Apple Releases Safari For Windows
Apple released today at its World Wide Developer Conference a Windows version of its Safari browser, giving Windows a fourth major web browser. The software is available as an 8 megabyte free download at apple.com/safari. Be sure to avoid additionally installing things you may not need, like some sort of networking software.
Is it good? Sure seems to load pages fast. Apple emphasizes that in a lot of places, because for those who’ve never used Firefox, or Opera, or even Internet Explorer 7, there isn’t much different here. Tabbed browsing, Mac UI, bookmarks, pop-up blocker, inline find (CTRL+F), autofill, RSS reader, resizable text fields, and encryption support. The only other unique features are SnapBack, which jumps you back to search results (Opera has a way better version of this feature) and one-click private browsing (no history, no cookies).
If you absolutely must have pages load faster more than anything, go with Safari. It does seem really fast. Otherwise, I can’t see a lot of incentive.
- The UI clashes with the rest of Windows (when Microsoft develops for the Mac, they match the UI, so why doesn’t Apple?)
- The address bar doesn’t select the URL when you click (why the hell not?)
- The Flash player isn’t installed (even though RealPlayer, QuickTime, Acrobat and Java are, you need to install a plugin)
- There’s this really confusing lightbulb button (it sends error reports)
- The tab bar is hidden at first
- Double-clicking the tab bar doesn’t open new tabs
- The bookmark and tab bars use dark gray with black letters. Impossible to read at a glance!
- Downloaded files have to all be downloaded to a specific folder (by default the desktop, annoying!)
- Links open in new windows, not tabs
- Are there any keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs? Don’t seem to be.
- The font smoothing just thickens letters instead of actually, you know, smoothing fonts. Whatever it does, the text just makes me uncomfortable.
- There’s no dialog for enabling/disabling plugins
- The preferences reference “Option-Tab”, which is strange since “Option” isn’t on any Windows keyboards!
- Preferences has no “Ok” button. Does clicking “X” do the same as “Ok”? Jeez, Windows doesn’t work like that. Why are you confusing users?
- What the hell does “Reset” do?
- Resizing the window ups CPU usage to 100%, making it real slow and tedious.
- The SnapBack feature snaps forward for no reason. I don’t get it. It also snaps back to the front page of some sites, like Google Video, instead of the search results.
- The windows gets smaller every time I open it! Arghh!
- You can only resize the window from the bottom right-hand corner. That means if it is at the bottom of the screen, you need to grab the title bar, drag to the top of the screen, then go back to the bottom right-hand corner and drag outwards to resize. Fun fun.
- Some of the installed plugins don’t seem to work, even the Quicktime one. Confuses the hell out of me.
Whatever. It’s a beta. Naturally, tons of things don’t work right and don’t make sense. It won’t be many people’s default browsers, but it has promise.
- The address bar doesn’t select the URL when you click (why the hell not?)
Single clicking only selects text until a delimiter is reached. Double click to select the entire URL. This is standard behavior for Cocoa text fields.
- The Flash player isn’t installed (even though RealPlayer, QuickTime, Acrobat and Java are, you need to install a plugin)
Java wasn’t installed for me. Neither was Real. Safari uses the same browser plug-in model as Firefox. You’ll need to install it again since Safari wasn’t on your system when the Firefox Flash plug-in was installed.
- There’s this really confusing lightbulb button (it sends error reports)
Actually, it’s a spider. (for sending bug reports)
- The tab bar is hidden at first
Correct. Works that way on the Mac too. Not everyone is a power user who wants to use tabs.
- Double-clicking the tab bar doesn’t open new tabs
Correct. Works the same way on Mac OS X. Ctrl-T opens new tabs.
- The bookmark and tab bars use dark gray with black letters. Impossible to read at a glance!
Seems dark on my system too. However, the same color scheme works great on Mac OS X. Probably an beta issue that will be resolved before release.
- Downloaded files have to all be downloaded to a specific folder (by default the desktop, annoying!)
Most people don’t have a clue where downloaded files will go. Saving to the desktop is a reasonable default choice. You can chance this globally in preferences or contextual click on a link and choose “Download Linked File as …”. Also, right clicking an image gives the option to “Open Image in New Tab” or “.. New Window”. Extremely handy for web developers.
- Links open in new windows, not tabs
Preferences > General > Open Links from Applications: [x] In a new tab in the current window. Control-click links to open in a new tab.
- Are there any keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs? Don’t seem to be.
Ctrl+} & Ctrl + {
- The font smoothing just thickens letters instead of actually, you know, smoothing fonts. Whatever it does, the text just makes me uncomfortable.
I prefer the smoothing on Safari / Mac OS X to Windows. Guess it’s a subjective observation.
- There’s no dialog for enabling/disabling plugins
Why would I want to do that? I’ve never had to enable or disable plug-ins.
- The preferences reference “Option-Tabâ€, which is strange since “Option†isn’t on any Windows keyboards!
You missed the “Open Links from Applications:” option in preferences, but managed to notice this?
- Preferences has no “Ok†button. Does clicking “X†do the same as “Ok� Jeez, Windows doesn’t work like that. Why are you confusing users?
In Cocoa applications, preferences dialogs are not model and changes you make go into effect immediately. Clicking the “X” simply closes the preferences window. Why make users click OK?
- What the hell does “Reset†do?
Reset Safari? It resets the browser to it’s default values and removes all user information. This is all clearly spelled out in the confirmation dialog.
- Resizing the window ups CPU usage to 100%, making it real slow and tedious.
You do realize that you’re looking at a Cocoa application running on Windows, right? And a beta at that? Also, it’s probably the same code base as Safari for Mac OS X, with a few build and UI tweaks. The included runtime is what was known as Yellow Box for Windows.
- The SnapBack feature snaps forward for no reason. I don’t get it. It also snaps back to the front page of some sites, like Google Video, instead of the search results.
There is a separate snap back icons for the toolbar search and for the address bar. When you type in a URL, the snap back icon in the URL field sends you back to that URL. If you manually type in Google’s URL, then click on a result, the snapback icon shows up in the toolbar search field. Works the same for searches you initiate directly in the search field.
- The windows gets smaller every time I open it! Arghh!
Which window? And how are you opening it? Successive launches of Safari and new Safari windows open at the same size.
- Some of the installed plugins don’t seem to work, even the Quicktime one. Confuses the hell out of me.
Can’t reproduce this here. XP SP2.
Comment by Scott | June 11, 2007
Scott:
When Microsoft releases apps for Mac OS, they look like Mac apps. When Apple releases for Windows, they look like Mac apps, and don’t follow UI guidelines for Windows. I’m sure it annoys Apple when people don’t follow Mac UI guidelines, so why are they ignoring them? Wouldn’t it be considered arrogant if Microsoft released Mac Office with a Vista UI?
Thanks, I reinstalled the Flash player, and it worked.
Ugliest spider ever! No, I take that back
CTRL+T opens new tabs everywhere, but everyone else lets you double-click the tab bar to open one, too. Most browsers have a New Tab button, too, and many people rely on it.
Saving everything to the desktop is an annoying thing that some software does, and it doesn’t work. You wind up with hundreds of files and lots of clutter.
CTRL+{/}? Awful shortcut! What’s wrong with CTRL+TAB?
The font smoothing is another arrogance thing. They should have used the font rendering in Windows, otherwise its just uncomfortable.
IE7 has a great dialog for enabling/disabling plugins. Some of them are very annoying, and an interface for them is real useful.
In Windows, users click OK. Does Apple want to confuse people?
Shouldn’t Reset be called “Restore defaults”?
New windows open at a smaller size. It doesn’t make any sense, but it happens every time. I resize the windows larger, close it, reopen the browser, and it’s small again.
Quicktime worked after a restart.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | June 12, 2007
i installed safari on my windows 2003 os. Few things to note are:
1. Safari is very fast when it comes to opening web pages but resizing the windows take a hell lot of time. May be its a cocoa app and things will be smooth later on.
2. Safari took less mega bytes on my system than firefox 2 and IE.
3. The font styling and smoothing can be changed on the pref tab and for me light smoothing works best
Seems ok to me for a beta release but miss the shortcuts that i m used to for FF. Anyway, IE 7 is the worst browser I have ever used !!
Comment by Kaushik | June 13, 2007
You’ve harped on this message that microsoft follows the Apple UI guidelines whenever they push out products. They do try to mimick it and have gotten better, but we’re not getting a real OSX interface until the next version of office. Microsoft has been producing for OSX for a good long while now, and through that time we’ve had abominations like the Internet Explorer GUI. I’m not going to get into a real nit-picky argument here, but come on, Microsoft is not the A+ Mac Citizen you make it out to be. And those were release copies of Microsoft software, lets wait for Safari to go release quality before we bring up that argument again. Even at that point, its still a crappy argument ;P
Comment by Andrew | June 13, 2007
Andrew, the point is that Microsoft applications on Macs look like Mac applications and don’t try to pretend they are running on Windows. Apple does just the opposite. Microsoft may not be perfect, but Apple is deliberately producing a clashing UI.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | June 13, 2007
RealPlayer? I haven’t seen any sites with RealMedia in years. Why bundle that obsolete plugin, but not Flash?
iTunes and Safari for Windows should have the option to turn off the brushed metal crap. But first Safari for Windows needs to display fonts, because for me, there are no fonts. Empty menus, a location bar I can’t type in, sites full of content that doesn’t appear. Completely unusable. (see website link)
Comment by Matt | June 14, 2007