14 DAY TRIAL // Not too many Windows users have heard of Safari. To get the picture, think of it as the Internet Explorer of Mac systems. Although there are more web browsers on Mac, Safari is the most intensely used in this environment.
Recently, Apple decided to introduce its star web browser to Windows environment and not long ago released the public beta 2 version of the application. So the settings are not settled yet and there is still work to be done until the final edition sees the light on Windows.
The interface of the application is extremely simple and if you are familiar with the looks of a Mac then this is what you will get in Safari: 100% Mac looks and there?s no other way around. That is up to now as I am sure that some more domestic skins will be made available in the final version, or at least I hope so. Not that I don't like them, but they are simply not fitting Vista's looks and I also like to have more options in this sense.
At a first glance, there is nothing complicated about Safari as the toolbar elements are quite limited in number. All you benefit from are the classic and irreplaceable (in Safari) "back" and "forward" buttons (other browsers support mouse gestures), a "reload/refresh" function that can also be activated by pressing F5 or Ctr+R, the bookmark adding button with the Ctr+D keyboard corresponding shortcut. Up to this point, there is nothing unusual, save the fact that there are very few options available (there is no Home Page function available).
However, the feature I liked best in this beta version is the bug reporting button. It allows you to send information about mis-functions of the browser for each page that does not display correctly. The menu available for this feature allows you to automatically send a screenshot of the webpage and send its source. Text space is provided for supplying more details about the encountered mischief.
To make it easier for you to report a problem, there are some options to define the problem type: Crash, Can't log in, Can't load page, Blank page, Content missing, Behavior wrong or Appearance wrong. Having this tool available makes it extremely easy for the users to send the issues encountered, with the least effort. I think keeping this option on in the final release of the application would only lead to improving its performance thus gaining more and more users.
Just like any other web browser today, Safari supports tabbed browsing, RSS feeds and Bookmarks. However, it seems that the developer could not quite make the most of the features, as functionality is not Safari's strongest point. In order to close a tab you either have to access its context menu or click on the classic "x" mark. Though the detail is minor to many of you, having the possibility of closing the tab by clicking on the wheel is a very good alternative (if IE7, Opera and Mozilla have this, why can't it be available in Safari as well?).
RSS and Bookmarks seem to be one and the same thing for Safari as the items are stored in the same location: Bookmarks. The only difference between the two is that the feeds are marked with a blue RSS logo at the end of the name and the address is a feed. Getting bookmarks and RSS feeds together in the same location with no clear separator may not sound so appealing, but you can always make folders that make a clear distinction between the two. Some useful folders with links are already available in Safari and you can quickly access major news websites covering the latest articles from sports, entertainment, shopping or travel. Of course the feeds are thrown in the mix as well.
Safari does not come with incredible, new to Windows options and bookmark import/export, auto-fill form function, or track cleaning options are made available. In some cases, there is only a difference in terminology and location in the menu. Reset Safari option under Edit menu will not bring the web browser to the default settings and will only allow you to choose what data accumulated during browsing should be deleted. The alternatives cover everything from History, Cache, Cookie removal, erasing the saved names and passwords, to clearing recent web searches or closing all Safari windows.
If you do not want to do this activity every once in a while or at the end of every browsing session, I suggest enabling Private browsing option that allows safe surfing on the web without any information to be stored on your computer. That means that history will not be added any item, the elements in the download manager will be automatically deleted after download, and nothing is saved for AutoFill.
Preferences window is the core of the application as it gives you access to the configuration settings. The resemblance to Mozilla Firefox is amazing and if you are a Firefox user then you will find yourself on a pretty familiar turf. The difference is that there won't be the same flexibility in configuring the software.
General tab lets you set the home page, define the default web browser (all the installed browsers will be displayed), choose the default search engine (only Google and Yahoo are available, with no possibility of adding your own), select the location for the downloads to be saved to (only fix location is supported) and decide how the links from applications should be opened.
In Appearance all you can do is set the standard font to be used for the pages, select the font smoothing level, and elect the default encoding of the font. There are no themes or skins available so the interface is stuck with the default Mac look.
Bookmarks tab in Preferences allows you only to enable some elements like Bookmarks Bar with Bonjour (zero configuration networking), Bookmarks Menu and Collections, both of which have the Bonjour option activated.
Configuring the tabs of the browser is an easy thing given that the only options available are enabling the preset shortcuts for opening a link in a new tab, selecting it as it opens, opening a link in a new window or lets you enable the confirmation dialog when closing multiple tabs.
RSS contains the most important options needed for such a tool. Thus, you can set the time duration for updates (every 30 minutes, every hour, every day or never), enable highlighting the new articles with a user defined color, and define the time after which the articles should be removed (one day/week/month/year or never).
The security options available in Safari are very easy to handle. You can choose to block the pop-ups (very good pop up blocker, but it will not alert you that some windows are trying to open, so you have no say on this one). Enabling the plugins is made with a single click of a button, too bad there are so few of them (RealMedia Player, QuickTime that can be installed with Safari, Java, Flash and Adobe Reader).
Additional settings let the user configure what and when to accept cookies ("Always", "Never" and "Only from sites you navigate to" are the options available). When sending a non secure form to a secure website the user can be informed of the fact. Unfortunately, there is no parental control ready yet, so the option is greyed out right now. The same is available for showing the cookies collected.
You can enter the Advanced options with no fear because the only things to be configured here are imposing a down limit to the font size, and enabling highlighting the items on a web page on pressing Tab key. Also, if you have some style sheets prepared, you can add them to the browser.
Being in a beta stage, Safari brings a lot of shortcomings, like the impossibility of setting a proxy, choose the way the history items are removed, showing cookies or enabling parental controls. But there is only one conclusion we can draw from here: they will be added to the final version, no doubt about it.
Few are the web browsers that comply with the web standards and Safari is one of them. The application successfully renders the images and stumbles on nothing while doing this (the Acid2 test is passed with absolutely no problems).
The Good
First of all, it is choice number one if you want perfectly rendered images. There is absolutely no way for an image to be altered in Safari.
The Bug-Report button is an easy way to alert the developer of the mischiefs of the program. It can even take screenshots of the web page and send them.
The Bad
This section would be extremely lengthy if this were a final release. But considering the beta stage, all I can say is that there still is a lot of work to be done. But we can mention one or two things.
There is no support for reloading last closed session, closing the tabs is done the Mac way ("x" mark is placed in the left end of the tab), there are absolutely no skins.
The Truth
Give it a try just to see things from a slightly different perspective. Despite the fact that there have been reported cases of messing up the network settings, I did not experience such a thing, but beware of the crashes.
All that can be said right now is that we just have to wait and see how Apple software does in Windows environment. My guess is that there will pass some time until the market share swings in Safari's favor.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
