Topic: Safari for Windows
For those that missed the announcement, version 3 of the Safari browser will be available for Windows. A beta is currently available for download.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11safari.html
2 2007-06-12 01:13 (edited by sirena 2007-06-12 01:36)
- sirena
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Re: Safari for Windows
Yeah, it's pretty neat.
But isn't it just based on the same Gecko engine as Firefox? Edit > Preferences says: default browser: Mozilla Firefox?
I also think it is crap when they claim it to be 'twice as fast as IE', and their chart that shows it to be about 3 times faster than Opera is also garbage. It ain't that fast at all.
It's font rendering/aliasing is also annoying, esp since it can't be disabled.
Still, it's nice to have about for compatibilty testing I guess.
Something to note: the beta says its for WinXP and Vista only, but it works just fine on Win 2000 too, thankfully 
Hehe: it sure makes a nice mess of the New York Times home page.
Looks like a lot of developers will have to update their CSS or browser sniffing to cope with having 'Safari' and 'Windows' in the same UA.
3 2007-06-12 07:04 (edited by Strofanto 2007-06-12 07:36)
Re: Safari for Windows
Paul wrote:
For those that missed the announcement, version 3 of the Safari browser will be available for Windows. A beta is currently available for download.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11safari.html
What is it? a sort of Apple revenge on Microsoft for making IE for Mac?
Seriously, I'll give it a try.
EDIT: Tried to install but got an error. Too bad.
- elbekko
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Re: Safari for Windows
Bleh. That's all there is to say.
Re: Safari for Windows
Safari runs on the Webkit engine. In Mac OS X, the only way that you can change your default browser in through the Safari preferences pane, which I assume is what sirena is seeing, just left over from the Windows port.
I'd like to see a screen of how the NY Times page is beings garbled. Safari on Mac usually doesn't have CSS problems, and I'd hate to start hacking for another browser. I hope that Apple didn't open a can of worms with this rather unnecessary move.
Re: Safari for Windows
At first glance I can't see anything wrong with the NY Times page apart from font rendering looking a little unpleasant.
7 2007-06-12 17:52 (edited by Andy 2007-06-12 17:54)
Re: Safari for Windows
Its certainly overhyped, especially in terms of speed. For simple pages it does seem to have an edge, but barely, and on everything else its similar to Opera/Firefox. The default theme is quite hard to read too on a laptop screen...
Its disappointing really. Firefox and Opera are far, far better. I don't see this taking much market share unless they start bundling it with iTunes... From this 'beta', I certainly don't believe Macs have anything to boast about from the browser side of things.
- sirena
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Re: Safari for Windows
Paul wrote:
At first glance I can't see anything wrong with the NY Times page apart from font rendering looking a little unpleasant.
All the errors appear 'above the fold'.
I get a big jumble of items (the Markets summary, the Times Select opinion links, the ads along the right hand side etc) running over the right hand boundary of the page, and a big 1 column indent under the 'Etrade' ad icon that runs from from the NYT masthead all the way down to the 'Inside NYTimes.com' section.
Everything below the 'Inside NYTimes.com' section renders fine.
IE, FF, Opera have none of these issues.
Safari also has some CSS quirks with font size rendering I have noticed on some of my own pages - not picking up inheritances in the same way the other browsers do, for example. It was OK though - fixing it for Safari didn't alter the way the other browsers displayed the fonts - so it doesn't appear to be too far off the mark in observing CSS standards on some issues.
But ughh. The idea of having to deal with yet another quirky browser is a nightmare. I hope this one quietly fades away.
Especially as nothing it does is special in any way, shape or form, including page load performance, or (as people have pointed out elsewhere) security.
Re: Safari for Windows
sirena wrote:
But isn't it just based on the same Gecko engine as Firefox?
WebKit is based on KHTML.
WebKit.org wrote:
WebKit is an open source web browser engine. WebKit is also the name of the Mac OS X system framework version of the engine that's used by Safari, Dashboard, Mail, and many other OS X applications. WebKit's HTML and JavaScript code began as a branch of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE.
Re: Safari for Windows
sirena: don't forget its an early beta. I would anticipate the final version rendering pages at least as well as Safari 2 on the Mac. Anyway, I tend to think they released it for developers rather than end users. If it means I can test Safari without having to find a Mac user or resort to Browsercam then I'm pleased. The other reason for it is that it appears Safari is going to be the development platform for the iPhone.
PS: I have the NY Times open in Safari and Firefox and they look pretty much the same to me above and below the fold. You are not using a non English version of windows are you? If so I have heard that causes problems for WebKit.
- sirena
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Re: Safari for Windows
No, I'm using an EN language version on Win2K.
I suspect the NYT issue may have something to do with ad blocking at work, if not directly in Safari, then perhaps thru some elements of my [rather Nazi] secure local config. For example, I filter Doubleclick ad sites, which the NYT home page has a few links to, inc a few sneaky invisible pixel links, it seems.
Nonetheless FF, Opera and my tightened up IE still handle the same site and issues much more gracefully, while Safari bungles the display completely.