View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/07/06/15/safari.windows.cant.win
Friday, Jun 15, 2007 12:10pm
Windows Safari: A fight App...
While Apple has been able to dominate market spaces in which it controls the device from top to bottom (iPhone, iPod, the Macintosh), the company may be taking a huge gamble with Safari 3.0 for Windows by entering a market space where it is on a level playing field. A Mike Elgan piece opines that Apple has essentially picked a fight it cannot win, having "uncharacteristically entered a mature market not created or controlled by Apple." Noting that security experts published information about some 18 security holes found in the new browser, Elgan says that Apple was chastised harshly by bloggers and other vocal Windows users.

Apple did, however, quickly issue a 3.0.1 release that fixed many of the reported security vulnerabilities. It should also be noted that the browser is a beta, and flaws are to be expected. One point of criticism, however, likely will not change much before Safari 3 for Windows ships as a final product: the Mac-likeness of the browser. Elgan says: "Windows can only be resized from the bottom-right corner. Safari uses Mac OS X font anti-aliasing instead of Windows' built-in ClearType, and fonts look blurry and all bold, all the time. Menus are hard to read. Safari uses its own, unalterable, nonstandard key combinations for things like flipping through tabs. The list goes on and on. [...] on a browser, Apple will need to do things the Windows way or get eaten alive."