Safari To Nowhere

by Gregory Sullivan — Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 09:00 AM EDT

HotHardware's own Nick Welles told you earlier this week about Apple's plan to release its Safari web browser for use on Windows machines. The Apple crowd assembled seemed to like the idea. But they're probably already using Safari. Now that the dust has settled a bit, Leander Kahney at Wired asks and answers the question: "Who in their right mind would run Safari on Windows?"

But the initiative seems to rely on a domino theory fueled by infatuation. Apple is hoping there are Windows users so in love with their iPods and iTunes that they will also download Safari. Then they'll fall in love with that, and the next thing you know they'll be down at the Apple Store fishing for their credit cards.

There's only one problem with that scenario -- Safari sucks. A lot of Mac users won't run the browser (I'm one of them), so why would anyone run it on Windows?

On my Mac, Safari is buggy and unreliable. It's always crashing, and it doesn't offer basic features like remembering all the tabs you have open after you quit (or more likely, after it crashes). Until now, it didn't even warn you before closing multiple tabs, although the new version of Safari fixes this.

I'm getting the same sort of vibe about this as all the Linux fans that deluged the Dell website demanding a non-Windows operating system. Everybody that wants it has it already, and just like the idea of hurting Microsoft somehow. Not a business plan destined for success. Might steal market share from Firefox, though; it's getting to be bloatware. Maybe I'll try Explorer again- I've heard good things.

Tags: Safari, here, now, AFA, AR

Safari To Nowhere

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