With Leopard coming out soon and the iPhone later this month, Apple decided to lauch a public beta of Safari 3 during the WWDC. Not really surprising except that Apple launched a PC version as well (both XP and Vista). Now that IS a suprise because apparantly Apple is now also entering the continuing 'browserwar' as well. My first idea was: "Why do we need yet another browser? I see no reason why, actually. On the other hand, as I am "computer-dextrous" (I work on both an Apple and a PC), I find Safari on the Mac a nice, sleek and fast browser (I also use FireFox and Opera to test stuff). So I more or less presumed the PC version of Safari to be at least up-to-par with the Mac version.
Well, as they say: "presumption is the mother of all fuck-ups". I have hardly seen a browser (even a beta version) that renders pages so bad a Safari 3 for the PC. It doesn't even render Apple's website the way it should! Makes you wonder if the boys at Apple even tested the damn thing? Or did they just decide: "ah who gives a fuck, it's for Windows users - they are used to crappy software anyway - let's release this thingy and get it over with". Kind of like the old adagium "Publish and be damned"? In short: what where they thinking?
From a free market perspective I am all for choice; so more choice in browsers is a good thing. From a developer view it sucks: all browsers have their specific problems and tweaks and developing a website that has nice features but needs to work on a multitude of browsers and platforms is a pain in the ass. Also, the fact that that Apple just wipes their ass with all Windows standards in terms of keyboard shortcuts and GUI (just like with iTunes for the PC) is annoying as hell. Why the total non-Windows look? I find it confusing as hell. Sure, many people will like Safari's unobtrusive design, fancy roll-up interface features, and possibly its speed.
But before they can possibly like those things, it needs to work first!
No, dear Steve, this application got un-installed about 15 minutes after I installed it on my PC.
Ps: my experience with Safari 3 Public Beta on my Mac is 100% opposite of the PC version. There it just.... works....WTF?



