Impressions of Safari for Windows

Posted on by Cory Foy

So the latest hot thing from Apple is that they released Safari for Windows. Granted, it’s in Beta mode, but I just had to download it and try it.

My first impression is that it, like all the other Apple apps, doesn’t integrate with the theme. I’m running Vista with Aero, and it is obvious which one is the Apple app:

The second thing is that you can’t resize it from the top like every other windows application. You have to resize from the bottom. Rather annoying if the bottom is off the bottom edge of my screen.

Third is that, even with all the claims of speed on the Apple site, it seems to be just about as fast loading the web pages as IE7 and Firefox.

Fourth, see if you can pick out which of the following is a screen grab of CNN’s home page in Safari (versus IE7 and Firefox):

Ok, so it doesn’t look as bad in the screen grabs, but the font is definitely different, and is rather strange to see.

Oooh, when I resize from the bottom, the bottom part of the browser window disappears briefly. Although that could be an Aero thing, I haven’t seen that before, and the solid black iTunes problem I had a few months back doesn’t have my confidence level up. Again, though, it’s a beta, so I won’t fault them for that.

Here’s an interesting bug (maybe). When I type “w” in the browser bar I get:

Even though I’ve only been to CNN’s site. And it can’t be pulling from my other histories – because I don’t go to washingtonpost.com, wired, or several of the other sites.

(Ok, I take that back. After going through all of the letters in the alphabet, some of the sites have to have been pulled from IE, since they are work internal sites. But there are a lot that I’ve never been to or heard of).

Another annoyance – Ctrl-Clicking a link in the Links bar does not open the link in a new tab – in fact, it doesn’t open it at all! And clicking on the URL field doesn’t highlight the entire URL like it does for IE and FF.

Wait. Where’s the drop down of the history of sites? Think this is it?

It’s not. There doesn’t seem to be a way to get at it. And what is this button?

I have no idea. There is no tool-tip. Bug report maybe? Yes. Clicking on it opens a bug report form. Pretty cool – I just wish I knew what it was before clicking on it.

Looks like some sites aren’t going to play nice with it either:

And no, there is no scroll bar on the bottom to scroll back to the left.

Some pluses – Opening a new tab is much faster than IE – about the same as FF. And it correctly places the cursor in the URL field, unlike IE half the time. And most of the sites I visited seemed to work Ok. PDF forms seemed to be fine.

All in all it’s a tough call. I still prefer Firefox as my number one browser, but for number 2 – if I was on a Mac it would be a no brainer. But I really think I’d have to put it as a tie with IE – only because the tabs load quickly. If it weren’t for that, it would definitely drop behind IE. Way behind.

I’ll have to check it out again once it goes out of beta, but it doesn’t look like something I’ll use on a daily basis.

11 thoughts on “Impressions of Safari for Windows”

  1. I know this is long but allow me to fill in a few of the blanks for you. It really doesn’t make as little sense as you’d think.

    * “My first impression is that it, like all the other Apple apps, doesn’t integrate with the theme”

    Allow me to offer the oft-misused, yet still applicable: “This is a feature, not a bug.” Like it or hate it, its branding. You know an Apple app on your system when you see it. (Besides, MS never went out of their way to make Windows Media Player look all that native on the Mac.)

    * “The second thing is that you can’t resize it from the top […] annoying if the bottom is off the bottom edge of my screen.”

    I’ll give you that one. At the very least, resizing a window should work the same as other applications on the system.

    * “It seems to be just about as fast loading the web pages as IE7 and Firefox.”

    It’s a case of the difference being so small it only counts for marketing. If you watch the test actually being run, you have to see a whole slew of sites loaded in a sequence that is repeated six times. Is it faster? Technically yes, but unless you’re watching your milliseconds it’s probably not going to be a reason to switch. Nevertheless, the WebKit engine is apparently faster.

    * “Here’s an interesting bug (maybe). When I type “w” in the browser bar I get: […] Where’s the drop down of the history of sites?”

    It may be a bit of a surprise at first, but some re-learning is in order. That list is not a “history” list like it is in IE. It’s effectively the results of a quick search of all stored urls of any type. Rather than just filtering through your history, it also shows matches from your bookmarks. Safari comes pre-loaded with bookmarks, including the “Washington Post” and a lot of the other sites you’re mysteriously seeing. That also explains why the history drop down control isn’t present. That’s not the place Safari presents the history. Instead, click on the “history” menu. You guys keep all your menus attached and using space on every single window anyway (::shudder::) so it shouldn’t be more than a few pixels away from where you’re used to. ;-)

    * “Ctrl-Clicking a link in the Links bar does not open the link in a new tab”

    Maybe a fluke on your machine? It works fine for me (on Windows).

    * “And clicking on the URL field doesn’t highlight the entire URL like it does for IE and FF.”

    I can see this being annoying for Windows users that are used to something else, but it’s consistent with the Apple user Experience. Single click => Insert, Double Click => Select Word, Triple Click => Select Line. Half the point to Safari on Windows is introducing Windows users to the Apple way of approaching software and user interfaces. I can’t tell you how often I’ve fought with IE on Windows trying to just fix a typo in a url. On IE you have to click… pause… click again, just to insert the cursor. Then, trying to double click to select a word> No… that doesn’t work, just selects everything again… click & drag or hit backspace/delete… Honestly, I know it’s different but give yourself some time to get used to it, its easier, I promise.

    I think the trap a lot of people are going to fall into is the trap of thinking that Safari is just another face on the IE functionality. If Apple thought IE did everything right then there would have been no reason to build their own browser. But they think some things can be done better and so Safari isn’t going to work or act just like IE. Some people will hate that, others will really be into it.

  5. The “button” you’ve circled in red isn’t a button at all, it’s a handle for resizing the location and search fields.

    Click and drag it to the left to make the search box larger, drag it to the right to make the location box larger.

    If you find bugs or have problems with a feature in the browser report it to Apple.

    https://bugreport.apple.com/ For Safari issues.
    http://bugs.webkit.org/ for Rendering issues.

  6. I have a plain ole vanilla install of Windows XP Pro. Haven’t done a thing to it, since I only use it for ONE program. I installed FF and Safari, then went to the CNN page as Cliff did. I put all 3 browsers on screen side-by-side and did a screen capture. You can view it here:

    http://idisk.mac.com/Wingsy-Public/ScreenShot001.bmp

    It’s big, 4MB, cause I left it in its original bmp format. But someone please tell me, which browser would YOU prefer to read? If you say anything other than the one on the right (Safari), well ….. I’d sure like to get a brain scan of your vision center wiring and study it.

  7. “…then went to the CNN page as Cliff did.”

    Make that, “as Cory did”

  8. Thanks for those of you who pointed out the differences. As Cliff said, I’m not used to the Mac way of doing things, and I’m even more used to things that run on Windows integrating with Windows. But it’s a good point that if they thought Windows was the way to go, they wouldn’t have written Safari, or Macs.

    The triple-click is something I never would have thought to try, but I think I could grow to like it.

    And Cliff – fair point about Windows Media. iTunes not having a translucent title bar hasn’t stopped me from using it at all. ;)

    And for the anonymous user who pointed out the click and hold trick – what we probably need is an introduction to Safari for Windows users which would point out all of those quirks. All the browsers I’ve used to this point (IE4-7, Firefox, Konquerer, Netscape, Mozilla) have a drop down for History, so I expected that in Safari. Click and hold seems a reasonable way to approach it, and I wish I knew all of the other tricks like that.

  9. This JoelOnSoftware post does a decent job of touching on the differences between the Apple/Microsoft text rendering philosophy. It also makes a good point, it’s not always going to be better or worse, just familiar or unfamiliar.

    http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

    Also, I think a lot of windows users are going to buy and use the iPhone. On the iPhone safari will be the only browser available (sorry, no Firefox anytime soon) so I think Safari on Windows is going to play into building familiarity with the software, if not actually provide a technical link for something like a bookmark sync. I think right now we’re just seeing some initial reaction to something being quite different (“different” being something a lot of windows users aren’t used to).

    I’m just glad that some of our windows using staff can finally test web-layouts on Safari without coming into my office. What do I look like? A screen grab generator?

  10. It will take a while for Apple to dummy-down Safari so that it can be on the same level as the MS operating system.

    You are on the losing side of this typical PC hater diatribe. With the advent of iPhone and the need for Safari on PC, your whiney protestations will be drown out by the roar of advance humans running to get their piece of the iFuture.

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