Safari 3 Public Beta
Downloads Count: 8,725
License Type: Free
Price: Free
Date Added: Jun 11, 2007
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista
Author: Apple
- BearShare 1,183,752
- Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (SP1) 302,822
- Adobe Reader 236,478
- Netscape 221,511
- Firefox 219,783
Editor's Review of Safari 3 Public Beta
Safari 3 installed easily on both the Mac and the PC. Both versions of the browser look basically the same except that Windows menus appear within the Safari browser window. On the Mac, they appear in the Mac OS X menu bar. Safari for Windows only lets you resize the window using the lower-right corner rather than any window edge.
The most notable new feature is an improved Firefox-style way to search for text on a Web page. Hit Control-F, and an oval search box appears towards the top of the window.
Apple says that the Windows version of Safari 3 is up to twice as fast as IE 7 and 1.6 times as fast as Firefox--according to Apple's data using third-party testing software. We can say that in today's browsing world, factors like site design and the speed of your connection have a much greater effect on how long it will take a page to load than your choice of browser.
We did run some informal tests for memory usage, and here, Safari came in last. In our informal tests, we started each browser with a blank page and then loaded two specific sites. Safari used an average of 45MB of memory at the end of the tests, significantly more than other browsers. Opera 9 used only 27MB, while Firefox 2 used 31MB and Internet Explorer 7 used 34MB. On a PC using less memory, you may feel this pinch. I personally didn't.
On the subject of security: Safari doesn't use Active X so avoids the spyware scares that plague Internet Explorer. However, it's not immune to other browser exploits the same way Firefox isn't immune.
In the end, Apple's announcement of a Safari that runs on Windows is big news with big potential for integrating with the PC versions of iTunes and QuickTime. It?s a working browser but with a few flaws, and it currently lacks the plug-in ecosystems that Firefox and Internet Explorer enjoy. However with a presence on the Mac, Windows and soon the iPhone, that may change.
--Narasu Rebbapragada
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