Safari 3.1.2

Apple has published a Windows version of their native browser. No, the sky has not fallen and we have yet to see the spontaneous evolution of avian bacon.

What we do have is a major software publisher porting their once mono-platform browser with strong results. Much like iTunes, the Windows version of the Mac application works fine but lacks a certain tightness. It feels unfinished because it is.

Safari lacks most customization features. Skins and other aesthetic options exist in the Mac version, but not here. Hopefully that feature will come later. Just about the only thing you can alter is the font. Toolbar icons can be swapped, but the Customize option is only accessible from the Menu bar. If you like right-clicking your way to a shapelier browser, Safari's going to make you feel fat and ugly.

Safari does load pages quickly and didn't have any problems rendering Flash, although it crashed several times on Vista while processing Java. It's a memory sink, too, sometimes using three times as much RAM as Firefox when more than a couple tabs were opened. Tab sessions are savable--well, they would be savable, if the Reopen All Windows option under History worked. The built-in Roboform is buggy, and although there are plenty of extensions for the Mac Safari, that functionality hasn't been ported over.

Having a Safari engine to work with is a great boon for developers. For the average user, though, we'd recommend taking your browser hunt to more familiar grounds.