Safari on Windows

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 4:04 am

Seems Apple's been hard a work invading the Windows desktop recently. Safari is now available as a beta download for Windows users. If you're an OS X user stuck in a Windows world, you'll likely feel a bit more at home with Safari along with iTunes and Quicktime at your side.

http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

I've been using it all day on Vista and not a single problem, but here have been reports of security problems. I believe there are 3 confirmed issues.

I only visit a regular route of sites which I trust, so not likely that I'll run into the issues.

Anyway, check it out and see if it's something for you or not.

-Garrett

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 1:01 pm

Hi,

I was unable to launch it on XP.

Best,

Mark

xApple · Post by **xApple** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 3:35 pm

It works fine on my OS X... actually I haven't perceived a difference... expect for being able to move tabs.. and being able to resize the field I am currently typing in ! Kinda cool...

But here is my consideration: bringing all the good stuff of Mac to Windows, isn't going to lower the uniqueness of the OS ? and kill the drive that keeps us buying Macs instead of PCs? ... sure the hardware is more nifty, but it's the software that keeps me on the platform..

Anyways, there still isn't a Safari for Linux :-p

Garrett · Post by **Garrett** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:10 am

Poor Linux always seems to get either overlooked or left out from all the good parties

Wait! Wasn't Safari based on Konq from KDE though? If so, then we do in a sense have Safari on Linux already.

-Garrett

Macintosh Sauce · Post by **Macintosh Sauce** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:06 pm

Under Windows XP, Safari is definitely my browser to use. For Mac OS X, I use OmniWeb 5.5.4, mainly because I really love their implementation of tabs. Quite nice actually...

Lynn P. · Post by **Lynn P.** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:16 pm

They released Safari for Windows mainly because it is being used on the iPhone which can be used by OS X and Windows and synched to Safari for bookmarks. I do use it on my Windows XP Professional machine at work and it's like a slice of home.

Lynn P.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:23 pm

Hi

Earlier I said I was unable to run Safari, but the latest Safari XP update finally allows me to run it on my PC.

Lynn, why does iPhone need Safari for XP?

Best,

Mark

Lynn P. · Post by **Lynn P.** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:39 pm

Mark wrote:Hi

Earlier I said I was unable to run Safari, but the latest Safari XP update finally allows me to run it on my PC.

Lynn, why does iPhone need Safari for XP?

Best,

Mark

`````````````
Because that's the browser they are using on the iPhone and they want Windows folks who purchase the iPhone to be able to sync it to their bookmarks on their Windows pc's. The address book on the iPhone also will sync to Windows Outlook Express and of course both sync to iTunes.
That way, your iPhone stays current with all the contact info on your Mac and/or pc.

Lynn P.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:52 pm

Hi Lynn,

Not that it would be useful for me, but why doesn't Apple allow for syncing with IE? That might have been easier than releasing Safari for Windows.

Best,

Mark

Lynn P. · Post by **Lynn P.** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:56 am

Mark wrote:Hi Lynn,

Not that it would be useful for me, but why doesn't Apple allow for syncing with IE? That might have been easier than releasing Safari for Windows.

Best,

Mark

````````````````````
You'll have to ask Apple techs about that one.

It could be just the logistics of programming. Sometimes it's easier to build from scratch than try and interface with an established product.

Perhaps later on, more web browsers will be available to sync with down the line. I've never done any sync programming on the Mac or Windows so I don't honestly don't know how involved it would be. It seems simple enough just to sync a bookmarks file, but who knows.

It could be Apple just wants the end user to have a similar experience and interface between the iPhone version and the pc version. You're guess is as good as mine.

Lynn P.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 7:41 am

Hi Lynn,

I believe it is a marketing rather than a technical issue.

Mark

Lynn P. · Post by **Lynn P.** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 2:55 pm

Mark wrote:Hi Lynn,

I believe it is a marketing rather than a technical issue.

Mark

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I agree that's a part of it, however Apple could have also made Windows versions of all the other apps the iPhone synchs to and make it more of a Mac experience for Windows users for marketing purposes.

If the tech issue is actually a mute point, and I was going to choose one web browser to initially support, it would be Firefox which seems to be popular among Windows folks and Mac folks and is the most customizable with a whole plethora of add-ons not only for the basic user but the web content programmer too.

The Explorer browser specifically is in a world of it's own thanks to Microsoft. It doesn't support the established web standards that all the other browsers adhere to, but invents it's own which is why it's a pain to support by web content developers, so that particular web browser wouldn't be the one to choose in my opinion for the various platforms out there.

Also... if developers make apps that run on the iPhone that have to also interact with a web browser on someone's Mac or pc running Windows too, it would be easier if everyone were on the same page with one web browser, since a web browser is such a dynamic application... unlike a contact management app for instance.

More features may be built into Safari for the pc later on that can interact with linking to one's iPhone Safari version and Apple and outside developers would have a common technology to improve upon and to add those feature sets. That's all conjecture on my part however. Only Apple knows why for sure.

Lynn P.