The browser wars are starting to hot up again. Apple is making a late play for cross platform browsing by releasing Safari 3.1 onto the world. Safari is MacOS X’s bundled browser – on the Mac it has always been pretty good, but the recent Windows versions have been terrible. Safari 3.1 is actually decently stable, and introduces Windows users to some nice features.
For a start, even on Windows Safari uses the Mac’s font rendering technology. Although opinions differ, I much prefer the Mac’s method of rendering fonts, to my eyes it is easier to read and more attractive. By comparison, standard GDI fonts in other Windows applications look spidery and harsh.
Safari’s other claim to fame is diligent adherence to up to date web standards. Features such as the canvas tag and SVG images are built in. Even better, advanced CSS properties such as animation and transforms allow for some cool effects – and some lame ones.
The Windows version of Safari does have some problems. A long standing issue is Safari’s reluctance to work with HTTP proxies. 3.1 is better than previous versions but still displays a distressing preference for crashing in a heap. Connecting directly to the internet works fine however.
It is hard to see exactly what Apple is trying to achieve with the Windows version of Safari. It seems unlikely that Safari will gain much traction against IE and Firefox (especially with Firefox 3 on the horizon). I suspect that Windows Safari is mainly intended for web developers – the more people who have access to Safari the more likely websites will be developed that work properly with Apple’s browser – including the all important iPhone. In any case, having another option, especially such a capable one, is not a bad thing.
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