Shiira facts for kids
Shiira (pronounced "Shee-ra") is a special computer program called a web browser. It's like a window that lets you explore the Internet. Shiira was made for Apple computers that use the Mac OS X operating system. It's also free to use!
Shiira is based on another popular web browser called Safari. The name "Shiira" comes from the Japanese word for a type of fish, the common dolphin-fish.
What is a Web Browser?
A web browser is a software program that lets you visit websites on the Internet. Think of the Internet as a giant library filled with information, pictures, and videos. Your web browser is the tool that helps you open the books and look at everything inside.
When you type a website address (like "google.com") into your browser, it sends a request to a server. The server then sends back the website's information, and your browser displays it on your screen. Popular web browsers you might know include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.
How Shiira Works
Shiira uses something called WebKit. WebKit is like a special engine that helps web browsers show web pages correctly. Many browsers, including Apple's Safari, use WebKit. This means that websites often look and work similarly in Shiira as they do in Safari.
Shiira was designed to be simple and easy to use. It had features like:
- Tabbed browsing: This lets you open many websites in one window, each in its own "tab."
- Bookmarks: You could save your favorite websites to visit them again quickly.
- Search bar: A place to type in what you're looking for on the Internet.
What is Mac OS X?
Mac OS X (now just called macOS) is the operating system that runs on Apple's Macintosh computers. An operating system is the main software that manages all the computer's hardware and other programs. It's what makes your computer work and lets you run applications like games, word processors, and, of course, web browsers.
Mac OS X is known for its user-friendly design and strong security features. Shiira was created specifically to work well with this system.
Open Source Software
Shiira is an example of "free software." This means that the people who made it shared its "source code" with everyone. The source code is like the recipe for the program. When software is open source, other computer programmers can look at the code, learn from it, and even help improve it. This is different from "closed source" software, where only the company that made it can see and change the code.
Shiira was first released in 2004. While it's not actively developed anymore, it was an interesting project that showed how different web browsers could be built using shared technologies like WebKit.
