images I need to quickly open. I just got 3.1, and wow!, it is fast - seriously (on windows xp). The install was fast. But no opening image files within the browser - what are they thinking? (I'm still using it though)

I've never had that problem, did quicktime do something terrible to you? Point to this doll of your mime types, and show me where the bad man touched you.

Bingo: Our webapp was the culprit. We were using mime type "image/jpg" when we should have used "image/jpeg" for safari's benefit. Thanks! :)

I have been really impressed with what webkit has been doing. They seem like they are really striving to be the best browser in the market. Their nightly builds have been extremely quick and bug free recently and i'm glad that apple decided to release a newer version out into the wild.

Funny because just 2 days ago I switched to FF3b4 because Safari was crashing too often on flash-based ads (of all things!). Now I'm switching back to Safari, even though FF3 is pretty cool, because it just handles (scrolls, renders, feels) faster and smoother.

I've really been happy with FF3b4, I'd never had a browser that allowed for tab switching so quickly.

Heh, I'm going the other way.. Safari 3.1 -> FF3b4 and found the same (or the opposite, depending on how you look at it.)

Why the switch? Gmail doesn't work in Safari 3.1! ( http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6856943 ) At least, not the Gmail I have on Apps For Your Domain, and it won't let me use the fancy, new one I have on regular Gmail sigh

Does anyone knows if it works with the latest Sogudi? (sogudi turns your location bar into a sort of command line). Alternatives to Sogudi are welcome too.

Opera has had this feature for many years - I didn't switch to Safari until I discovered this plug-in.

Just downloaded it. Looks and feels pretty good so far. I'm curious - is anyone else having problems scrolling using the Thinkpad middle button?

Yes, it's really faster, and I LOVE the font rendering on my LCD. Well, just personal preference. Some people prefer the Windows ClearType fonts.

bah! A required restart to upgrade a web browser?!?! I switched to OS X to avoid handcuffs such as this!

Okay, I'm done venting now. Back to work sans 3.1...

I was shocked too. I didn't need to restart for the last iTunes update, but I did for Safari! What gives?

webkit is an underlying framework that the entire OS uses. The nightly webkit rebuilds don't require a restart because they are sandboxing the webkit, but when apple updates safari it has to reboot the machine to initiate the new build of webkit to be used for the entire OS (including dashboard and things like that)

edit: maybe 'entire OS' was a little vague. basically they don't want to run into issues where the webkit gets updated and things that rely on webkit don't get all messed up in the process because they are running too.

the browser infrastructure is at the OS level? uh oh, didn't that get MSFT in trouble (it wasn't the only thing, but it was a signficant part of the charges)?

from wikipedia: WebCore

WebCore is a layout, rendering, and DOM library for HTML and SVG developed by the WebKit project, originally developed by Apple as a fork of KHTML. It is licensed under the LGPL. The WebKit framework wraps WebCore and JavaScriptCore, providing an Objective-C application programming interface to the C++-based WebCore rendering engine and JavaScriptCore script engine, allowing it to easily be referenced by Cocoa-based applications; later versions also include a cross-platform C++ platform abstraction, and various ports provide additional APIs.

end quote

basically it has to update and restart so that all cocoa based apps can use the new version.

IANAL etc etc, but I think the difference is between "available as a system library" and "integrated into every freaking conceivable corner of the OS".

The Windows version of Safari doesn't require a reboot to install or upgrade. ;-)

Where's the middle click tab closing?

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