Safari on Windows
Before anything else, I just want to greet every Filipino out there a happy Independence Day. Seriously, I can’t feel the vibe. I haven’t received any text messages greeting me “a happy Independence Day” or read a blog entry about this very special day. Don’t tell me I got the wrong date.
*****
When I started surfing the internet today, the last day of my last summer vacation I came across with this headline on digg.com: Safari on Windows. I thought that Safari — the default web browser that comes along with every new Mac — was available for Windows before today. Obviously, I was wrong. But now, you can run it on your PC. Now we can tell if our blogs do break or not on Safari without buying a very expensive Mac. I tried mine and my site doesn’t look awkward or whatever. Safari renders my site almost like Firefox.
Pros:
- Cool UI. I’ve read somewhere that it gives you the feel of how Safari looks like on a Mac. Sleek!
- In my experience, almost all embedded Quicktime movies would make Firefox and IE7 crash on Windows Vista. Since Quicktime and Safari’s creator are just one, they blend smoothly.
- I really like the Private Browsing1 feature of Safari. Best used for viewing porn sites. Haha.
- Firefox greatest feature was also copied by Safari: tabbed browsing. But what’s original is that you can make an existing tab to open into a new window by just dragging it out and if you want to put all of your opened windows into just only one, you can merge them.
- There’s also a built-in pop-up blocker. That’s self explanatory.
- Text fields are resizable. No more unnecessary scrolling for text fields!
- The built-in RSS is astounding, but that does not mean I’m leaving Google Reader.
- The “Find” feature of Safari is better than Firefox. The highlighted text is easier to locate.
Cons:
- Safari for Windows is still in beta, so it’s buggish.
- You can only resize the window with the bottom-right corner of the window.
- I think this one is only a bug, whenever you minimize a maximized window and you want to restore it, it wouldn’t go back to the maximized state, but to the restored down one.
- There is no button on the toolbar that’ll open a new tab. The “New Tab” is buried under the “File” menu, so it would take you two clicks to open a new tab, alternatively, you can use Ctrl+T (the same shortcut for opening a new tab with the other browsers that support tabbed browsing). Moreover, the “+” button on the toolbar is misleading especially if you use have used Firefox for a while, because it only creates a new bookmark. Firefox, on the other hand, would create a new tab when you click the “+” button.
- Other features in Firefox are also available (copied?) in Safari
- If Firefox loves memory hogging, Safari loves it even more. It uses most of my memory. But since I’ve got 1GB of RAM2, it’s not really a big problem.
- Only basic plugins (e.g:Java, Flash) are available.
Bottom Line
I’m sticking wtih Firefox, it is still the best browser in my opinion no matter what Mac says (that Safari is 1.6 times faster than Firefox in rendering HTML and executing JavaScript). With Firefox, you can do more things aside from visiting websites. But I’m not removing Safari from Snidget. I’m going to use it the layouts that I create are compatible with it and watching Quicktime movies. You can download Safari 3 Public Beta at the Apple website (that just got a new makeover).
Opera isn’t installed on Snidget yet, I might try it the next time I got a free time.
So I end this post with screen shots on how my site looks like on IE7, Safari and Firefox:
Internet Explorer 7.0
Safari
Mozilla Firefox
PS: I just want to say thanks to digg, without it, I wouldn’t see these kind of stuffs, or if I would even without digg, at a later time. Visit it and subscribe to make your vote count! Digg on!
Hey! Why am I blogging about an Apple product when my notebook is running in Windows Vista? Haha!
- Firefox 3 will have this feature. [↩]
- I haven’t blogged that I got a free 512 MB RAM. It was added on Snidget a week after we bought my notebook. [↩]
June 13, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
Belated Happy Independence Day!
I wish I had a one-way ticket back to the Philippines. *le sigh*
This post of yours on Safari is really helpful, thanks. I’m loyal to Firefox, but I tend to get anal over cross-browser compatibility when I code my layouts. Like you said, at least now we don’t have to get ourselves Macs just to check it out on Safari. xD
June 14, 2007 @ 1:57 am
Ano kaya nakain ng Apple at gunawa sila ng para sa Windows? Hehe..Twas a helpful post anyway…
Ang laki naman ng RAM mo…1GB…penge ako!
June 14, 2007 @ 11:23 am
Belatd Happy Independce Day! LMAO. oh yea, Only 2 of my textmates sent me a text message about the Independence Day — I just can’t feel the independence or the freedom still.
Anyways, That’s cool that your site shows perfectly in every browser. BBut yea, I’m sticking with Firefox too since this browser is the best , so far, that I’ve used.
June 14, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Belated Happy Independence Day! Hindi ko rin nafeel ang essence ng Independence Day.
Well, for me.. Firefox all the way!
Nice smilies.. They’re my fave
June 14, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
Safari.. Never heard of it before.
June 14, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
belated happy independence day. ngayon lang ako nakapag bloghop hehe. may post naman ako about independence ah. hehe
safari sounds nice… the pros about it.. i mean. heheh
June 14, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
I guess I’m one of the apathetic Filipinos. I never even noticed the date. I would have noticed if I had school, but anyway.
Safari for Windows. Man, that was a long time coming. But better late than never. Cross-browser testing = more convenient.
June 15, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
Pengeng RAM! Hehe. Ang laki. Ako 256 lang.
Ganda ng interface ng Mac pero hamuna, may themes naman para sa Windows e. Haha.
Firefox is the best ever.
June 15, 2007 @ 8:42 pm
I downloaded Safari for Windows right after the beta was released. I was really disappointed because at the first run it crashed, and I’m pro-Mac (although I’m still using Windows lol). I guess I’ll wait for it’s real release. I’ll stick with Firefox for now. Funny, I was also gonna make a blog post about this
I can’t wait for Firefox 3.
June 17, 2007 @ 12:43 am
haha. uhm…. safari for windows. interesting. i want to see my site on safari. i know my layouts are not ie friendly i want to know if it looks ok in safari. hahaha. firefox 3 ???
June 17, 2007 @ 5:49 am
I couldn’t install Safari. Blah.
Sticking with WordPress and Opera. I love Opera’s quick dial. And anyway, it’s hard to let go of the browsers I’ve used for so long.
June 17, 2007 @ 11:19 am
Wow matry nga yang safari na yan heehhe.
pwede kaya sakin windows xp ako eh. x:(
June 17, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
I just downloaded safari! ang coool xDxD
June 18, 2007 @ 8:26 am
AGREE. I installed that shit on my laptop and yeaaaaaah, it works. But I dunno if I’d stick to FIrefox or what. For some unknown reason, a Windows theme and a Mac browser when mixed together = chaos.
Not really good at all..
June 18, 2007 @ 10:50 am
i think this is the 3rd software they’ve released for Windows if i’m not mistaken. I tried it last week and noticed it’s bugs particular one is it’s speed. The font on some websites are turned “bold” on default. Nonetheless, my blog looks good on Safari. No rendering problems whatsoever. I’m currently using Gran Paradiso (Firefox 3) to test it’s functionalities and experience what the Final release of Firefox 3 might feel and look like. Apple’s release of Safari into Windows is very promising. Not to mention “Bonjour” installed on Windows XP/Vista when you install Safari Beta for Windows for the first time (which you can prevent during installation).
June 22, 2007 @ 12:20 am
I never used Safari before, I gotta try it out.