# Safari - Only for Apple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 31, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628 "2005-01-31T18:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@Kel\_Varnsen\_Latex\_Division](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kel_Varnsen_Latex_Division)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/1 "2005-01-31T18:11:59Z")
Can Safari be used on a non-Apple computer? ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/2 "2005-01-31T18:51:03Z")
Not without some [seriously ugly](http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/) emulation. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/3 "2005-01-31T20:59:41Z")
No, as it relies very heavily on HTML-rendering frameworks in the MacOS. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/4 "2005-01-31T21:29:22Z")
well, part of Safari is based on open-source code (KDE, KHTML and KJS). But other stuff is OSX specific. Brian ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/5 "2005-01-31T22:25:01Z")
> [@Kel Varnsen - Latex Division](#): > > Can Safari be used on a non-Apple computer? Might be a good idea to mention which safari you’re referring to. THe first thing I thought of was the Safari tech books online service, which can definitely be used on non-apple computers. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Binky\_Rudich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Binky\_Rudich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binky_Rudich)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/6 "2005-02-01T00:18:32Z")
chrisk: I think anyone who knows anything about computers assumes that Safari in question is the Apple web browser that every apple computer comes… ---
**Author:** ![darnoldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@darnoldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/darnoldy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/7 "2005-02-01T03:57:47Z")
If you are looking for a good windows browser similar to Safari, use Moxilla FireFox. It has the tabbed browsing, google search bar, I switch between the two browsers often and feel like its the same one ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/8 "2005-02-01T11:19:20Z")
> [@Binky\_Rudich](#): > > chrisk: I think anyone who knows anything about computers assumes that Safari in question is the Apple web browser that every apple computer comes… I doubt that Binky, since I know quite a lot about computers, and I didn’t know that. Admittedly not a lot about apple macs, but I have spent some time surfing the web on a mac… and the only browser I’ve seen on a mac is netscape. (This was several years ago, admittedly, in my college days.) And I did kind of get the impression that the subject of discussion was a web browser somehow. But still… if you assume that everyone knows what you’re talking about… then that one guy sitting in the back of the room perhaps, is going to remain clueless. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/9 "2005-02-01T20:53:12Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > I know quite a lot about computers … Admittedly not a lot about apple macs Seems like you’ve got a joke here. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/10 "2005-02-02T16:42:53Z")
It’s a “Cocoa” browser, so I guess that means it was written in Objective-C and relies heavily on calls to the “yellow box” functions within OS X. Not only is there no non-Mac version, there’s no MacOS 9-compatible version. The platform most accessible to porting, if one had the source code, would probably be the old NeXT / OpenStep environment (probably lots of newer function calls would have to be retrofitted to whatever similar older routines existed within OpenStep). ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/11 "2005-02-02T17:31:28Z")
As mentioned before, Safari’s rendering engine is based on KHTML, which is also used by Konqueror. Apple makes their changes to KHTML public. The KHTML team integrates some of these changes into the latest KHTML releases, so using Konqueror or any other KHTML browser is similar to using Safari. On Mac OS X, KHTML “lives” inside of the WebCore framework (a framework is a specialized form of shared library). Safari itself is basically a shell that interfaces with WebCore through WebKit, which do all the work. In fact, any developer can use WebKit with their program. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/safari-only-for-apple/287628/12 "2005-02-02T18:17:13Z")
Yeah — Shiira, for instance (which is the OSX browser I use. Safari is _not_ PowerBook-friendly.)