Apple Terminates Safari Seed Program

coolmacdude writes "This morning Safari beta v67 was leaked to the Internet. Because this is the third time it has happened (v62 and v64 were leaked), Apple has apparantly had enough and decided to terminate the seed program that provided unreleased beta verisons to selected developers. In a email sent to all developers and posted on Mike Wendland's blog, Apple says: 'Due to Safari 67 postings to the internet, we have closed the Safari Seed project. We know that the majority of you are not responsible for the leaks to the internet, and we sincerely appreciate your feedback, time and effort with this project.'"

Comments

Re:So what?

[leereyno]

Be went down the tubes because for several reasons, but the switch to x86 was not one of them. Intel literally paid them to port their OS to the x86 and if they had not done so they would have gone out of business long before they did.

Be failed because of Linux. If Linux and would-be replacement products, such as FreeBSD, did not exist, then Be might have been more successful. The problem is that strong competition hurts weak competitors far more than it does strong ones. Linux is strong competition when it comes to the market for operating systems. Microsoft is hurting because of Linux, what does that say about companies that are not in Microsoft's position? Linux obliterated SCO, and if it wasn't for the fact that Sun sells big iron it would be hurting more than it already is because of Linux. IBM is pushing Linux on their big iron for the simple reason that IBM sells big iron, what OS is running on it is irrelevant to them. If hackers will create a top-notch commodity OS for them for free then they're going to laugh all the way to the bank. Sun will likely follow suit if they know what is good for them.

BeOS was a commercial desktop operating system, and that means its survival was dependent upon the applications that could be run on it. It lacked the applications that Windows has, and the niche applications that ran on it were not enough to sustain the company. The problem with niche products is that they MUST fulfill a specific requirement that other more popular or widely used products cannot. BeOS was unable to find such a role, or at least one that was significant enough to keep them afloat.

I was sorry to see them go. Just as I'll be sorry to see Apple go believe it or not. I started out on an Apple II+ and until the mid-80's 6502 based Apple's were all I used. I switched to PC's when EGA became popular and because the 286 was a speed demon compared to a 1 Mhz 6502. I didn't switch to the Mac because 1) I was a kid and couldn't afford one, and 2) they simply weren't expandable the way the PC was. The lack of expansion slots really hurt the early macs in my opinion. Apple had a golden opportunity back then to move to an open hardware platform, and they missed it. The Mac clones in mid 90's was a case of too little, too late. Being proprietary works for big iron, for now at least, but it doesn't work when you are competing with commodity hardware based upon an open standard.

People blame Microsoft for Apple's decline, but they're wrong. Microsoft didn't cripple Apple. Compaq did, Dell did, Gateway did. Every mom and pop PC chop shop and Taiwaneese producer of standard PC components did. Along the way they killed off Commodore, Atari, Sinclair, and a host of other companies whose names are lost to history. Microsoft merely rode the PC wave to the top. The only reason Apple survived back then was because they were the strongest producer of proprietary systems. The Mac was truly a killer computer back then. Even so, open standards always win in the end, even if they are technically inferior. A PC circa 1988 was a bad joke compared to the Mac-II. But because there was competition within the PC market continuous improvement were made at a greater rate than what Apple could do on its own.

The position Apple is in today is not one I would want to be in. They've got the PC hardware industry on one side, and the Linux movement on the other. They can't keep up with Intel and AMD, and if they were to become a pure OS/software company, Linux would eat them alive. They can't stay on their current hardware because Motorola and IBM gave up on the PPC as a desktop processor back when Apple axed CHRP. Neither company is going to pay to develop faster chips just for Apple's sake. That means that staying on PPC is staying on a sinking ship. The only way that Apple could make a successful transition to x86 is if they were able to create killer apps that only ran on OS-X. With even Microsoft's killer apps like Office and IE getting hit with open source alter

Re:Forget Safari seeds

[Znonymous Coward]

I can give two shits and a fuck about karma, look at my profile... I have all kinds of -1's

I only "login" so I can see what kind of response I get to my comments.

So in closing: Fuck karma and fuck you.

Is slashdot down

[Microsofts slave]

Is slashdot down, or have the editors diesd, because the last submission was on the 22nd.