Apple backtracks on Safari 4.0 tabs on top, ZFS

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Amid all of the new features highlighted Monday in Snow Leopard, iPhone 3.0 and Safari 4.0 were a few unpublicized retractions: Safari 4.0 has lost its "tabs on top" and returned to the old conventional tabs of the previous 3.0 version, while all mention of full ZFS support in Snow Leopard Server has been scrubbed.



When Safari 4.0 was released for free download yesterday, its provocative use of upward facing tabs was dropped along with its beta label. For users who just got used to having their window tabs tucked into the dead space in the menu bar, the change back might seem disappointing. After all, Apple promoted the idea of 'tabs on top' as a clever way to minimize the impact of user interface elements on the browsing experience, a key design goal of Safari since its first release.



Why have tabs dropped back down to consume an extra strip of interface real estate? Perhaps the company though it was too confusing to new users, or that it simply wasn't consistent or compatible with its own interface guidelines or those of Microsoft Windows, which the company is now trying to look native on with Safari rather than imposing its uniquely metallic Mac appearance.



Whatever the reason, the retraction of the bold design step by the typically safe, if not conservative, company is slightly disappointing and makes the new browser seem a big dowdy. Users might forgive this due to Safari's enhanced rendering speed. The new-old tabs also still work the same, featuring the intuitive drag to reorder capability and the option to drag a tab outside the current browser to spawn a new window, or to drag a tab into an existing window to make it a component tab. Apple claims 150 other features for Safari in its place.



Upward facing tabs under Safari 4 beta (left) compared to those implemented in the release (right).



The conspicuously missing ZFS



The announcement of new support for Sun's open source ZFS in Leopard drew a frenzy of attention that had pundits insisting that Mac OS X would quickly make the new file system its default in place of HFS+, a prediction that has not materialized.



Of course, while ZFS is positively dripping with easy to understand feature buzzwords, there's no desperate, impending need to replace HFS+ nor any likelihood that ZFS would really offer consumers, who make up the vast majority Apple's target market, any tangible benefits. For starters, the features of ZFS only really get started when you're using multiple disks, and most of Apple's users are now buying notebook systems, none of which ship with multiple drives.



Still, ZFS seemed to hold a lot of promise to Snow Leopard Server users, who might want to take advantage of the new file system's support for features such as flexible volume management, continuous data integrity checking and automatic repair.



ZFS was formerly listed prominently among the scant new details offered on Apple's next version of Mac OS X Server, but now the company's entire site seems to be purged of any mention. Sources have noted that the feature was pulled from the user interface of Disk Utility in recent developer builds.



While Apple probably isn't abandoning the technology, it has certainly slipped from the list of critical to deliver features for Snow Leopard. The only mention of ZFS in the search results of Apple's website is its inclusion as an open source project in Darwin. Well, there's always Mac OS X 10.7.



Sometimes, Apple drops an advertised feature when it is discovered that it simply isn't ready for mainstream users yet, as was the case with Time Machine backups to AirPort. In other cases, the company has dropped a planned feature to rethink how to implement it, as it did with Push Notifications for iPhone 2.0 last fall. In both of those cases, the technology was eventually reinstated for release. In other cases however, a dropped feature might never come back. Apple never revisited the idea of customized user interface themes, for example.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 173
    kevwoodkevwood Posts: 1member
    Just launched safari and noticed they'd moved the tabs again. Backwards step IMO. I preferred the 'tabs up top', maybe I was in the minority? How about just giving us the option to choose!
  • Reply 2 of 173
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    What about Resolution Independence? I want to buy a 3840x2400 monitor, but I need Resolution Independence for it to be useable.
  • Reply 3 of 173
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    Me not wanting to know "why" tabs are no more on top. Me waiting for SJ to be back and to handle a bit his designers and presenters...
  • Reply 4 of 173
    As I mentioned in another thread. I vote for having the option to have tabs in the menubar, even if it is not the default.



    Also, Safari has already crashed 3 times for me in the last day since I've updated. No-third party plug-ins or anything.
  • Reply 5 of 173
    sevenfeetsevenfeet Posts: 465member
    Well, new filesystems in operating systems is pretty hard stuff since it has to be right the first time. Just ask Microsoft. They still haven't delivered their new SQL Server-derived filesystem after how many years? And of course, Apple had a horrendous time when HFS was first introduced as a part of System 3 back in the Mac Plus days. That initial version routinely lost data until System 3.2 replaced it.



    Still, it's very disappointing to see that ZFS just isn't going to make the light of day with this release. Sun has had ZFS available now for years and bootable since October 2008. My ancient 9 year old Sun Ultra 60 operates on ZFS exclusively now. Of course it's still possible to see it show up in later point releases. I hope we won't have to wait until 10.7 (2011?) in order to get this key business feature.
  • Reply 6 of 173
    mactrippermactripper Posts: 1,328member
    Tabs back where they belong! yay!



    Hack to put them back on top coming soon.





    Now we need a hack to keep the delete tab buttons visible.



    I think it's a UI mistake to have them hidden like that, especially for newbies.



    It's going to slow people down, because they have to "hover" to reveal the button, make a course correction an then click. Instead of aiming right for it to begin with.



    I'm thinking Apple is desperate to make improvements, any improvements, even if it's wrong and poorly thought out.
  • Reply 7 of 173
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    I don't know if we were the minority, but I agree. The tabs on top was my favorite improvement other then the speed. Everything else is kind of gimmicky to me.



    I think it wrong that Apple make a bold design decision like that, let many users get accustomed to it, and then remove it all together without making it at least an option. Certainly there were enough people who like it.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kevwood View Post


    Just launched safari and noticed they'd moved the tabs again. Backwards step IMO. I preferred the 'tabs up top', maybe I was in the minority? How about just giving us the option to choose!



  • Reply 8 of 173
    Me too..I didn't like putting tabs again in the old fashion..they are really fine on top.
  • Reply 9 of 173
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by holywarrior007 View Post


    ..they are really fine on top.



    No...they really aren't.
  • Reply 10 of 173
    takeotakeo Posts: 445member
    I liked the added space... but the tabs belong on the bottom. I'm glad they put them back down.
  • Reply 11 of 173
    exscapeexscape Posts: 27member
    Well, this, pardon me, sucks bigtime. Last year it sounded as if we'd have stable ZFS on Snow Leopard (client). Now I'm not so sure anymore.



    It's semi-BS that ZFS isn't worth it without multiple disks. You get checksumming, know exactly what files are broken if any, built-in compression, and SNAPSHOTS. I was planning on taking frequent snapshots and using zfs send | recv to my (also planned) FreeBSD server to take frequent snapshots and backups of my home partition.
  • Reply 12 of 173
    althemalalthemal Posts: 1member
    I really loved the tabs on top, it made perfect sense. I can have up to 10 tabs open at the same and the top version made it much faster in terms of workflow. I can only hope that someone at Apple is reading this thread and make it an option in preferences.
  • Reply 13 of 173
    The tabs up top were horrible. If Safari was not the frontmost application, it was a disaster. One click on a tab to bring Safari to the front, then a second click to choose which tab you wanted - but instead, it was interpreted as a menu-bar double-click, minimizing Safari to the Dock. Fantastically annoying.



    There is a reason why the menu-bar (with its selection and movement properties) is distinctly separate from the rest of the program.
  • Reply 14 of 173
    valanchanvalanchan Posts: 41member
    It now looks as if the toolbar is tabbed rather than the page. I thought the beta tabs had Apples famed elegant solutions.



    I didn't realise that i use Top Sites all the time until it was talked about today. Great addition.
  • Reply 15 of 173
    Tabs on top is a nice -option- to have. I wonder though how that breaks 3rd party apps like unsanity Windowshade, which I use all the time. (Never tried the Safari beta). Glad to see the UI guidelines are being followed though.
  • Reply 16 of 173
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    Tabs on top was alright. At least leave it in there as an option.



    And I can understand the reasons for slow ZFS adoption. Fair enough.
  • Reply 17 of 173
    monstrositymonstrosity Posts: 2,234member
    YEAH no tabs on top! what a result, I detested it.
  • Reply 18 of 173
    danacamerondanacameron Posts: 337member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Safari 4.0 has lost its "tabs on top" and returned to the old conventional tabs of the previous 3.0 version?



    I liked the tabs on top, but they're fine below where they're more consistent with other apps and most people's user experience. It'd be nice for users to have the option to put them above or below though.
  • Reply 19 of 173
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DanaCameron View Post


    I liked the tabs on top, but they're fine below where they're more consistent with other apps and most people's user experience. It'd be nice for users to have the option to put them above or below though.



    It should really be included as an opton. I was beginning to quite like tabs on top. Either way, it's not really a deal-breaker. It's one of those luxury problems. Atlantic Lobster instead of King Crab. Oh well.
  • Reply 20 of 173
    eideardeideard Posts: 428member
    Meanwhile - Safari 4 is faster than ever. Sorting through RSS feeds this morning and it is noticeably faster.
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