Safari on Windows

Apple has released a beta of Safari 3 for Windows. I will mostly talk about the UI compared to Safari on OS X and other Windows apps, but I'll also point out a couple new Safari 3 features.

It requires XP or Vista, so I won't be using it at home, where I'm frozen on W2K. :-) 

It doesn't have a Windows-style title bar—it uses the 'unified' look of iTunes. Also, the top left and right corners are slightly rounded. Clicking in the top-right corner of the screen when maximized does not close the window. There is not a clickable control in the top left corner. I would have preferred a standard Windows window—among other things, the menu items just seem to 'float' in a big sea of grey. 

HTML form textareas can be resized. (Sweet!!!) Form elements have a somewhat OS X-y look. Radio buttons and checkboxes look like their OS X counterparts. Dropdown menus are rounded and shiny but are not quite Aqua-y. I can't compare to Safari 3 on OS X yet—the installer requires a reboot. :-( 

The installer includes a Bonjour component for Windows. 

Text controls work as they do on a Mac. For example, if you're in a text box, the 'up' arrow brings you to the beginning of the line and 'down' brings you to the end. 

It rounds the edges of a text box and gives you an 'x' icon (for 'clear') if you specify input type="search", same as you'd get in Safri on Windows. 

Tabs can be dragged around, just like Firefox (stock? or requires an extension?) or Safari with Saft, which I love for that reason and many others. (Hopefully, they can keep making Saft for 10.5.) 

Preferences are under the Edit menu. The Preferenecs window has rounded top corners, 1-pixel grey rules on the top and bottom and 2-pixel rules on the sides. So do other windows, like the 'Private browsing' warning. Those windows have 100% Aqua controls internally. 

Don't use it for production work—I lost the first draft of this post to a crash. :-) 

It has the menu option to spellcheck text areas but it doesn't seem to work. 

The 'report a bug' icon is shown by default. 

It has one feature that Safari for OS X will never have: a 'maximize' button. It also throws away other features—windows can only be resized by dragging the bottom-right corner. Grabbing the status bar (also off by default, grr) won't move the window.

sample