[SmileyKeith]

This isn't the primary part of this conversation but I found this quote pretty interesting:

> Now, we are starting to work on Safari again but look at Chrome. They put out releases at least every month while we basically do it once a year.

Even though this was in 2013 nothing about the release cycle (still only major changes with the major OS release versions). I wonder if some of the other emails have more context on this.

[newaccount74]

I think the truth is the vast majority of people don't care much about their browser anymore. They are pretty much all good enough.

There is only one reason why chrome got so much market share: because they put an ad on the Google homepage "Try a faster browser!". The marketing was bullshit (bloated websites don't load any faster in Chrome than in other browsers), but it worked.

If any other company advertised their browser so heavily, they would be the leading browser maker today. But noone else can put ads on every load of the Google homepage.

[wraptile]

> I think the truth is the vast majority of people don't care much about their browser anymore. They are pretty much all good enough.

I think browsers are just so complex that most people don't understand that there's something wrong with their browser or operating system and just blames the website. Few years back it feels that everybody knew that if something is a bit off on the web they should try a different browser. Now, this idea seems to be more or less gone - most people only have 1 browser installed to begin with.

[dwaite]

Safari is the Chrome around webkit on the platform, so it tends to reflect platform major version number changes. Chrome is its own platform and does not have semantic version numbers AFAIK (or, they just break compatibility once a month)

Non-APNS push notifications landed on macOS in 16.1. They get webkit features in minor releases. Mouse and keyboard support for iPad also landed in a minor release. They average about 6 releases a year.

[sorenjan]

I thought they released Safari for Windows to enable developers to test their web based iPhone apps. Before the App store all iPhones were supposed to only run web based apps, and Windows was a much larger platform for developers.

[scarface74]

Well this is obviously not true. Apple releases point upgrades to iOS along with Safari changes throughout the year.

[Jtsummers]

"Basically" means "not literally but for all practical purposes might as well be" but in fewer words. Safari's major features, for all practical purposes, are released annually and not with point upgrades unless they were planned features (same with iOS, iPadOS, and macOS) that didn't make it into .0.

[scarface74]

So Google releases features without planning?

[Jtsummers]

> So Google releases features without planning?

Or they release them at a faster cadence, which was the point of the quoted portion of the emails. That doesn't mean no planning.

EDIT: Actually, I reread your comment and have no idea what you're getting at. Why do you think I'm suggesting Google has no planning?

[scarface74]

I’m not. I’m suggesting that it is no different what Apple does and what Google does.

[kweingar]

It is different though, at least to the consumer.

Among my iPhone-owning friends, it is common to hear “they didn’t add X to Safari in iOS 16 but I hope they will in iOS 17” or “did you watch the iOS 16 promos? They’re adding X to Safari.” It is expected that major Safari features coincide with major iOS releases.