Thursday, March 27, 2008

Safari on Windows Redux

Back when Apple first released Safari for Windows, I posted about 10 things that were broken about it. Now that Apple has released the first non-beta version (3.1) let's revisit that list:
  1. Can't add custom search engines.
  2. Double clicking on the tab bar to create a new tab doesn't work. Fixed!
  3. Ctrl-Enter in the address bar doesn't autocomplete to www. .com. Fixed!
  4. Middle clicking on a tab doesn't close it.
  5. Can't close the last tab.
  6. Grabs IE and Firefox bookmarks by default but doesn't display them in the Bookmarks menu. Doesn't grab Opera bookmarks.
  7. Doesn't use the standard RSS icon.
  8. Doesn't follow Windows UI conventions. Cannot resize using any border. Fixed!
  9. Breaks Fitt's Law! There is a one pixel hole in the maximized Safari at the top right corner. Moving the mouse to the top right corner and clicking closes the maximized window underneath Safari! Fixed!
  10. Complex font rendering broken e.g. Devanagari. Fixed!
Overall, Safari has shown some incredible progress on Windows! Good job Apple! Now if only it supported Adblock Plus or something like it.

Another improvement in Safari 3.1 is a hidden preference to enable GDI+ based text rendering on Windows (ClearType!) More details here.

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