REVIEW: Safari 3 beta browser for Windows

[GeeNeeYes]

Welcome to Apple's latest offering for Windows users. The cross platform internet browser ported from Mac - "Safari 3 beta for Windows".

For those dying to get their hands on it, read this review first.

Starting from the start - the Apple website startpage, the first website to be launched took ages to load and after completely loading still displayed the startpage incorrectly and incompletely... maybe their own website was at fault but sure Safari 3 Beta in Windows still has some serious teething problems....

SOURCE :http://geeneeyes.blogspot.com/2007/0...owser-for.html

Please comment about your own experiences.

[aryayush]

It is a good review though I would have appreciated if you had gone easy on the exaggeration (five years old!) and rudeness.

Even Ctrl+Enter doesnt work in the address bar. This is a surprise because almost every browser supports website URL completion.

Do you actually use Opera? When you want to go to http://www.apple.com/, you do not need to press 'Ctrl + Enter' after typing 'apple'. Simply hit Enter and the browser automatically fills in the rest. Same is the case with Safari. It fully "supports website URL completion."

Even if you enter 'apple/getamac/ads', it automatically completes it to 'http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/index.html'. No other browser does this. (Firefox might have some extension though.)

Reading some comments by users on internet, I couldnt help but laugh at person who commented "Apple should show a message in Safari stating 'WORK IN PROGRESS'"...

Yeah, they already have that in place. It is a 'beta' application, which is short form for "work in progress, constructive feedback appreciated". It is not their fault if some users choose to ignore it.

[GeeNeeYes]

Originally Posted by aryayush

It is a good review though I would have appreciated if you had gone easy on the exaggeration (five years old!) and rudeness.

thanks but Apple really disappointed me and I feel that 5 years is a bit of understatement because Internet Explorer ruled much before that.

Originally Posted by aryayush

Do you actually use Opera? When you want to go to http://www.apple.com/, you do not need to press 'Ctrl + Enter' after typing 'apple'. Simply hit Enter and the browser automatically fills in the rest. Same is the case with Safari. It fully "supports website URL completion."

I know that but every internet user is so much accustomed to using this hotkey that its a shortcoming in Safari.

Originally Posted by aryayush

Even if you enter 'apple/getamac/ads', it automatically completes it to 'http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/index.html'. No other browser does this. (Firefox might have some extension though.)

FYI Opera does it and as usual needs no stupid extensions. Try thinkdigit/forum or autohotkey/docs/commands/

Originally Posted by aryayush

Yeah, they already have that in place. It is a 'beta' application, which is short form for "work in progress, constructive feedback appreciated". It is not their fault if some users choose to ignore it.

If work is in progress, people are advised to use another way.

As for me I will wait for the final version though I am expecting it to be no competition for Opera or Firefox

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by GeeNeeYes

I know that but every internet user is so much accustomed to using this hotkey that its a shortcoming in Safari.

Sorry, that is very lame. Just because IE uses it because it is stupid enough not to auto-complete URLs automatically does not mean every other browser should have the "long"-cut too.

Originally Posted by GeeNeeYes

FYI Opera does it and as usual needs no stupid extensions. Try thinkdigit/forum or autohotkey/docs/commands/ If work is in progress, people are advised to use another way.

Strange! I'd once tried to do it but it had given me an error, so I'd assumed it didn't work. It is working now though, so I guess I was wrong after all.

Originally Posted by GeeNeeYes

As for me I will wait for the final version though I am expecting it to be no competition for Opera or Firefox

Me neither. It desperately needs a few features such as ad-blocking and session restore.

It turns out, Safari already has Session Restore. After a browser crash (which I am told is quite common in the Windows version) or after you've quit it with multiple tabs/windows open, re-launch it and select 'History >> Reopen All Windows From Last Session'. Works like a charm.

[rahul_becks23]

One question .......... The bottom line is ,........ is it better than Opera or not ......... just answer in Yes or No , and dont start a war ..... i want peace .......... and an answer

[gxsaurav]

One question .......... The bottom line is ,........ is it better than Opera or not ......... just answer in Yes or No , and dont start a war ..... i want peace .......... and an answer

Nope, it sux compared to Opera on Windows/Mac.

[Pathik]

^^ second that

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Nope, it sux compared to Opera on Windows/Mac.

No, I am a huge fan of the Opera Web Browser and even download it in cafés before browsing the Internet but, at least on Mac OS X, Safari is much better than Opera, which has an absolutely crap interface.

Safari 3 really kicks ass. The search feature is awesome and it has the best implementation of tabs, even better than Opera (and I didn't think that was possible). It has session restore too now and I use a CSS script that does a decent job of blocking most advertisements. I wish it borrowed some of the features from Opera though:
1. Content blocking (free extensions are available).
2. Trash can.
3. Mouse gestures (a free extension is available).
4. Speed Dial.
5. IRC client.
6. Searching from the address bar.
7. Adding search engines.
8. Full screen mode.

All in all, the interface rocks and it does whatever I want a browser to do (and I could not have said that about Safari 2).

[gxsaurav]

Safari 3 really kicks ass. The search feature is awesome and it has the best implementation of tabs,

Tell me something, how do I add more buttons to the toolbar, like new tab or new window? Also, take a look at the bugs in safari, which are quite silly on Windows. like you cannot minimize safari by clicking on the taskbar :d

[aryayush]

New Tab = Ctrl + T
New Window = Ctrl + N

Two more features it needed:
09. Double clicking on the tab bar should open a new tab.
10. There should be a preference to open new tab next to the active one.

[gxsaurav]

Those are Keyboard shortcuts. I am talking about the ability to customize the toolbar according to what I need. When I chose to customise toolbar, there isn't somethign as common as "Open New Wndows/Tab" button

[aryayush]

Yes, it is not possible. Strangely, I never even noticed that missing until now.

Tell me one thing, what happens when you choose "Customize Toolbar..."? Do you get the animated sheet menu? And when you drag a button out of the toolbar and drop it, does it go 'poof'?

[gxsaurav]

We get the animated sheet menu. That is nothing much to brag about...solves nu purpose other then looking out of place in Windows environment.

I would recommend you to do some research on your Parallels installation of Windows first too . It is nothing but a direct port of Safari for Mac. Looks like Jobs just copied & compiled Safari for Windows 24 hrs before WWDS without making any changes.

[rahul_becks23]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

It is nothing but a direct port of Safari for Mac. Looks like Jobs just copied & compiled Safari for Windows 24 hrs before WWDS without making any changes.

Hehehe ............

Opera Rocks ........ I love u Opera ( in a non sexual way ) ........

[ax3]

nice review .........

[GeeNeeYes]

^ thanks ax3
please leave comments on the blog, guys!

[ratedrsuperstar]

guyz i'm surfing with safari and hell it's even better than FF i only miss the content blocking feature

[aryayush]

WOW! That's three people in one day on the Digit forum. Safari really must be good.

[The Outsider]

a rude review, you should've kept in mind its still beta.
i think its not bad for a beta 3 considering the people at apple are not so good at porting apps to windows and it should be given enough time to mature before writing such reviews in comparison to the existing browsers.

[GeeNeeYes]

Originally Posted by aryayush

WOW! That's three people in one day on the Digit forum. Safari really must be good.

TBH most people here know the reality about vast differences between Safari & Opera,Firefox, so they just read it and pass on, while on the other hand only mac users are posting as they are naturally biased. Lets face it, this time Apple has stumbled and mac fanboys have to face the heat... why even IE7 is definitely better compared to Safari! We hope that the final version will be much better (almost all windows users had never seen Safari before and its first impression is not good at all.)

[aryayush]

Originally Posted by GeeNeeYes

why even IE7 is definitely better compared to Safari!

Yeah, that exclamation mark is accurately placed. Even the person writing such a sentence must be having a hard time believing it. One thing is sure now, I know how biased you are and will treat all future reviews from you with the respect a biased one does.

Oh, and BTW, the three users I was talking about aren't Mac users at all and one of them even had a few disagreements with me over the Mac and Windows discussions.

[GeeNeeYes]

oh god here we go again...
you are desperately pushing the conversation... canvassing for Safari isnt going to earn you any brownies from Apple... nor me for bashing Safari beta

anyways you might have noticed that its not an anti-Apple blog (bcoz to me fanboyism is idle work)
no more comments since you are deviating from the technical aspect

PS: I am partial to Opera (see my signature) BUT entirely unbiased.

[gxsaurav]

The only thing I liked in safari that it render fonts better.

After this, i went into the registry & tweaked the clear type setting for IE 7, & now even that looks same.

IE 7 also lets me do the work my way. same goes with Firefox.

Conclusion : Safari sux. Period.

[aryayush]

And the reason, of course, is that Safari does not have a toolbar button for 'New tab'. WOW! What a stupid browser!

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by aryayush

And the reason, of course, is that Safari does not have a toolbar button for 'New tab'. WOW! What a stupid browser!

Like always you forgot to mention other flaws

1) Cannot customize the toolbar

2) Cannot add any search provider

3) Cannot search directly from address bar

4) Eat lots of memory

5) Doesn't remembers windows state when maximized after minimizing.

6) No Ad block

7) No inbuilt PDF reading on Windows.

8) For further flaws, look at vishal's buglist.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Like always you forgot to mention other flaws

1) Cannot customize the toolbar

2) Cannot add any search provider

3) Cannot search directly from address bar

4) Eat lots of memory

5) Doesn't remembers windows state when maximized after minimizing.

6) No Ad block

7) No inbuilt PDF reading on Windows.

8) For further flaws, look at vishal's buglist.

we'll we won't have problem listing out all the shortcomings of Safari

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

Originally Posted by Kenshin

wow....this is all i need...then only i wil think of movin

You're much better off using Firefox . Safari on Windows is still in it's infancy .

[Quiz_Master]

Safari is in beta guys. I think it will improve.
In the mean time I am better off using Opera.

Offtopic: Anyone heard the news that Firefox team is working on FireFox V3.
And they are doing some heavy changes in next release.

[gxsaurav]

^^^ Yup, we heard that news 1 year ago. I just wish they fix 3 things

1) If firefox crashes, the whole cache is deleted.

2) WPF based UI for Windows Vista

3) Page zoom like IE 7

[iMav]

i dont think people will shift to safari until jobs comes up with stupid idea of allowing 1 to transfer files to the iphone only if u have safari installed

it makes no sense to shift to safari when u have ff