Random Flux

There’s a lot of speculation going on regarding why Apple has introduced Safari for Windows — for example to get more Google ad revenue, as a platform for Windows developers who want to build iPhone apps and so on. One interesting point is that WinSafari doesn’t appear to be using normal Windows technology; in many ways it looks, feels and behaves like an OS X program, much more so than iTunes for Windows. If it’s built with a new class library created by Apple specifically to emulate the Apple look and feel on Windows this could have some interesting ramifications.

It’s not just that WinSafari not Windows-like, it actually seems to use a completely different technology for displaying the windows and components. One way you can demonstrate this is to try to do a screenshot of Safari with a screenshot program like TNT or Snagit that can automatically identify windows and dialogs to capture them. When you do this it is not possible to capture the entire Safari window, only the individual components — the main pane, the menu bar and so on. It’s effectively behaving like a group of program components tied together without a container, which is a little weird.

The interesting question is, what does this mean? I’m not in a position to say for sure, but I’ve never seen a program behave like this on Windows before. If this does mean that Apple has written an entire class library for “Mac-like” Windows programs then they’re putting an inordinate amount of effort into the project. And that, in turn, would mean that this is a very serious strategic project for Apple software on Windows.

As I say, no proof, just an interesting indication. Hmmmm….