Apple Safari 3.1 on Windows XP.

I’ve been running the betas of Safari on Windows ever since they came out. Overall I like Safari on Windows though it’s bit sluggish, which I attributed partially to being a beta.

Today Apple released Safari 3.1 on Mac and Windows. My primary interest was on Windows, where I still use Firefox most of the time.

Having used it only briefly I have the following observations:

  • Speed is much improved, and is overall faster than Firefox when loading pages side by side. Keep in mind that Firefox is no slouch, so performance wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I’m just happy that Safari can compete with it now that it’s out of beta.
  • There’s an issue with rendering. Take a look at the screen below shown in Firefox:

firefox_mdn.jpg

Now compare that to the same page in Safari 3.1:

safari_mdn.jpg

Oops.

No, I don’t have popup blocking or ad blocking enabled in either application.

I haven’t run Safari 3.1 on the Mac yet, so I’m curious to see if the same discrepancy between it and Firefox exists there.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 12:02 and is filed under General. Tagged: , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Apple Safari 3.1 on Windows XP.”

  1. Ace Fury Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 12:20

    Not so on the Macintosh version 3.1. All the ads come in load and clear!

  2. Constable Odo Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 13:44

    Did you try clearing the browser cache?

  3. Paul M Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 15:23

    I installed the Safari update earlier today on an XP box, I just loaded the Mac Daily News page. The right side is all ads, and I do have pop-up blocking enabled.

  4. James Bond 007 Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 17:15

    I just installed Safari 3.1 on my PC running Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise. No such problems as you encounter.

  5. Tom Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 17:45

    Well, it works just fine on the Mac, and it’s faster, too.

    Paul, James,

    Did you run beta 3.0.4 prior to 3.1 on XP? I did, and the problem did not exist there. Tomorrow I may uninstall the whole thing and do a fresh install to see if that changes anything.

  6. James Bond 007 Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 18:42

    No, I make it a policy to avoid “beta” software on either my PC or Macs. This is the first time I install Safari on my PC. I have pop-up blocking enabled also.

    I believe you should try uninstalling and reinstalling a fresh copy to see if the problem goes away.

  7. Partners in Grime Says:
    Tuesday, 18 March 2008 at 20:03

    Safari 3.1 is working great on my Mac!

  8. Paul M Says:
    Wednesday, 19 March 2008 at 10:09

    I’m with 007 - only as a last resort do I use beta software. I did not have 3.0.4 beta prior to 3.1

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