Loading ...Safari for Windows Beta released
It’s true: Apple has released a beta version of Safari 3.0 for Windows. First comments:
- It has beautiful fonts, and as it has been already said, they must be stolen for Firefox. It offers 3 font smoothing levels, but the default seems to be adequate for me.
- Silently imports Firefox’s bookmarks. Live Bookmarks are imported as regular bookmarks though as it does no web feed trick except feed preview.
- It looks weird. It is nice looking but looks out of place in Windows, just like iTunes.
- It uses Mac OS native controls, which make it look even weirder.
- It acts weird. Double click the title bar to maximize it and you will have to kill it. No link modifiers in bookmarks or history, no Alt+Enter in location or search bars.
- It starts up faster than Firefox.
- It offers private browsing, currently in development for Firefox 3.
- It’s a beta.
With the recent release of Internet Explorer 7, and forthcoming Firefox 3, Opera 9.5 and now Safari 3 currently in development, I believe this is the most active time in web browsers development history and is in large part due to the efforts of Mozilla to promote innovation, open standards and open development.
I foresee a quick adoption of Safari (when the final version comes out) among iPod/iTunes users who will most likely receive an offer to download it bundled with iTunes. Since it is already a pig of a download (30+MB), Safari’s meager 8MB installer shouldn’t matter much to iPod lovers. I would expect Firefox’s market share to slip down a bit the couple of months or so following Apple’s push, again because of the iTunes halo effect. But Internet Explorer must see the steeper decline from users who, for the first time, will know an alternative way to access the web.
Hopefully we will have an even more diverse browser market where competition rules, proprietary formats and languages have no chance and end users win. I think this is a great day for web users.
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June 11th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Okay, now that is like just weird!
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June 12th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Nitpick: Opera is 9.21, not 9.5. Also, Netscape Navigator is 9.0b, for what that’s worth…
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June 12th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Like Firefox 3 and Safari 3, Opera 9.5 is currently in development. “Forthcoming” is what’s missing there. Now corrected. Thanks.
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June 14th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Be sure to test Safari beta, IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 2 or whatever browser you use in Windows against the Web Standards to see how it fares. You will be unpleasantly surprised to see how the most popular browser on Windows does, how sad.
The Acid 2 Test
http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html
List of compliant browsers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid2#Non-compliant_browsers
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June 14th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Lantz, yes Firefox 2 doesn’t pass the Acid2 test. Firefox 3 will: http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2006/12/firefox-3-alpha-1-released-yes-it-matters/
Safari was the first, Opera followed, IE sometime in the future. Maybe. Well, don’t hold your breath.
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March 28th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Safari can pass ACID test? Oh yea, but Safari can’t pass google.com test :) So, it is a software for its start page, not for work.
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