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Apple Releases Safari Beta for Windows

Apple Releases Safari Beta for Windows

Umm... yay?

http://www.apple.com/safari

Yesterday, at the keynote for the Apple World Wide Developer Conference, CEO Steve Jobs announced that the next version of the previously Apple-only web browser, Safari, would be making its way to the Windows world.  In fact, upon the end of the keynote when the newly redesigned Apple.com was launched, you could download a beta of Safari 3.  It looks like Apple is hoping to take the browser world by storm like it did with the music player/store software market with iTunes.  However, there are many questions over whether or not yet another browser will make much of a splash in a market already crowded by larger-name players.

Yesterday, approximately 1.14% of our visitors were using Safari, as opposed to a 0.25% most days previous.

It is worth noting that we do not currently support Safari on WinCustomize, so if you're running the beta and you're getting flaky display problems, or submission forms aren't working, please just switch back to your standard PC browser.  Safari is considered beta so it may not function properly.

If you've been using Safari for the past day now, what are your thoughts on it?  Will it take the place of Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera on your system?

17,034 views 39 replies
Reply #26 Top
I agree with JesseJ to somewhat of a degree, but by having THIS MANY problems posted here concerning this release you have to wonder if they tested it at all on a loaded Windows PC??? It's too bad because by having Safari in the mix it just adds more competition; pushing existing browser development & innovations that much further.      
Reply #27 Top
Well, it is a beta afterall.  I don't think it's reasonable to expect stability and perfection.
Reply #28 Top
And a BIG gripe for me, is how unlike IE7 (and firefox? i dont know), you cannot set it to always open new links in a new tab in the same window. So if a website has an A tag with a target set to a new window, i get an actual NEW WINDOW, which kinda defeats the purpose of tabbed browsing.


Uhhm... wow?

Open IE7, go to Internet Options. Once the options window opens under the General Tab look for Tabs near the lower middle - Click Settings. In the middle of the new Window you will see "When a Pop-up is encountered" - You want to select Always open pop-ups in a new tab.
Reply #29 Top
Hang on a sec, wasn't numnuts Jobs saying a week or so ago that he and the other inmates at (cr)apple wouldn't program for Windows if that had any choice???

I don't like the look of this POC I expect my apps to use the same (or very similar) interface as the OS.
Reply #30 Top
Attempting to force the look and feel of your own operating system onto your products running on a *different* operating system is an extremely poor design decision in my book. It just illustrates that you have a fundamental inability to separate form from function.
Reply #32 Top

"Hot Fuzz" - must be talking about me...  

Reply #33 Top
I installed the safari browser and so far so good haven't had any real problems. My number one browser is Firefox as for as IE7 its junk can't stand it.
Reply #34 Top
Being in beta is no excuse for it being this bad, however maybe it's a marketing ploy to take us back to the Golden Age of Macs;

Open program
ERROR
Open program again
ERROR
Hmmm, open game
ERROR
F*#K THIS!! Shut down
ERROR
Drop computer out of 5th storey window
ERROR

...its typical apple style to be all show and no go so we shouldn't expect safari to be any better than it is now once it's released.
Reply #35 Top
And a BIG gripe for me, is how unlike IE7 (and firefox? i dont know), you cannot set it to always open new links in a new tab in the same window. So if a website has an A tag with a target set to a new window, i get an actual NEW WINDOW, which kinda defeats the purpose of tabbed browsing.



Uhhm... wow?

Open IE7, go to Internet Options. Once the options window opens under the General Tab look for Tabs near the lower middle - Click Settings. In the middle of the new Window you will see "When a Pop-up is encountered" - You want to select Always open pop-ups in a new tab


I think what he was saying is that he can't get this to occur in Safari...
Reply #36 Top
NOOOOOO!! Not another browser to support!!!
Reply #37 Top
I think what he was saying is that he can't get this to occur in Safari...


eXACTly. That's what i mean. And someone else was nice enough to point out that this IS also possible with FF as well as IE.

Oh, there's so many things wrong with this safari...
> the tabs in new windows issue;
> no backspace key to go back in history;
> their version of ClearType sucks;
> can't dbl-click tab bar to open a new tab;
> CTRL+N should do a new tab, not new window (they seem to only support tabs so they can say they can, but the browser isnt really geared towards using tabs);
> not sticking to the OS guidelines, as Nick Milner pointed out above;
> can't CTRL+TAB to switch between open tabs like any other "MDI"-ish Windows app;
> status bar is microscopic;
> no support for tooltips/title attribute;
> lock in of search only to Google and Yahoo;

Oh, BUT ... there is ONE thing i like about it; Their little "report-a-bug" function is WAY cool; Of course, whether they are actually listening to bugs from the Windows version, is a whole nother qeustion.   
Reply #38 Top
Been using it for a day and will not use it anymore. Eventhough Apple states it loads HTML and JavaScripts faster it doesn't. IE7 is faster and not to mention FF. About JavaScripts some don't work at all so I don't want to talk about speed at all.

The design might look good on a Mac but it totallu doesn't fit in Vista GUI. So unless they add skinning support I don't want to use it. I will stick with FireFox because it is the best for my needs.

Maybe Safari will become faster when the final version is released but if they don't change or add skinning support I'm not touching it.
Reply #39 Top
Okay, I used it for about 2 weeks. Then...I switched back to Firefox full-time. I really hope Apple gets their stuff straightened out with the browser. After 3 updates, they still haven't fixed the maximize/restore bug...