Apple Releases Safari Beta for Windows
Umm... yay?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News
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?
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Lassan
Reply #2 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:22 AM
Reply #2 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:22 AM
Text looks awful! And I hate the look of the browser, it's like iTunes, and I don't like iTunes loook. Horrible. As for it being "faster", I think that's coz it draws after the page is loaded fully so the next page appears all at once instead of sections. Not switching permanently, I'm sticking to IE7 and keeping away from firefox 2 still.
Stephen2029
Reply #3 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:38 AM
Reply #3 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:38 AM
I have both Windows XP, and Mac, so I have some experience with both and for some time now.
I do like Safari, though I haven't tried it on Windows. Safari works well, very smooth most of the time, loads pages fairly fast, and the features are nice as well. I like the way the bookmarks extend to the full page, accessing the history, and the overall look and appeal. I'm still on dial-up and that just for reference. The article also explains why I have been having trouble loading Wincustomize, it does load, but I haven't had access to making comments and such on my personal pages.
Internet Explorer 7 seems to work better some times better than others. I have had long waits trying to access Wincustomize, and uploading has been a problem as well with the new upload feature, and over the past few days have switched to the Flock browser to upload, and to access the site. What a difference on dial-up, it has been fast to load, and access my pages to check on comments. I timed it a couple of times, and so far about 15 seconds on Dial-Up is about the best, and that from loading Flock from off the menu, clicking on Wincustomize on the toolbar, and navigating Wincustomize to my pages. So...I think that is fairly fast.
I know that Flock wasn't mentioned above, but for those that haven't tried that, it may be worth your while. The feature of a photo stream on the browser is nice as well, and the Yahoo Search that seems to be new and improved works well, too, and kind of like Spotlight on Mac for finding things.
Best Regards,
Steve
I do like Safari, though I haven't tried it on Windows. Safari works well, very smooth most of the time, loads pages fairly fast, and the features are nice as well. I like the way the bookmarks extend to the full page, accessing the history, and the overall look and appeal. I'm still on dial-up and that just for reference. The article also explains why I have been having trouble loading Wincustomize, it does load, but I haven't had access to making comments and such on my personal pages.
Internet Explorer 7 seems to work better some times better than others. I have had long waits trying to access Wincustomize, and uploading has been a problem as well with the new upload feature, and over the past few days have switched to the Flock browser to upload, and to access the site. What a difference on dial-up, it has been fast to load, and access my pages to check on comments. I timed it a couple of times, and so far about 15 seconds on Dial-Up is about the best, and that from loading Flock from off the menu, clicking on Wincustomize on the toolbar, and navigating Wincustomize to my pages. So...I think that is fairly fast.
I know that Flock wasn't mentioned above, but for those that haven't tried that, it may be worth your while. The feature of a photo stream on the browser is nice as well, and the Yahoo Search that seems to be new and improved works well, too, and kind of like Spotlight on Mac for finding things.
Best Regards,
Steve
Mackintosh
Reply #4 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:50 AM
Reply #4 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:50 AM
Crashes every time I want to access bookmarks, has trouble displaying most pages I regularly visit...seeing as it's a beta, I'm not surprised, but I've grown used to betas that are way more stable and quite more functional.
I might use it and discard it as a novelty item, but from what I've seen thus far, it won't stay on my drive for too long.
I might use it and discard it as a novelty item, but from what I've seen thus far, it won't stay on my drive for too long.
Astyanax
Reply #5 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:56 AM
Reply #5 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:56 AM
I'll just repeat what I said on AeroXP. I bet after a few betas they'll get tired of not being able to get it to work right, so they'll do what they did with iTunes. Ask Microsoft for help.
Armbut
Reply #6 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:12 PM
Reply #6 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:12 PM
I was going to post a comment on this page USING Safari, but it crashed as soon as I clicked "Add Reply" (there was no text field). So, I switched to Firefox for this bit. Overall, Safari is doing pretty well, and it even has all the nice animations of an OS X application (for example, the popups "swoop" from the titlebar). I really do like it. Now I can almost complete my OS X emulation on PC 
but....I doubt it can be skinned very easily, and it has the same appearance of an old version of iTunes, with the Action Buttons, etc. But it has the overall Leopard interface. I'm gonna use it for a while more and report back.
but....I doubt it can be skinned very easily, and it has the same appearance of an old version of iTunes, with the Action Buttons, etc. But it has the overall Leopard interface. I'm gonna use it for a while more and report back.
qrush
Reply #7 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:43 PM
Reply #7 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 12:43 PM
I'd just like to bring to everyone's attention that there are some issues with Safari for Windows and some pretty run of the mill browser vulnerabilities. I would seriously discourage anyone from using it.
Read more here: http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/06/12/0120230.shtml
Read more here: http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/06/12/0120230.shtml
Chef Garry
Reply #8 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 1:14 PM
Reply #8 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 1:14 PM
I don't see anything in Safari that Avant doesn't offer - except Snapback and resizable textboxes. For me, that's a big who cares.
dar4121
Reply #10 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 2:34 PM
Reply #10 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 2:34 PM
It all sounds wonderful, but it crashes on me every time I try to run it.
eidylon
Reply #11 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 3:06 PM
Reply #11 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 3:06 PM
Well, i like having it around now, just so i can test my web layouts without spending 3000$ on a mac; BUT - i dont think it'll take over.
In typical Apple fashion, its lets the user do almost NO customization;
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.
plus, how the search box is locked in to just Google and Yahoo. In IE7, i have other search providers in there that i use VERY regularly - google images, wikipedia, imdb, netflix, etc.
Its okay, but just WAY to limiting and cumbersome to do many basic things.
In typical Apple fashion, its lets the user do almost NO customization;
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.
plus, how the search box is locked in to just Google and Yahoo. In IE7, i have other search providers in there that i use VERY regularly - google images, wikipedia, imdb, netflix, etc.
Its okay, but just WAY to limiting and cumbersome to do many basic things.
hherbzilla
Reply #12 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:05 PM
Reply #12 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:05 PM
- didn't import my bookmarks like it said it would
- i miss my firefox extensions!
- doesn't work with my ThinkPad center/scroll button
- can't go back by hitting backspace... and apparently snapback brings me ALL the way back. not sure if i can just go back a page or two somehow?
On the plus side, it does seem faster.
tried it, and now i think i'm done with it.
- i miss my firefox extensions!
- doesn't work with my ThinkPad center/scroll button
- can't go back by hitting backspace... and apparently snapback brings me ALL the way back. not sure if i can just go back a page or two somehow?
On the plus side, it does seem faster.
tried it, and now i think i'm done with it.
BoXXi
Reply #13 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:18 PM
Reply #13 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:18 PM
what a pile of crud!! doesn't work at all, can't get it to do anything. Most of the buttons are missing, all the text is white on a white BG, and I can't even type anything in the address bar!!
UNINSTALLED....................... next contender please.......
UNINSTALLED....................... next contender please.......
JesseJ
Reply #14 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:26 PM
Reply #14 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:26 PM
When you say you don't support Safari on Wincustomize, you should go on to say that you don't support Opera and Firefox either, and that you only support Internet Explorer.
Septimus
Reply #15 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:35 PM
Reply #15 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:35 PM
Worst. Browser. Ever.
I like Safari on the Mac, but this is just a turd. Code to Windows guidelines morons [Apple]. They are there for a reason.
I like Safari on the Mac, but this is just a turd. Code to Windows guidelines morons [Apple]. They are there for a reason.
JesseJ
Reply #16 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:44 PM
Reply #16 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:44 PM
It's funny that all these people are getting all bent out of shape over a BETA, NOT a FINAL PRODUCT. BETA clearly means IN TESTING, NOT PERFECT.
Zoomba
Reply #17 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:45 PM
Reply #17 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:45 PM
When you say you don't support Safari on Wincustomize, you should go on to say that you don't support Opera and Firefox either, and that you only support Internet Explorer.
We actually do support Firefox.
Tsumana
Reply #18 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:57 PM
Reply #18 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 5:57 PM
Yeah, I was about to say that Firefox loads the site perfectly for me.
Anyway, I seem to be in the minority but I quite like Safari, but it's not too usable for me. Every time that little popup thing appears asking me to save a password or add a bookmark the thing crashes on me.
I miss some features too, specifically, session restore. Like a lot of people I'll probably use it for testing for now and see how it is when the beta phase is done.
Anyway, I seem to be in the minority but I quite like Safari, but it's not too usable for me. Every time that little popup thing appears asking me to save a password or add a bookmark the thing crashes on me.
I miss some features too, specifically, session restore. Like a lot of people I'll probably use it for testing for now and see how it is when the beta phase is done.
Nimbin
Reply #19 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:13 PM
Reply #19 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 6:13 PM
safari, while it is a capable browser it is nothing to write home about, the text is way to small even though this can be adjusted, the look reminds me of computer interfaces ala windows 98. it is slow to load, pages load slowly, i dont know where apple got the idea that it is the worlds fastest browser because even IE7 is faster on loading pages than safari. firefox and opera put it to shame, maybe once it gets out of beta and into final release stage this may have improved but until then i will stick with what i have. all in all not a bad effort but in a windows enviroment it still has a very long way to go. i guess if you are using apple o/s then this would be acceptable but out in the big bad world it is totally unacceptable. better luck next time stevie baby 
LittleBearJason
Reply #20 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 7:01 PM
Reply #20 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 7:01 PM
Know whats funny.... I had to open IE to get to this page. I was able to browse the WC main page with Safari. When I clicked on the link for this article .. guess what? Safari Crashes. HAHAH. Someone already took a bite out of the Apple.
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Reply #1 Tuesday, June 12, 2007 11:11 AM