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Apple Thanks WebKit Developers

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In June 2005, Apple started the WebKit Open Source Project. WebKit is the basis for Apple's web browser core which powers Safari. The open source project has drawn programming contributions from non-Apple employees providing constant improvements to the core of Apple's browsing technology.

As a "Thank You", Apple is giving MacBook Pro laptops to 12 of the top contributors to the project, and 5 are being invited to Apple's 2006 World Wide Developer's Conference "on Apple's dime".

More information on WebKit can be found at http://webkit.opendarwin.org/
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2006/02/10/apple-thanks-webkit-developers/
I wish I knew something about developing so I could've helped and got a MBP. 🙁 😉

I think it's very thoughtful of Apple to give such gifts to people who really deserve it.
 
Nice!

Talk about a great way to encourge developers to work on Apple software! Throw GOOD free stuff at them!

Being a former OpenStep tinkerer, but never being able to justify the cost of the OPENSTEP software from NeXT, I was excited that the OS X Dev tools were free with OS X. I still didn't have the time to do more than tinker with it though.

Then, when they gave all of the Intel preview machine leaseholders an Intel iMac last month, I was kicking myself for not having been more active in learning Cocoa.

Now, I'm absolutely going to light a fire under my butt to get those Objective-C skills up to speed and start working on something so I can try to win the next freebie Apple throws out! I mean, as a J2EE developer what, exactly, is Sun going to give me like this? A T-Shirt at JavaWorld? A Duke figurine? They sure as hell aren't throwing top end laptops at us!
 
yeh! i..ummm... worked on safari too... how bout sending that invite my way, along with that probook
 
Safari is still pretty poor, but i am glad they have a system where people can add code. Should speed up the quality
 
Damien said:
Safari is still pretty poor, but i am glad they have a system where people can add code. Should speed up the quality
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I disagree, I think Safari is great. What are the specific reasons why you find it so poor? Just curious. It's all I use on my Mac, and Firefox on my PC - no mroe need for IE, I love it! 😀

I think this is a classy move on Apple's part. Something they didn't need to do, but a great gesture. Well done Apple. 😎
 
Of course, the true brilliance here is that Apple now will get scores of people working as unpaid developers, expecting a shot at another MBP, when, in reality, Apple probably has no plans to release any more. 😉

Edit: and, yes, that's sour grapes on my part because I didn't hep with the SVG support in WebKit....
 
All I am wondering now is... when will they get their machines? What are the shipping dates 🙂

Nice gesture from Apple for sure!
 
hmm a nice gesture for sure, but couldn't they also "pay" people for the work they do? I mean I understand the open source movement and all that, but apple isn't an open source company, and no they don't sell safari on it's own but you've still gotta buy something from them to use it.
 
That is what is known as style and is what has been missing from Apple for a long LONG time. Hopefully this is a return to the Apple of old.
 
ifjake said:
now this is how you support the open source community.
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maybe this will put to rest the accusations that apple neglects its open source community -- taking and never giving back?
 
Wow, go Apple, most companies are not like that. Apple needs to claim that large prize for dual booting windows on osx.
 
Who finds this negative?

I guess there's always at least one person who can find something wrong with every story, but sheesh. Maybe they're just numbers 13-15 and thus are angry about missing out on the MBPs 😉
 
Very cool! And Safari is definitely my browser of choice (and better in Tiger than Panther). I use IE and Firefox only for testing sites I build, to see what others see.

Now... one time I had a page that took 2 tried to load, and I clicked Report Bug to tell Apple about it.

Surely that's worth at least a video iPod? Black, please.
 
Thats a really good gesture.

Webkit has come a long way in quite a short space of time. Safari has one of the best CSS implementations around. Though still quite a few rendering bugs to fix.

Without Webkit being open source, Safari (and all other apps that use it) wouldn't be as advanced as it is today.

Chaszmyr said:
Remember how bad every Mac browser sucked when they released Safari? 🙄
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Can't agree with that - Gecko ( that is Mozilla, Firefox etc ) based browers have always been good.
 
The only browsers I really liked before Safari were OmniWeb and Chimera/Camino. But those were and are great browsers. Firefox is fine too--I like how Find works--but I still prefer Safari.

I like that Safari is metal, not white--it makes the controls nicely separated from the visual page (which is typically white). But I think the new iLife 06 metal look would be even better! And I'm sure that's coming.
 
~Shard~ said:
I disagree, I think Safari is great. What are the specific reasons why you find it so poor? Just curious. It's all I use on my Mac, and Firefox on my PC - no mroe need for IE, I love it! 😀
Click to expand...

For me, Safari blows because:

  • Many websites take forEVER to render. NewEgg.com is a perfect example. Best Buy is another. Shopping at these sites with Safari is painful.

  • It's a huge, bloated memory hog. Kind of ironic for the browser that was supposed to be fast and lean, huh? 🙄 After a day or so of browsing, its memory footprint races steadily up towards a gigabyte. Closing tabs/windows doesn't help. Before I maxed out my G4 PM at 1.5 gig, it was absolutely atrocious with 640 MB.

That said, I still use Safari for for 95% or more of my browsing on the Mac. Mostly for irrational reasons. 😀 The other small portion is in Firefox -- usually when I get fed up with one of Safari's problem sites (slow rendering) or when something actually doesn't work at all (the best example is motion video from this camera; still images work great, but motion only works in Firefox). The only real reasons I don't use Firefox full time are that it feels just a hair slower for basic UI stuff (creating new windows, scrolling, etc), and I prefer the native Mac feel of Safari. Kind of silly when Firefox actually has much better privacy controls and other nice "attention to detail" features.
 
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dornoforpyros said:
hmm a nice gesture for sure, but couldn't they also "pay" people for the work they do? I mean I understand the open source movement and all that, but apple isn't an open source company, and no they don't sell safari on it's own but you've still gotta buy something from them to use it.
Click to expand...

There is a certain amount of work done by unpaid volunteers, but a lot of work comes from people who get paid by their company to produce open source software. For companies it makes a lot of sense; they don't get paid in cash, but by being able to use the software that other people create. Cooperation is the cheapest way to create large amounts of software.

Whether these guys did the work for pay or not, getting a MacBook Pro will be a nice surprise and makes them feel appreciated. And I think a list of contributors #1 to #20 might be in some file at Human Resources in Cupertino.
 
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