It must be my imagination. This can’t possible be what I think it is. Could the columnist actually mentioned it? Is an Apple Safari Browser port to Windows actually something to consider or has Apple and the media gone off the deep end and actually declared “Browser Wars II”?

If so I have bad news for Apple and the Safari Browser on Windows… you lose. Not by a little but by a WHOLE LOT.

So let us see… Apple claims that Safari handles the images better… well if click to finish is the standard, no, this is not true because by my stop watch it fell in behind Firefox by about 10%. Yes, I cleared all caches first, I know how to run this simple tests.

Next claim is that it is faster because it is simpler. This is true, but I don’t want simpler, I want better and simpler in this case is not better. In terms of size it is a modest 8MB and you would think that alone would be enough to speed it up impressively, but when you factor in the windows libraries it has to use, it is not all that much better is at all.

On the other hand it could be said that it is faster because it does away with the 3D interface that all the other browsers use. But when you think about it this does not hold up either because it still has to use the same graphics engine, they just turned off the 3D effects which in this case does not speed up the interface.

Access to the internet is the same. Hey it all has to come through the same port and there is no new technology that is speeding your broadband connection along. Unless you consider the HUGE cache it makes for itself, but then again, all the other browsers do this too and that is nothing new.

Now to flip it a bit. There are things I certainly can’t do without.

You know those borders and 3D borders on windows programs? They are not just for looks you know. They let the user resize the window easily and quickly. Guess what happens when you turn them off? Right, you can’t use the borders to resize. I find this very inconvenient. Mac users are used to the pain in the butt resizing I guess. As a pampered Windows user I like my windows more easily resizable.

Are Macs really easier to use than Windows based computers? Huh, I wonder. Has anyone other than a partial research group actually done a comparison? I mean recently. Seriously.

Then there is the thing that is going to get Safari into a big heap of trouble… Font handling. From cursory comparisons I would say that Safari likes to replace its own font for fonts such as Ariel and TNR (that Times New Roman for the uninitiated). The replacements are both heavier and more compact. (This is not a contradiction, read it as the lines of the letters are wider and the letter squished and squished together.) The combined effect of the font handling is to make them less legible in smaller sizes and awkward in larger sizes. This is the only browser that has this obvious flaw (if Apple considers it a flaw). I compared it to the latest versions of MSIE, NS, FF, and Opera and if I were offering suggestions, it would be NOT to go changing the styles of fonts. If they do not correct this the development community will never endorse Safari. Again, I wonder is Apple would even care.

I am sure there are more things about Safari I would not like if I were to keep using it, but like in all business you got mere seconds to impress me and you, Safari, failed that test miserably. Safari on Windows? It will go the way of the Apple Lisa, just watch.

For the record I use Firefox for my development. Why? Simple, it does what I want it to. As a browser it is simple with enough features to keep me happy. I do not use Netscape because it went the way of the IE and has too much and a cluttered interface. Firefox provides a happy medium for me and thus won my allegiance.