“Safari on Windows looks pretty much like Safari on the Mac, save for the shape and positioning of the close, minimize and zoom buttons. Other than that, it’s nearly identical. The feature sets are the same, as well, from bookmark organization to the built-in RSS reader. Even the text renders the same, though there’s debate over whether that’s good or bad. And as you’d expect, the menus — which show up in the menu bar on Macs — are in their proper Windows location at the top of the Safari browser window,” Mike DeAgonia reports for Computerworld.
“I downloaded and installed Safari on both Windows XP and Vista, using Parallels’ Desktop for Mac on an Intel-based MacBook and a Mac mini,” DeAgonia reports.
“Various reviews have confirmed one consistent fact: Safari is fast. Very fast. Apple says this browser renders HTML twice as fast as Internet Explorer 7 and 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. I didn’t benchmark it, but I can say it is indeed faster than either one. Javascript also shows obvious speed increases,” DeAgonia reports.
“Safari represents another move by Apple to get its highly-touted software in front of people who may never have heard of Safari, much less tried out Apple’s other apps or hardware. Woo them with a few well-crafted programs such as Safari or iTunes, and — Jobs no doubt hopes — you can win them to the OS itself,” DeAgonia reports. “And when Apple puts that same well-crafted app — Safari — on what may be the hottest must-have device of the year, the iPhone, it reinforces the big-picture message: Apple suddenly seems to be everywhere.”
Much more in the full article here.
> Nothing would make me happier than to watch Safari eat away at IE’s market share.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this will happen in the near term. Safari will gain share at the expense of FireFox and the “others” on the pie chart Steve Jobs showed at the WWDC keynote. Why? Because most Windows PC users are “drones” and they will not bother using an alternate browser as long as IE is working OK for them. The ones who are not drones already use FireFox. In the long term, as people access the Internet more-and-more from non-PC devices like the iPhone (and use web-based apps), Safari will gain share from IE (because it will be stuck on PCs only).
@ad blocking
I doubt we’ll see Apple include ad blocking in Safari because Google and Yahoo won’t like it.
I cannot download pdf’s off of science journal websites (never a problem with 2.0 or any other browser). Safari 3.0 (Mac) just quits. Darn. On the bright side, it does indeed feel snappier.
I am sorry,
I am a big Apple fan (even a shareholder) and I haven’t found Safari for Windows FAST.
Admittedly I have downloaded the updated version, so maybe in fixingthe bugs they have slowed the product!?
Even loading Google’s home page, which is hardly content rich is taking forever.
I’m not saying this to stir the pot, I am simply posting my experience, and so far I’d say on my work Windows PC Safari is dog slow.
Cheers,
Luke
Is there still other browsers than Safari?
I thought that Safari was the last that survived =)
I´ve been “Safari only” user for since 1.0 and very happy with it.
iTunes is also modification from the Safari. It just connects to WebObject based service called iTunes Store.
Luke..
You aren’t the only one that has found Safari on Windows painfully slow. While I don’t doubt that it has been speedy on some machines; I can say that it has been slow to load even a simple page. Hopefully, it will be better once it is out of beta. Until then it’s back to Firefox on my windows machine at work.
Well finally this MDN page has loaded in Safari for Windows!
It was taking so long I fired up Explorer, navigated to MDN, made my above post, and then waited for Safari for Windows to load this page, so I could see how much longer it took!!!
I am sorry but in my work Windows PC Safari for windows is stupidly slow!
I even put Explorer side by side to Safari for Windows, and navigated to Apple.com (started SFW first), and I am still waiting for SFW to load the page that Explorer loaded minutes ago!
Now I undertand and acknowledge that reviews have been glwoing about the speed, but has ANYONE reviewed the latest release version with the bug fixes?
This is the version I installed and it is CERTAINLY not faster than Explorer, in fact as noted it is unbearably slow.
ON another note, I do love the look and feel of Safari compared to Explorer, and as always when it comes to simple things like navigating menus etc Apple kciks Microsoft’s ass!
But I am afraid that no amount of slick design and usability will make up for pages taking minutes to load!
Oh and here you go! The MDN magic word is not displaying!
I had to right click and open the image in a new window for me to see it! What a f*&king; joke!
MDN MW “might”, as in Apple may have released a DOG!
@war – thanks, this has not been a great experience as a Windows user.
This is the FIRST time Apple has disapointed me with a user experience, and I am concerned (as a shareholder) that this experience of mine with SFW will be what other FIRST TIME Apple experience Windows users may get and conclude that all the Windows fanboy FUD that they hear that Apple stuff looks good but is slow is TRUE, because as noted above I think Safari looks good, but is God awefully slow to the point if it was my only browser I’d throw my laptop across the room in frustration (maybe that is Apple’s plan?
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At the moment I have a 700+ KB/sec internet connection, and with SFW I may as well have a 14k modem on a phone line, becuase it can’t load a page any faster than that!
Excuse any typos, I am that pissed off about this Apple experience, that has tarnished my view of them putting out polished products!
My 2 cents,
Luke
PS – MDN magic word STILL not displaying in this screen, another right click and open in new window required!
LukeInOz says, “I am that pissed off about this Apple experience, that has tarnished my view of them putting out polished products!”
What part of “Public Beta” do you not understand?
I’ve run in to the “slow page load” problem on my work peecee. Seems it only happens when the page has embedded Flash content, which makes some sites unbearable. I also ran into a problem with javascript nuggets (like ma.gnolia’s Roots bookmarklet) in the bookmarks bar not working at all.
I haven’t yet gotten the last night’s update, but will be soon to see if it addresses my two issues.
On my 8 year old PC running XP Pro Safari 3 rendered this page in less than a second. IE7 took about 1 second to get the top banner and 4 seconds to fill in the white part with text. Safari 3 on my PC blows away IE7.
I guess we all have different experiences with our different PCs but for-crying-out-loud, my Compaq thin-clinet PC is 8-friggin’ years old. Of, course, I also don’t have my PC loaded down with stuff as I only use it to test out web sites I build in IE7 and I’m connecting to it via MS Remote Desktop. As such I’ve been using IE for years on a daily basis as a part of testing sites in all so I have a lot of experience on how fast the various browesers render sites. IE used to be the top dog… but not any more. Safari 3 screams!
Highly recommended
@ frisby:
Run it until it breaks a leg, then shoot it?
Has is ever occured to the people who find Safari running slower that you are using a machine that through IE’s swiss cheese coding, your computer is infected after about the first 14 minutes you use it after first going on the internet?
Safari 3 absolutely flies here on my Macbook, and especially when loading this site. I can’t expect the Windows version to be that much slower.
I suggest you scream “IT” really loud over your cubicle. These guys will never reach Maytag Man status like the single Mac IT guy Mac networks need.
Re-read the title…ComputerWorld didn’t think theirs was slower.
Apple has no choice but to put herculean efforts — and quickly — into debugging Safari 3, otherwise the iPhone launch will be a disaster. In this particular instance, Safari 3 only needs to work properly with the appropriate Apple iPhone web site(s).
But in the larger scheme of things Safari on Windows, being such a critical and strategic move, will demand — and I am sure, get — a lot of Apple’s engineering attention on an ongoing basis.
I agree, it is soooooo slow. Must be a config thing. 3.0.1 not much better. Very disappointed but also not committed to working through fixing it.
luke please try to post some info on the machine u r using safari on
as some issue with a configuration or an isa server client could slow down or some how crash safari..but its realy not an apple proplem if the isa server is the rason
“WTF am I supposed to do with this 9 month old PC workhorse?”
mine makes a great door stop…!
Z
For those curious about Safari on Windows XP, primarily compared with Firefox, I posted a review here:
Apple Safari beta on Windows XP
The main thing I preferred about firefox over safari was the search of a page. I had trouble seeing what was highlighted in safari. Now safari is far superior in that regard.
Safari will eat away at IE’s market share. Why, because Apple will tire Safari to iPod and iPhone. Their target are not just those people who know enough to download firefox.
Just like i said before, imagine being able to create widgets using Safari for your iPod or iPhone. And things like bookmarks and many more will have people installing Safari.
FIND OUT WHO DAVE HYATT IS, AND YOU WILL KNOW THAT SAFARI WILL BE BETTER THAN ALL OTHER BROWSERS IN THE LONG RUN.
Dave Hyatt mixed with Apple is a killer combination
@ Woody
I understand this is a public beta, but in the end mate, if the purpose is to ‘WOW’ (excuse the pun) Windows users then this is not the way to do it – public beta or not. People don’t give a rats if you lable something a public beta, the will judge the product as it is – PERIOD!
And as I NOTED in my post, I NEVER used the orignial SFW beta, I only downloaded and used the updated bug fix version, maybe you should use that before you have a dig at what I legitimately experienced.
I am now Windows Fanboy TROLL. I hate having to use this piece of crap Windows machine for work, but I work for a very big multinational pharmaceutical company, and Apple has yet to crack the medium enterprise market in a significant way, let alone Fortune 500 companies, so I am doomed to use Windows crap.
Hence my dissapointment, I will use ANYTHING over Microsoft products if I get the chance, and I really wanted SFW to rock, all it has done is frustrate and dissapoint, public beta or not, if this is what less Apple friendly people experience for the first time, then I can assure you it will turn them off Apple for a lot longer than if they never even tried SFW at all!
@SSS – agreed, as I noted in my post, people have been getting great results with SFW, but this is a discussion board, I should be able to post my experience, and it is JUST AS VALID.
I am amazed at the fanboys that just can’t accept that occasionaly Apple doesn’t get it right!
@GeorgyPorgy – possibiliyt mate – but why does Firefox work OK then? Fact, IE and Firefox load pages in a reasonable maount of time SFW on my machine does NOT, in fact even on Apple’s OWN website it takes so long, I can switch to IE (or Firefox) and navigate in, download a quicktime trailer before SFW has finished loading the Quicktime page!
@hussein – again granted, but irrelevant! If IE and Firefox can work fine under my PC configuration, but SFW sucks, then it is actually SFW and Apple that has a problem! You cannot expect the average Windows user to start playing around with config settings to make SFW works even remotely OK!
As I said I WANT SFW to ROCK.
As an Apple shareholder I want it to work well, and WOW Windows users!
I know what Safari can do (I do own an iMac). But I also know that lets be realistic it isn’t the PERFECT browers, we need a hybrid of Safari, Firefox and IE7 for that.
But as I will again state – if this is what other Windows users experience of their FIRST Apple software then Apple has a problem, because quite frankly it sucks! PERIOD.
I am happy for all you windows users that are using SFW with blazing speeds (but have yet to see someone that is using the bug-fix updated version post such results!)
I am overseas at the moment, and when I get home I will download SFW on my parents and brother’s PC and see if it is any better (will exclude this PC config). I REALLY hope that that is the issue, but would still be worried that this will not look good for Apple.
People do not want to WORK to get their broswer to work OK, they just want to download it, install it and start browsing!
my 64 cents,
Luke
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@ LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son
As always a voice of reason and reasonable qualified support for Apple.
Like you I am invested big (well for me) in Apple stock.
And like you I wont just blindly accept everything they do as right.
SFW is a massive strategic move for Apple, and I agree it will get the attention it needs, but if NO ONE is willing (or allowed by the fanboys) to critisise the product, then Apple wont get anywhere.
As I have said I really want SFW to work for Apple, it has tyhe potential to really change the game in the desktop space, especially as we nkow Google is busting a gut to destroy Microsoft’s hold on the desktop by using web based software/services, and SFW give Apple (and their close ally Google) the chance to marginalise Microsoft even more, but making it more likely that the browser used to access those services/software is not even a Microsoft product!
Web apps (and iWork) to push Microsoft Office out of the way
Mac OS X to push them off the OS space
SFW to push IE off the remaining Windows boxes too – cause lets face it the DOD and Microsoft have already established that the BROWSER is actually “the most important part of the OS” at the moment, as largely that is what MOST people will be using most of the time going forward (if not already)
Luke
PS – and yes everyine I have noted all my peeves above to Apple, even used the bug buttin a few times to let them know too! I’m not whinging about this because I WANT to, I’m doing it because I believe that Apple HAS TO get this right!
Where is the damn sidebar for Safari? Until there’s a sidebar, I won’t be using it as my main browser. I’ll stick with Firefox but thanks anyway apple.
“I am amazed at the fanboys that just can’t accept that occasionaly Apple doesn’t get it right!”
And I’m amazed that anyone thinks they should just get it right from the begining…c’mon give me a break, first the app is BETA, second, its extremely normal for Windows applications to blow chunks in their first iterations, why would Safari be any different?
Apple got a Windows application wrong? Yipppeeeee! Now they are just like any other Windows developer out there.