Software: Apple Safari for Windows Beta

If the list to the left looks familiar to you, then you probably are already using the best web browser available -- Mozilla Firefox. But this list is not from the folks at Mozilla, it's about a brand new browser for Windows PC's -- Apple Safari.

That's right, Apple's popular Safari internet browser -- up until now only available on an Apple Mac running OS X -- is now available in Beta for Windows PC's, and they're calling it the world's best browser.

Of course, I just had to try it out. So I downloaded the 28.1 Megabyte install file (compared to 5.7 Megabytes for Firefox), and installed. The installation took several minutes, with what seemed for a while to be a frozen progress bar. But, the installation eventually finished and I was on my way into the internet jungle on Safari.

Okay, that's just a little too colorful a description, maybe. Especially when used to describe Apple Safari -- quite simply the most simple, plain, boring internet browser I have ever used. If you want simple, plain, and boring, then maybe Safari is what you're looking for. If you want to learn a totally new interface, then maybe Safari is what you're looking for. I wrote an email in Gmail using Safari, and Control+I did not italicize my text, as every other browser I have ever used would.

In addition, Safari hi-jacked my system. While I left Firefox as my default browser, every time I would run a search using Google Desktop, the result box would pop up in Safari, not Firefox. But it, while browsing in Safari, I used the create new email command, a Gmail Compose window would pop up in Firefox, not in the Safari browser that originated it. Just a little too difficult to get used to, bouncing around from one browser to another seemingly with not control over my system.

Safari does have tabs, a la Firefox, IE7, Opera, and just about every other browser available today. But I found no option to add Google Toolbar to Safari. I use Google for literally everything, and I am not prepared to start doing without it just to downgrade to a lesser browser.

Bottom line, if you're using Windows on a PC (or even using a Mac), the world's best browser is not Safari from Apple. You just can't do any better than Mozilla Firefox.

Joe