Mac OS X Secretly Cripples Non-Apple Software

spikedLemur writes "Vladimir Vukicevic of the Firefox team stumbled upon some questionable practices from Apple while trying to improve the performance of Firefox. Apparently, Apple is using some undocumented APIs that give Safari a significant performance advantage over other browsers. Of course, "undocumented" means that non-Apple developers have to try and reverse-engineer these interfaces to get the same level of performance. You really have to wonder what Apple is thinking, considering the kind of retaliation Microsoft has gotten for similar practices.

first post!

[Anonymous Coward]

first post!
i cheated though, i'm using safari.

The thinking is really quite simple:

[Valacosa]

You don't really have to wonder what Apple is thinking, considering the kind of marketshare Microsoft has gotten for similar practices.

Fixed.

This would have been a First Post

[Anonymous Coward]

... but I used a non-Apple browser.

<sigh>

what they are thinking

[hildi]

"dude, what is this call?"

"its undocumented.... "

"what? why is it undocumented?"

"well, i mean, i have submitted the form like 3 times to 3 different people. one said they would get back to me. the other said
it was in process. the third one said they had approval but they got fired last week"

"wow, thats ... ok. so wh... so how do we get it documented.... "

(interrupted by someone else coming in) 'hey did you guys get the memo about the server migration, we all need to be off at 3.07
and jim ... i need you to brief me on this change you made ... tom can i get that report on the thing you were working on last week?

"yeah but i finished that report and gave it to susan... she said shed give it to you asap"

"well she has been out with the flu.... normally that stuff goes to janice... but she is on vacation"

"well i left it on her desk..."

"well, i went by her desk but i didnt see anything... maybe she put it in her folder though, sometimes she does that'

"i could just email you a copy"

"well my machine is out for the rest of the day because of the upgrade...

"oh really? what are you upgrading to?

"well im getting another g of ram, just to work on that new thing from last month..

"oh so they decided to go ahead with that?

etc etc et c

Round Number?

[cobaltnova]

We're capping at 30.77 frames per second here. That's way too round of a number.

The author must be a mathematician.

Indeed, where's the advantage?

[Foerstner]

In Microsoft's case, the goal of keeping "secret" APIs was pretty clear: whoever controls the Windows browser market, controls the browser market, period.

I can just see Steve Jobs rubbing his hands and gloating to his minions..."Yes, and with Firefox handicapped, we will have five percent of the browser market all to ourselves! Ours...all ours! Muahahahaha!"

Re:Really?

[Ctrl-Z]

If you read the article...

You lost me there.

*sniffle*

[Serenissima]

Awwwwww... our little system is all grown up now! Who's a good system? Who's a good system?

Re:Article is a Troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not that Apple is using an undocumented API. Safari is just a browser that people are trying to clone or weaken before it stomps IE and Firefox into the ground.

Re:Article is a Troll

[Anonymous Coward]

So when will the editors be debuting the Borg Steve icon? :D

Re:first post!

[FF0000 Phoenix]

It's even more incriminating that all the undocumented APIs are under the "Firefox_Sux" namespace.

Re:Naw.

[stephentyrone]

I've been at a talk where the lecturer mentioned that we would, of course, recognize 10.99 as being "approximately seven-halves pi".

Re:Article is a Troll

[flyingfsck]

"Me failed English"

There, I fixed your sig for you.

Re:From TFA...

[thephotoman]

Along with several other minuses, such as "Just Plain Wrong", "Talking Out of His/Her Ass" (yes, there are women on Slashdot, and yes, there are naked pictures, too), and "Obvious Fanboy/Hater". On the other side, there really ought to be a [+5, IAWTC].

printf

[andreyvul]

who uses "%" instead of typing "percentage"?

printf and friends, definitely printf("%d years old\n", x) vs printf("precent years old\n", x)

Re:Article is a Troll

[Al_Lapalme]

That's unpossible!

Re:From TFA...

[Anonymous Coward]

Along with several other minuses, such as "Just Plain Wrong", "Talking Out of His/Her Ass" (yes, there are women on Slashdot, and yes, there are naked pictures
[citation needed], too), and "Obvious Fanboy/Hater".

Here is how it really went down...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dev: Hey, check out this new rendering code I just wrote. It totally kicks ass over the over stuff.

QA: Yeah, that's great and all, but did you write any tests for it? What about documentation?

Mgr: Dammit! Weren't you listening? It totally kicks ass! Ship it! We'll figure out the rest when someone complains.

QA: I hate you... both.

Re:From TFA...

[loganrapp]

I just thought people were trippin' balls on X.

Re:From TFA...

[unfunk]

(yes, there are women on Slashdot, and yes, there are naked pictures, too),.

I demand proof!

Re:From TFA...

[Ilgaz]

ACRONYMS! THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!
Seriously though, your post was really hard to read. When you referred to OS X as "X", I was thinking "X Windows". Please, for the sake of everyone here and Slashdot reputation, declining or not, refrain from using such atrocious techniques. Really, who uses "%" instead of typing "percentage"? It's not that hard.

Speaking about "X", Apple X11.app on Leopard has some amazing performance level, it seems it uses every single evil undocumented , secret API to make Konqueror 3.5.8 (not 4 even) draw even faster with less CPU than Safari on some cases. Until this massive scandal uncovering, I had no clue about its reasons. Now I know, Apple also hits Firefox via superfast X11 Konqueror, Opera 9.x and 9.5beta which is Qt4 application itself.

Oh wait! It is open source ;)

Re:From TFA...

[[e-mail]]

Really, who uses "%" instead of typing "percentage"?

Well I use it about 50% of the time.

Re:Techincally ..

[Machine9]

technically, you're subject title should be "technically," not "techincally." =P

And technically, it's "your subject title", not "you're subject title" =)

Re:Slashdot ... has completely misunderstood...

[Lumpy]

Why? it works fantastically for Fox-News on cable. they go for the sensational inaccurate reporting for viewiership and accuracy dead last. It's highly effective to the point that they are doing great.

Slashdot is better because of all the bitching and discussion afterwards on how it's inaccurate.

Re:From TFA...

[Tore S B]

IATWTC? I Ate the World Trade Center?

Re:Slashdot ... has completely misunderstood...

[daffmeister]

Slashdot editors still apparently do not do any research before they post the stories. That has reduced the value of Slashdot as an advertising medium enormously.

You've researched that have you?

Re:Slashdot ... has completely misunderstood...

[KingSkippus]

Slashdot is better because of all the bitching and discussion afterwards on how it's inaccurate.

That's not true! [xkcd.com]

Re:Slashdot ... has completely misunderstood...

[FrameRotBlues]

Slashdot has ads? Really? I've never seen them. I thought funding for this site came from a cranky old rich guy who was pissed at corporate America, political America, and half the entertainment industry.

[Thank You, ABP!]

Re:From TFA...

[Archangel Michael]

I also use it 50 percent of the time.