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Home > Blogtronics > Safari for Everyone
 Image Credit: Apple, Inc. View all posts by: John Ward | View all posts in category: Blogtronics There was once a time when a provocative move like releasing a beta version of Safari for Windows would have shocked and stunned the Mac world. Apple's announcement of Safari for Windows at WWDC07 on June 11, 2007 made headlines, but Mac aficionados let out a collective 'whatever'. Many Mac users like Safari, but many more prefer Firefox, the number one alternative browser used by Windows and Mac users alike. I like the move because I prefer Safari to Firefox, but I don't see Safari being a runaway success on the Windows platform. Browser preference is a matter of taste. Some Windows users will install Safari and decide not to use it. Others will take to it like I have and make it their browser of choice. One thing is certain; Apple will increase its presence in the browser market and give some Windows users yet another reason to make the big switch.  Image Credit: Apple, Inc. Apple introduced Mac users to the Safari public beta on January 7, 2003. The final version was included as the default browser in Mac OS X 10.3. Microsoft responded to this bold move by ceasing further development of their buggy, slow Internet Explorer browser for the Mac and discontinued support for this awful creation on December 31, 2005. Mac users were ecstatic to be using an Apple browser for the first time in the company's history. We all felt like we were finally cutting the strings of the 1997 five-year agreement between Apple and Microsoft, whereby Apple promised to make Internet Explorer the default browser on the Macintosh in exchange for Microsoft's continued development and support of Mac Office. It was a sell-out move for Apple, but hard times call for drastic measures. In the early 2000s, there were few browser options for Mac users and Internet Explorer, as bad as it was, was really the only option for most people. Sure, there were others, but Microsoft held sway over the Internet, and many sites wouldn't even allow you to establish a secure connection without using Explorer. Times have definitely changed. Today, there are many options for Windows and Mac users and I haven't been kicked out of a site for using a browser other then Explorer for quite some time. This is a refreshing development and translates into a big win against the monopolists in Redmond. The market abhors a monopoly. It is now Microsoft's turn to lose market share. Just like the counter-revolution leveled against the superiority of the proprietary and expensive Macintosh platform in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of Wintel, we are in a period of transition that will end with a much more dynamic playing field. Today, there are more options for computer users and Internet surfers than any time in the past. I just cannot see any one company pushing itself to the heights of monopolistic control that Microsoft achieved in the 1990s. We are biased at VAW. Our site is developed first for Safari and then tested in Internet Explorer and Netscape. 99.999% of the time, if it renders as planned in Safari, it will work almost exactly the same in Firefox. Netscape is an odd duck, so we don't get too excited about rendering issues, although most problems are not too serious. Internet Explorer is our browser of compromise. 3 out of 5 people visiting our site use Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer exhibits many problems recognizing standard CSS. We have to constantly compromise what we want to do style-wise because Internet Explorer doesn't always correctly support it and currently, Internet Explorer compatibility is imperative for every Internet site because the browser holds about 80% of the market. Don't get me started on Opera. I hate it and we completely ignore it. We were so smitten by Safari when it was first released in 2003, that VAW proudly proclaims it as our preferred default browser. So, if you want to view our site as we intend it to render, install Safari on your Windows computer or launch it on your Macintosh. You'll get a decent rendering with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape, but it might give you something a little different than intended. We had so many issues with Opera that we finally just gave up on it. If you are using Opera and you see something crazy before you, well, pick a better browser.  Image Credit: Apple, Inc. Apple's recent compatibility strategy has paid off handsomely. The company is reaping the rewards of loosening the ideological threads that have hampered the mass acceptance of the Macintosh platform since 1984. There has always been a half-hearted effort at compatibility, but Apple's new strategic posture is to drive hardware sales by giving Windows users as much access to Apple technology on the Windows platform as possible. First it was QuickTime, then iPod and iTunes, and Apple TV. Soon it will be the iPhone. Safari is just another pebble thrown onto the scale. And the scale is beginning to tilt our way.
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I prefer Firefox, but to each his own.
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5/10/2009 