Safari 3 for Windows

Sign one more up for the browser war, Apple is shipping the third version of its well received Safari WebKit-based browser over to foreign shores to duke it out with the likes of IE, Firefox and Opera... on Windows. The Mac-only browser has already attained a 5% market share, and it seems the Apple folks plan to use it in much the same way they've used iTunes to grow the Mac fanbase by giving Windows users "a glass of ice water to somebody in hell!" Apple claims their browser is up to twice as fast as the competition, and the public beta of Safari 3 is being released today as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

[Kevin @ Jun 11th 2007 2:28PM]

The apple link still doesn't have the download!

[Paul @ Jun 11th 2007 7:38PM]

Lol this browser sucks. It takes a really long time to load Google, like a second. While Firefox takes a lot less than that. Also, it crashes whenever I go to click the close button. I guess that's a "feature"

[Jonas Dawson @ Jun 11th 2007 2:29PM]

I wonder when today it'll be available- apple.com/safari doesn't yield anything useful yet.

[tony @ Jun 12th 2007 12:33PM]

what a brilliant idea.
release safari in:
- a competitive market where its unproven
- in beta while theres already been a major revision to IE, Opera is gaining marketshare as a fast browser and firefox has a gazillion plug-ins that give it a loyal following.

nice one apple.
but i guess it doesnt hurt to try. OR DOES IT.
stop the leopard delays pursuing these trivial things.

[Parker @ Jun 11th 2007 2:30PM]

sweet

[paloooz @ Jun 11th 2007 2:31PM]

lol, whose idea was this?

I love Safari, don't get me wrong ... but if iTunes for Windows is any testament to how Safari for Windows will be ... I can't expect a good future.

[jrbrewin @ Jun 11th 2007 3:39PM]

i suspect it'll be bundled with itunes by default, set itself as the default browser, set quicktime as the default media player, and set your homepage to the mac store with an imac already in your shopping basket.

[telepheedian @ Jun 11th 2007 9:50PM]

Actually, it played nicely with the other browsers on my system, it didn't even ask to be the default browser, its hidden in the options. It typically does come with Quicktime, but is available without it.

Overall, it's pretty good, I just have this annoying bug that causes the first page to take 2 min or so to load, after that, it browses just about as well as firefox.

[Stuffmanca @ Jun 18th 2007 10:19PM]

Just be VERY careful...Ihave Windows XP, loaded Safari Beta 3 and when I ran iTUNES. iTUNES took up 99% of CPU usage and FROZE the machine up.

When I UNINSTALLES Safari, everything went back to normal...

I guess with a MAC this NEVER happens...

Stuffmanca

[andy @ Jun 11th 2007 2:31PM]

I'm going to give it a go along with everyone else, but I'm just not sure how much better it's going to be than Firefox. It's pretty friendly out of the box, and for more advanced users, you can make it whatever you like. I'm not sure how Apple can improve upon that.

[Johnny @ Jun 11th 2007 2:33PM]

lol

I wonder if you will be able to fully maximize the browser window in the Vista version?

There are things I like about mac's more then pc's, but the web browsing experience has never been one of them, thanks to little things like not being about to fully expand the browser window. Hey steve... when I'm reading blogs and surfing news sites and whatnot, guess how many sh*ts I give about whats going on with the desktop?

The cute thing about this is (whether it was intentional or not) even when you're running Vista or XP on your Mac using bootcamp etc, you can still enjoy the underpowered experience of using Apple's Safari. I'm going to hold final judgement until this is released, as this version, as well as the version that ultimately ships with Leopard, might both be an improvement over explorer and firefox. As it stands, every mac owner I personally know uses firefox, so the bar has certainly been raised for Steve and company.

[mathew @ Jun 12th 2007 7:30PM]

Dear troll: Drag the Safari window to cover the full screen once. The "Zoom" button will then zoom to and from full screen mode.

Personally, I hate that Windows and Linux don't give me any way to zoom between *my* choice of window sizes--they only offer "all or nothing", full screen or minimized.

[Bryan @ Jun 11th 2007 5:44PM]

uhh, you can fully expand the browser window. You just drag the right corner, I do it every day...

[Johnny @ Jun 11th 2007 7:01PM]

I meant expand by default without having to drag the window, something every other browser seems perfectly capable of doing.

As this is obviously one of Apple's design philosophies, I'm guessing we'll see that feature added around the same time they add a real second mouse button. I'll probably be too busy skiing with the devil to care at that point though.

[Greenline @ Jun 13th 2007 6:21PM]

Your a moron, once you make it full size it it always that size when maximized. Some people need to check facts before posting. Or you could just buy a mac.

[Ron @ Dec 2nd 2007 12:24AM]

i just downloaded safari 3 off of a recommendation from my brother who is a lan tech and i like it alot already. have been using firefox for the last year or so. it is faster than firefox, IE, and opera.

and YES you can maximize the browser window just like in IE and the rest.

[J. McNair @ Jun 11th 2007 2:34PM]

*cough* *ahem* OPERA 9 *cough* *cough*
I'm just saying. They did not benchmark against one of the most popular mobile/embedded browsers which happens to also be the 4th most popular desktop browser. Yes, I am counting the Wii version as it is essentially Opera 9.x. No disrespect to the talented engineers inside and outside Apple working on Webkit is meant. I would like to see a fair browser shootout between Opera and Safari on Mac OS X and Windows.

[sean @ Jun 11th 2007 3:19PM]

benchmarks (on a mac) are posted now with respect to Opera.

[Eric @ Jun 11th 2007 2:35PM]

Oh wow

[telepheedian @ Jun 11th 2007 2:37PM]

IT'S UP! www.apple.com/safari

[LooP @ Jun 11th 2007 2:37PM]

it's available now: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

[Rick Lyon @ Jun 11th 2007 2:37PM]

Good move. Good way to get more websites to design for browsers OTHER than IE. I just hope Apple includes better plugin support in the future.

[Zach @ Jun 11th 2007 2:37PM]

Hell would be life w/o a windows, stuck in a place where there's only Macs, like some colleges. *shudders*

[Jamar @ Jun 12th 2007 12:57AM]

No, for me that would be heaven. Windows has consistently proven to be an annoyance for me- won't run with any sort of decent speed without 1G RAM (at least, not Vista, XP seems to be OK with 512MB), won't standby or come out of standby consistently (it's hit-or-miss with the laptop I have now- push the power button and it sometimes comes back, or sometimes it just shuts off the thing completely, losing everything I had), and the need for virus protection/firewalls is something I never needed to think about with my old Powerbook.

[telepheedian @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

It also apparently installs a port of Bonjour.

[Jonathan B @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

They're saying that Safari for Windows will be 1.5x faster than Firefox, but that's only in Javascript, and other than that and html, we don't know how well optimised it'll be for other formats.

[shaunySHOTGUN @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

beta is up!

[Homeboy @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

Safari won't be popular. FireFox is pure cocaine, gives you the most intense rush compared with other browers.


Oh BTW. I hope Apple are ready for a million daily crash reports from Vista users.

[Mark @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

wow I dunno if it's just me but I get no menu and it can't even display apple.com

[Alex Padilla @ Jun 11th 2007 2:38PM]

they just updated all of apple.com

[telepheedian @ Jun 11th 2007 2:40PM]

Wow, this thing is slower than molasses on a freezing cold day.

[Kris Janssen @ Jun 11th 2007 2:40PM]

Did anybody else besides me notice that good old Stevie J. has a serious case of man-tits going on?

[zed @ Jun 11th 2007 2:40PM]

downloaded and installing...;)

[Jeffrey @ Jun 11th 2007 2:41PM]

Fantastic. Another browser to support... MF.

*

[Hawkman @ Jun 11th 2007 3:51PM]

I'm sorry, what? It's the same damn browser as on the Mac, 3rd biggest, and the most standards-compliant (note: I'm not saying compatible, that'd be the ungodly beast that is FireFox). If you don't support it already you're a moron.

I'm not sure it'll make a huge impact though. I hope so - it's a truly great rendering engine, and it makes the web look goooood - but not at the expense of FF, cos that's a respectable second. I hope they gang up on IE.

[Preston @ Jun 11th 2007 2:46PM]

Greetings from Safari on XP!

[TrueDis @ Jun 11th 2007 2:46PM]

browsing here using Safari for windows ... definitely beta-quality

[LooP @ Jun 11th 2007 2:47PM]

this app already has some quirks (in vista so far anyway) clicking on it in the taskbar doesn't minimize the window and the CTRL-ENTER shortcut for putting in websites doesn't work.

[shaunySHOTGUN @ Jun 11th 2007 2:50PM]

def. need the CTRL+ENTER!

one of the reasons i stopped using it already.

[Jason Carroll @ Jun 11th 2007 3:54PM]

Ctrl + Enter doesn't work on Safari even on a Mac, much less on Windows. I'm not sure I can use a browser without that feature.

Also, the gazillions of add-ons available for FF make it unstoppable.

[Jonas Dawson @ Jun 11th 2007 2:48PM]

Wow- crashed within 3 minutes of use trying to look at Engadget.

[LooP @ Jun 11th 2007 2:48PM]

another thing, if you minimize the window while it's in full screen then restore it, it comes back resized and not in full screen

[Kavit Kumar @ Jun 16th 2007 8:55PM]

I agree, I don't like that it resizes it after you want to take it back to normal screen.

[endlife @ Jun 11th 2007 2:48PM]

reporting first crash of safari on win xp :)

[ScOObyDoo @ Jun 11th 2007 2:48PM]

OMDG, they weren't kidding when they said it was a beta.

I can't enter URL's and all the menu drop downs are empty.

This reminds me of the first iTunes for Windows.

[Mark @ Jun 11th 2007 2:50PM]

OMG!!! me too!!!!

[kyle @ Jun 11th 2007 9:01PM]

Same for me too

[shaunySHOTGUN @ Jun 11th 2007 2:49PM]

yeah no... just downloaded and installed, ran for about 5 minutes and nope, i'm staying to FF.

[nader0102 @ Jun 11th 2007 5:57PM]

likewise. but at least in the course of trying it out and reading up about it i came across a wicked safari-like skin for firefox...

[bunkka @ Jun 11th 2007 2:49PM]

wow safari on windows is ugly!