Multi-Safari

Introduction

Safari normally use the Web Kit framework found inside Mac OS X to render web pages and execute javascript. This means that if you preserve an old version of Safari to run it on a newer version of Mac OS, it will use the newer Web Kit found in the system and you will get the same results as with the newer version. Thus, you would normally need a separate installation of Mac OS X for each version of Safari you want to test a website into.

These special versions of Safari use the original Web Kit framework that came with them, bundled inside the application. They will mimic original Safari rendering and javascript behaviours. HTTP requests and cookies however are still handled by the system and may not work exactly the same.

Versions

Before downloading anything, please understand that I’m not responsible for anything that happens to your computer if you download and launch these files. Also read the Known Issues section below for a small list of known problems.

A big thank you goes to Stefan Skotte for hosting the files. These links use Coral to reduce bandwidth requirements on the server.

Safari 1.0 (2.2 Mb): This is the first non-beta version of Safari that was available as a download for Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. Runs on any later version of Mac OS X.
Safari 1.2 (2.7 Mb): Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.8 Panther; does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Safari 1.2.3 (2.2 Mb): Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.8 Panther; does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Safari 1.3 (3.9 Mb): Bundled with Mac OS X 10.3.9. Gives almost identical results to Safari 2.0. Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther; does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Safari 1.3.1 (4.2 Mb): Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther; does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Safari 1.3.2 (4.1 Mb): Runs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther; does not work with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Safari 2.0 (4.3 Mb): Bundled with Mac OS X 10.4. This Works with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger; does not work with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.
Safari 2.0.2 (4.0 Mb): Bundled with Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger; does not work with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.
Safari 2.0.3 (4.0 Mb): Bundled with Mac OS X 10.4.4 Tiger; does not work with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.
Safari 2.0.4 (3.8 Mb): Bundled with Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger; does not work with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.

Note: The files only contain English and French localizations to make them smaller.

Known Issues

As a general rule, a newer Safari on an older Mac OS will not work while an older Safari will work fine on newer system software.

It should be noted however that versions 1.2.x and 1.3.x of Safari won’t work under Mac OS X 10.4.
You may lose web site icons in your history and bookmarks after running an older Safari on Mac OS X 10.3.9 and later. Icons will reappear gradually as you visit each site again.
On Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Safari 1.0 will refuse to open a browser window, showing you a “could not create document” error. You can work around this by selecting “Open Location ⌘L” from the File menu or by first opening a local document from your hard disk.

How I did this

I have documented the procedure I use to create the self-contained applications on my weblog. There are two differences however:

Added a nice version-number badge on the icon so you can distinguish different versions when side by side in the dock.
Instead of naming the old safari executable “TrueSafari”, I name it with the appropriate version number and change the script accordingly. This means that when one Safari crash, the version number will appear in the error message.

Notes

I’m providing these files free of charge so that web developers can test their website for interoperability within many version of Safari with less hassle. The copyright for these files still belongs to Apple Computer. If Apple asks, I will remove the files.