PDA

View Full Version : Safari review



LaRoza
June 18th, 2007, 01:43 PM
As most of you already know, Safari has been released for Windows.

I have always tested my pages in Opera, Firefox, and IE. I was never able to use Safari because I did not have access to a Mac.

I got Safari soon after its release, and here is my opinion:
(note: I am judging how it looks and functions, not actual on-line browsing, I do not have an Internet connection at home, but I use my own server and pages, many of which use DOM 2 ECMAScript, CSS2 Properties, and XHTML 1.1)

"Look and Feel"
I like things simple, my Opera and Firefox themes are dark and not colorful. Safari is perfect in this aspect, no themes are necessary, it is already what I like. It has no thick borders, and the focus is on the page, not the browser.

Rendering of CSS2
Writing CSS code for websites is easy, making sure it works the same in all browsers is tricky when you use the later properties for layout and behavior. If I write code with IE and Firefox in mind, Opera suffers. Safari however, follows the standard beautifully. It showed every effect I desired perfectly, slightly better than Firefox.

ECMAScript
I use the DOM Level 2 and use XHTML 1.1. Some aspects of the standards are not fully implemented, but IE 7, Firefox 2, and Opera 9 have good support for most things, no major differences, for what I do. Safari also follows the standards, but once refused to do something, for no apparent reason. Being Beta, I do not fault it for this.

Overall, if Safari were a browser I could use as a portable apps program, like I have Firefox and Opera running, I would probably use it, at least some of the time.

I can not review security and other useability issues.

Safari will probably be up there with Firefox and Opera and Konqueror.

tyk
June 18th, 2007, 02:03 PM
yes i agree safari does look very nice by itself.. like all apple products actually. and surfing and rendering of pages is quite alright, at par with the best.

BUT here's the prob: it takes up almost a 100MB of RAM when its running. opening up a similar set of pages and tabs on iexplorer, firefox and safari (which i did simultaneously) showed up this on the task manager in windows; firefox with 40 MB of RAM; iexplorer got 65MB and safari got a whopping 100 MB.

I guess its alright if you have atleast a gig of RAM but would't be very good for slower and older machines.. the other small thing i dintlike about safari was the small question mark icons for unloaded objects. it looks a little confusing. and btw the interface and itunes are so similar that i nearly clicked on itunes by mistake every now and then.
my rating: 6.5/10........ with hopefully no biases, firefox still rules.)

LaRoza
June 18th, 2007, 02:07 PM
yes i agree safari does look very nice by itself.. like all apple products actually. and surfing and rendering of pages is quite alright, at par with the best.

BUT here's the prob: it takes up almost a 100MB of RAM when its running. opening up a similar set of pages and tabs on iexplorer, firefox and safari (which i did simultaneously) showed up this on the task manager in windows; firefox with 40 MB of RAM; iexplorer got 65MB and safari got a whopping 100 MB.

I guess its alright if you have atleast a gig of RAM but would't be very good for slower and older machines.. the other small thing i dintlike about safari was the small question mark icons for unloaded objects. it looks a little confusing. and btw the interface and itunes are so similar that i nearly clicked on itunes by mistake every now and then.
my rating: 6.5/10........ with hopefully no biases, firefox still rules.)

You can get it without iTunes, but I did not realize the RAM requirement, I have 2 gigs. I was also running it in Vista, it may be different in other OS.

I never used a Mac, is that the standard look and feel?

3rdalbum
June 18th, 2007, 03:12 PM
As with Linux, there's not a standard look-and-feel on Mac OS X. Most programs are "Aqua", but Apple seems to be transitioning to "Brushed Metal" as the look.

karellen
June 18th, 2007, 03:31 PM
nice little review, after all the bashing safari withstand on this forum
I happen to like safari too (especially the font rendering...)