Filed under: Apple, Ask DLS, Browsers, Op-Ed
Oh crap! Could I really switch to Safari? Wait, nope.
While I've been using Firefox for ages, I've been playing with Chromium for quite some time and become used to its speed. I downloaded Safari 4 when the final became available yesterday and was impressed.
Speed isn't the be-all and end-all for a browser, but it's pretty dang important. And yes, Firefox has gotten faster of late, but it's still not quite on par with the Webkit Wonder Twins (no, I couldn't have picked two superheros who sucked more while still having super powers - sorry Zan and Jayna).
Apart from its obvious speed improvements, how about Safari's ability to kill an unresponsive plugin (like Flash) on a page without the whole browser falling to pieces? I'll have that, please.
One other small detail that I was pleased to find was better support for the Windows 7 taskbar. Just like IE8, you'll get a hover thumbnail for every tab and window Safari currently has open. Download progress is indicated on the icons as well. It's not perfect - hovering a particular thumbnail only shows a blank page on all but your active tab, but it's better than all the other non-IE browsers have achieved so far.
Wait a minute. Did that seriously just happen while I was putting this post together?
Hey Safari, where the hell did all my bookmarks go? I
That's a pretty major failure of a very basic browser function.
Session restore? Well, according to the history menu Safari can do that, too. Yet when I select the option to restore from my last session I get my last active tab and two blank tabs. I'm pretty sure those had actual websites in them before - yes, they did. GMail and Reader. Where did they go?
I always want my core web pages to open when I launch my browser. In Safari I need an addon or I have to make a selection from a menu to re-open tabs (and then in a new window)? That's garbage.
And its address bar sucks, too. In Chromium or Firefox I can type 'reader' and up comes all my history for Google Reader. Safari, on the other hand, sits there like a drooling hillbilly waiting for me to give it a bigger clue.
Safari 4 was looking good, but it looks like I just bit the soft part of the Apple.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Molly said 3:10PM on 6-09-2009
since Apple is the sworn enemy of the internet as we know it, why bother?
to those who prefer the webkit engine: with Lunascape you'll get another browser claiming to be the fastest under the sun.
right now, Opera 10 (although still beta) is cutting it for me.
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alstki said 3:28PM on 6-09-2009
I didn't have that problem with Safari, my bookmark toolbar kept the setup I created. I've restarted it a few times now. Still not totally sold on it though - the dumb address bar is one reason.
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RUGRLN said 3:42PM on 6-09-2009
Safari 4 kinda sucks...I preferred v3 plus it had the Mac theme..something different for Windows, now we stuck with this one Apple amde which looks hideous..I wish they'd go back to old design..
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Insomnic said 3:57PM on 6-09-2009
I think Safari 4 for windows is really only functional for cross browser testing. IE8, Chrome, and Firefox just work better.
On a Mac it is a very tight race though between Safari and Firefox. I recently switched back to Safari (with the v4 release) and I've been very happy.
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r3loaded said 4:01PM on 6-09-2009
If you want WebKit for Windows, Chrome's the way to go. Plus, it's faster.
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Fred said 4:11PM on 6-09-2009
+1 Chrome user. I used to use FF exclusively. Now, I keep it around because some sites do not recognize Chrome yet, and do not allow it to log into certain systems (like my school's network/billing area).
Shoot, I find chrome faster than FF, even with FF's Adblock Plus add-on.
Safari was nice and felt as fast as Chrome, but it crashed a lot on me, for which I have little patience.
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JB said 4:12PM on 6-09-2009
You didn't by any chance elevate permissions and run as an administrator user to install Safari on a non-admin account, did you? Because if you did that, then the settings would have been linked to the admin account and not the one that you used to reopen the browser.
(Think about it.)
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Lee Mathews said 4:13PM on 6-09-2009
Er, nope...sure didn't.
JB said 4:13PM on 6-09-2009
Oh, and that crash protection thing is only available when running it on the as-yet-unreleased 10.6 operating system. I think.
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hdraogmir said 4:12PM on 6-09-2009
Like you said, speed is all it has.
Well, that and a 100% Acid test score, and some nifty html5 + CSS3 support.
Firefox is way more customizable, Chrome is still faster, Opera has more features and they're better implemented and IE8 is more stable.
Apple, what have you done?
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billcantfart said 4:27PM on 6-09-2009
You spent 10 minutes getting your bookmarks set up? Couldn't you just import the bookmarks?
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Lee Mathews said 4:28PM on 6-09-2009
Unfortunately not, this time...Was setting it up at work with no access to my bookmarks from home. Slow day, boredom, etc. ;)
Christian said 4:54PM on 6-09-2009
This is why I started doing backups of what I specifically need to my flash drive. Been doing encryption just incase someone steals my flash drive...
godDLL said 4:40PM on 6-09-2009
There was a hint you're using it with Windows 7 BETA. I don't remember that being supported.
So quit whining, fanboy.
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Lee Mathews said 4:44PM on 6-09-2009
RC, not beta.
Oh noes, another "fanboy" slam! Care to clarify what part of the post is fanboyish? 'Cause I just don't see it.
godDLL said 5:34PM on 6-09-2009
There is no "Reply" button near your post, so I'll just thread it here.
Thesis: you're a fanboy.
Basis: you're using pre-release unsupported software in conjunction with Apple's Safari, and expect that combo to work. Two strikes there.
But then you whine about it. That's strike three.
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm a regular reader, and syndication subscriber of Download Squad. I find your collective ramblings quite useful, and rarely miss a blog-post.
But that's just bit over the top, don't you think?
You're acting out as either an honest fanboy, or a troll, which is worse.
P.S. Download Squad FTW.
DeoWulf said 5:40PM on 6-09-2009
I don't really see how setting it up on a pre-release OS is equal to being a fanboy. Perhaps it would have been better to test it in Vista or XP, but regardless, he stated a few other reasons why he did not like it which would not have changed regardless, ie the dumb address bar.
godDLL said 5:48PM on 6-09-2009
I'm being a fanboy by following this comment thread. It wold take me a better part of an hour to explain to my mum why I'd want to do that, and then she wouldn't get it.
In the same way following pre-release software is over-enthusiastic of said software. You're either a developer (then you have stake in that software) or a fanboy if you do that.
Expecting software to work with said pre-release titles is, again – overly enthusiastic.
And blogging your shame and dispair is quadruple that.
tsj5j said 7:21AM on 6-10-2009
Then I must be an ULTRA fanboy to expect Chromium, Opera 10, Firefox 3.5 and Windows 7 RC, two sets of pre-release software to work better than Safari (a final build) and Windows 7 RC!?!
Oh wait a minute, they do work better.
Why should Apple, a company with vastly more resources, do any poorer?
In case you're thinking I'm anti-apple, I own an iPod Touch.
But that does not change the fact that Apple has down a shoddy job.
Neoprimal said 5:27AM on 6-10-2009
I'm going to defend Lee on that one because the exact same thing happened to me a few mins after I got the Safari release. I didn't want to import my favorites because I don't want the same across my browsers, I have a set fave list for IE, FF and Chrome and the ones on Chrome are the ones I want on Safari - which it doesn't import from so I meticulously xfer the list and all is well. I go back later and they're all gone. The only ones in there are imported IE and FF ones which mind you, I had removed. So unless I missed a 'save' button, something is up. And this happened on Vista.
Now, you may go ahead and scoff and carry on about how Vista has issues, blah blah blah. I am of the square belief that anyone who calls people out as fanboys are in fact themselves fanboys (after all, it takes one to know one).
But I'm thinking there's something going on with Safari. Some last minute changes aren't playing nice with Windows.