June 12th, 2007
Safari for Windows - Do we really need another browser?
Yesterday Apple unveiled a public beta of the Safari web browser aimed at Windows XP and Windows Vista users (oh, and Mac OS X 10.4.9 and later). Earlier this year when Apple had sent me a loaner MacBook Pro I’d had the opportunity to use Safari and quite honestly I wasn’t all that impressed with it and quickly installed (and used) Firefox instead. 
The crashes, combined with the speed with which a exploit was uncovered make me wonder whether Apple can write code for WindowsDo Windows users really need yet another browser for the Windows platform?
To be honest, my first response when I heard that Apple had made a beta of Safari for Windows available for download was … a disappointing yawn. A web browser is just a tool and I find it hard to drum up much enthusiasm for new browsers any more. If you look at the top four browsers out now (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2.0, Opera 9 and Safari 2/3), there’s really not much to distinguish between them. They all do pretty much the same thing in pretty much the same way, they all have their quirks, and they all seem prone to the “leaky bucket” syndrome when it comes to security. The idea of having “yet another browser” installed, with all the associated care and feeding that goes with the deal (especially making sure that you’re using the latest patched version) just didn’t seem worth the hassle to me. Nevertheless, I downloaded a copy, installed it onto a Vista installation and took it for a spin.
OK, so the Safari download is nice and small (under 8MB) and the installation is fast (mine was done in about a minute). Apple claim that it’ll run on both XP and Vista and that you’ll need a system with at least 256MB of RAM and a 500MHz Pentium CPU or better. This might be the case, but once I got Safari 3 beta installed, I remembered one of the reasons why I disliked Safari on the Mac and why I’ll still dislike it on Windows - that butt-ugly silver-grey interface. It looks especially rough on Windows Vista where I’m used to the nice Aero glass look.
Looking beyond the interface, Apple has posted twelve reasons they think why we’ll love Safari. Let’s examine each one here one by one.
Blazing Performance
Apple claims that Safari is fast - twice as fast as Internet Explorer and 1.6 times as fast as Firefox 2.0. Looking at Apple’s website the claim is that Safari is faster than IE7, Firefox 2.0 and Opera 9 when it comes to rendering HTML, executing JavaScript and at launching the browser.
Personally, I think that it takes about the same time to launch all four browsers on my Vista box (under 1 second) and while I can say that web pages feel like they load up faster, I think that this is due to the fact that the page seems to be composed off-screen. This results in a lag between clicking on a link and seeing the page. Page loading feels faster and certainly looks smoother, but my inkling is that this is nothing more than an illusion. I’m taking Apple’s performance claims with a big pinch of salt.
Elegant User Interface
OK, it’s a minimalist look, but I still think it looks awful. Why hide useful features like the status bar and yet show that Bookmarks Bar? 
Also why when the top three browsers all offer tooltips to help explain the user interface does Apple not follow this convention? Likewise, it’s annoying that you can only resize windows using the handle at the bottom-right of the window.
The black text on a grey background motif reminds me of a tombstone on one of those old Hammer House of Horror movies. I was pretty sure that there would be a way to ditch the existing skin, but if there is, I can’t find it. I guess I can understand a look where the interface is subdued because then you can use color to selectively draw the eye to important things, but I don’t see that trick being used in Safari.
Next –>
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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| 06/12/07
