A Smartass Education

As a Web Developer I am bloody thrilled that Apple has just released Safari 3 Public Beta for the PC!!!! I don’t have a mac and can’t test my websites on mac. I knew that would be changing soon since I am buying an iPhone which comes with safari built into it, however testing on a 3.5″ screen is not the same as testing on a big ass monitor.

I am pleased to say that virtually my entire site works right off the nut in safari with no changes. Even the new work in progress design loads fast and runs like a champ. The java applets didn’t seem to launch the games in them, but it seems like it should be able to, so if I tinker with the object code a bit it will probably work, also this is a beta… and that was the only thing that didn’t load. The browser actually passes the acid2 test which basically mean it’s a bloody standard compliant browser (Microsoft take note)

Upon install it worked with flash and embedded windows media (yeah i was surprised too).  It imported my bookmarks from all of my other browsers.  It has tabs etc…   One thing that did annoy me was that you can only resize your browser window from the lower right corner.  This is stupid if you want to be on a PC since I am used to stretching my windows from all corners!!!!  Still, minor annoyances aside, it worked great.

Am I telling you to switch from Firefox to Safari? Hell no, It does look like if you use IE all the time that it might be worth looking into switching, however there is no add-on system to this like there is in Firefox where anybody can develop for it. This is what makes Firefox the superior browser and will continue to hold it’s reign for the foreseeable future.

Download Safari 3