Multi-Safari, now with a download link

Exactly one year ago, I unveiled a method to make older versions of Safari work on newer version of the operating system, and run them side by side. Since then, I collected all versions of Safari I could find and created standalone versions. Then some days ago, Stefan Skotte offered to host the files, which today allows me to release them publicly for the pleasure of all those who want to test their web pages in obsolete browsers.

One important thing you should take note is that Safari versions for Panther (Mac OS X 10.3.x) won’t work on Tiger (10.4.x), and the reverse is also true. I’ve given up on that a while ago. So to be able to test in all these versions of Safari, you’ll need two operating system installed. This is, while not ideal, much better than having one Mac OS X install for each version of Safari.

As someone pointed out to me during the last month, all the Web Kit sources from now to the beginning are available in the SVN repository, so I suppose someone could undertake the project and create compatible older versions. But I doubt someone will do that, as it’s not an easy job and maintaining old software isn’t much fun.

Comments

Philippe

Thank you for making these builds available. It does eases the pain of debugging things.

Ingo

Thank you. Having access to older builds becomes more and more important with every new release.

Seth

I was excited to see your new page with the different versions. I’m running os10.4 ” do you know of a way to run Safari 1.3x or 1.4x on a Tiger machine? I downloaded the 1.4, from your site but it just starts and stops again. Thanks-

Michel Fortin

Seth, perhaps you should read the second paragraph of this page. It would tell you that it is not possible to run Safari versions meant for Panther (1.2.x and 1.3.x) on Tiger. And I’m not aware of Apple having released a version 1.4 of Safari.

Seth

My apologies for not reading more carefully (and for the typo on 1.4). The work you’ve done is impressive— thank you for all your effort. I will try and set up a dual boot on my Mac so I can test out some web site work on older versions of Safari. I am curious what other developers do for testing— do you know of any virtualization options? Or is it just multiple machines and/or OS partitions?

Ben Di Maggio

Hey Michel — Just wanted to say a big thanks for your work on this! I’m developing a big site right now, and the old version of Safari I downloaded from you helped me knock out a bug I would have never been able to fix otherwise. Thanks again — and good luck with Reflex, that looks interesting.

Philippe: Thank you for making these builds available. It does eases the pain of debugging things.
Ingo: Thank you. Having access to older builds becomes more and more important with every new release.
Seth: I was excited to see your new page with the different versions. I’m running os10.4 ” do you know of a way to run Safari 1.3x or 1.4x on a Tiger machine? I downloaded the 1.4, from your site but it just starts and stops again. Thanks-
Michel Fortin: Seth, perhaps you should read the second paragraph of this page. It would tell you that it is not possible to run Safari versions meant for Panther (1.2.x and 1.3.x) on Tiger. And I’m not aware of Apple having released a version 1.4 of Safari.
Seth: My apologies for not reading more carefully (and for the typo on 1.4). The work you’ve done is impressive— thank you for all your effort. I will try and set up a dual boot on my Mac so I can test out some web site work on older versions of Safari. I am curious what other developers do for testing— do you know of any virtualization options? Or is it just multiple machines and/or OS partitions?
Ben Di Maggio: Hey Michel — Just wanted to say a big thanks for your work on this! I’m developing a big site right now, and the old version of Safari I downloaded from you helped me knock out a bug I would have never been able to fix otherwise. Thanks again — and good luck with Reflex, that looks interesting.