Mar 9, 2009 0
Safari 4 Beta for Windows: First Impressions
Before I say anything about Safari 4, I just have to say that I’ll use just about any browser before I use ANY version of Internet Explorer.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I’m sure some of you may be wondering about my impressions on the new beta for Safari, Apple’s web browser that has been available for the past few years in both Windows and Mac flavors.
For starters, the beta is far from perfect. This post is actually being written from within the browser…and when I tried to create the “Safari” shown in the previous paragraph, my page was just darkened, and I could not actually click on the window that pops up and allows you edit a hyperlink. Interesting.
Before I get further in depth about this browser, I have one caveat that I want to get out now: this version is ugly. Really ugly. It looks like a hybrid between IE8 and Chrome. It lost it’s distinct Mac feel. I liked the look of the previous versions, since they looked more their Mac counterparts.
Screenshot:
(Click to Enlarge)
And I don’t have a screenshot at the moment, but the Windows XP version (in my opinion) is even uglier.
Besides that, the browser’s performance is on par, if not faster, than that of Firefox 3. In loads a lot of different pages faster, and runs javascript a lot better (it also does not hog anywhere NEAR the amount of memory that Firefox does).
But alas, it will not replace Firefox for me. Why? It’s all about the extensions 
Overall though…good browser. Just wish it would look less ugly (on Windows).
