Opera may be reinventing the web next week, but in the meantime the browser wars continue to rage on. Apple has come out with a news release claiming its latest browser, Safari 4, has topped 11 million downloads in the first three days of its release. Surprisingly, it also claims over half of those (or 6 million to be specific) were the Windows version of the program.
Apple continues to tout the speed of its browser, claiming that it loads HTML pages 3 times faster than both Firefox 3 and IE8, and that the new Nitro JavaScript engine executes JavaScript nearly 8 times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Mozilla’s latest browser version. On a related note, Apple also says in the upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard release, Safari will run as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 %.
As Erick has stated before, the discussion regarding which company now markets the fastest browser – I’m sticking to Google Chrome – is irrelevant as long as all of them speed up.
Safari 4 is my default browser for a while (i already used the beta) and it’s an excellent browser.
I tried and liked Chrome but i’m using a Mac so anyway, i can’t have a stable version of it.
But Chrome misses the best features of Safari 4 : the search across the history (URLs and pages content), and the CoverFlow mode for the history.
When i’m looking for a page in my history, i rarely know it’s URL, but i remember the general appearance of it so CoverFlow is the best thing I know for finding a page.
Safari is made for Mac, so the browser is default for you anyway. Firefox rules for designers and for general users who want to extend various functions of enjoying browsing with a myriad of simple addons. But one problem I noticed with Firefox is that it doesn’t start up quickly. Maybe it’s only on my system, I have no idea.
It doesn’t have multi process. If at all something happens, all 10 tabs gone..
Firefox is opening slowly because it has to load all the plugins & addons at the startup and also it will check for updates for the installed plugins & addons. Try Firefox without any plugins & addons, it will open quickly than IE.
Same. I’m not anti-Firefox (I love it, and still recommend it to people), but there’s one thing which makes me love Safari:
It uses the best engines; the Webkit HTML engine, and the Nitro Javascript engine. Both are the most compliant out of all the browsers, and are fast as hell. Until you put browsers under immense pressure of what I like to call the next-generation of web (stuff which isn’t possible today because 80% of people just don’t have a fast enough browser), you don’t realize how fast Webkit is in comparison to Firefox!
As a developer, it feels important to me to built on a solid foundation which will be displayed as expected (as per the specs), and be more resilient to early (un-optimized) prototypes. Then I can go optimize everything enough for Firefox and IE where required.
Google chrome isn’t far behind (uses Webkit and the V8 engine), so it should catch up this year. And hopefully Firefox 3.6 will start to improve performance wise since 3.5 is approaching a stable release. Now, if IE would just hurry up and die, it’d make me very happy…
more than half of safari downloads were made to windows machines? No way.
Who would download safari if there are choices like firefox or chrome which totally rocks.
I run windows XP in a version of VMware and noticed Safari 4 showed up in the software update panel, even though on the mac I had to go to apple.com to get it. I think a lot of windows users who have itunes installed just go ahead and update it even though they don’t actually use it on a daily basis. Of course it’s a positive spin by Apple.
You’re right – Safari popped up in an Apple download window for me, which usually comes up when there’s iTunes updates.. Most people probably just click “OK” and let it go, or have it set to do automatic updates.
Excellent observation!
I HATE that updater – but it does give Apple a great lever into all those poor iTunes users (I switched to Sansa but I feel your pain)
Nice of Apple to sneak that in there!
I use Safari exclusively on my windows machine. I love the new ‘Top Sites’ section in v4. For me Chrome still has a few sites that it won’t load correctly and it is not as user friendly as Safari.
Blah Blah blah @ Apple. I’m sticking to firefox. Whatever new browser innovations from Apple, Opera, Google i’m sure will find its way to firefox.
The irony of my position is I’m always waiting for a google search challenger but I don’t see a problem giving all my allegiance to mozilla.
I have stopped using IE since 2005 when I switched to firefox and opera, now I’m on chrome and I am happy that EU is banning IE from Windows7, someone should save internet users from the crappiest browser on the market, that would be IE.
Sure… IE sucks out of the box. But if your OS ships without a browser, how are you going to download one?
didnt realize this was about IE.
but yeh, talk to me when another browser can be managed by group policy, and can handle intranet credentials correctly.
They push Safari with iTunes… of COURSE they got that many downloads. Stupid. Safari is horrible, it’s like a shitty Apple-tax’d version of Chrome (that, did I mention, works no where near as good). And even if you’re not a Chrome user, why would you EVER use it over Firefox?
because it’s faster than firefox and more user friendly than chrome ?
i don’t understand you “shitty Apple-tax’d version of Chrome”… you know, Apple is the biggest contributor to WebKit, Google just use it.
Chrome sends some stats to Google far about anything you do, not Safari.
But anyway you won’t understand what i wrote above because your “Apple-tax’d” is the mark of Microsoftly brain-washed user. You’re lost.
I have to disagree with you. I find Google Chrome to be very user friendly. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was designed to be a very clean interface. You can’t beat the address/search bar. It works perfectly. You just type in what you want and it gives it to you. I admit that I use the dev version, which puts me slightly ahead, but I haven’t had any stability issues. I have used Chrome 8+ hours a day since it came out and its crashed MAYBE twice compared to Firefox which crashes every other time I open it (I know, probably an addon). Anyways, Safari is fine and all, but definitely not designed for Windows. Firefox is my second love, but neither compares to the simplicity, power and speed of Chrome.
Apple-tax’d? Idiot… its free. Anyways… Safari Rocks, Firefox rocks, and Chrome rocks… it’ like debating what paper the news is written on, they all just deliver information. Well, not that simple, but you get my drift…
I’m guessing a large portion of those Safari “downloads” can be contributed to the fact that it’s pushed out with the iTunes/Quicktime download, which everyone is updating to 8.2 in anticipation of the iPhone 3.0 OS coming out in a few days.
I personally made sure to UNCHECK Safari from the install. I tried it once and it didn’t run well on Windows. I’ve been on Chrome since the day it was released.
YES. I almost unwittingly downloaded it when I got my iTunes update. No wonder they have so many ‘downloads’ on the Windows platform.
This analysis needs to be updated to state the obvious. Wonder how many of the 6 million Windows downloads even opened it once.
Truly, hate Apple just as much as the next right-thinking person. But Safari 4 on my Vista installation is faster than Chrome, and MUCH faster than Firefox and IE.
So Safari stays until someone comes up with something better.
Though obviously I use Firefox when friends are around – I couldn’t stand the embarrassment.
Wow! Finally I see someone with exactly what I noticed on my Vista too. Safari was slightly but defnitely noticeably faster than Chrome, although the beta refused to load sometimes.
Haven’t tried out the final release yet.
So like I’m in the CST.. 8:30 here.. are you guys at work at 6:30 in the morning? Or at home?
I Agree with Pederson anyone with ITunes will be pushed an ITunes update with Safari which they must download if they would like to keep updated…. FireFox with their full range of super cool adons for me works fine….
A coworker of mine installed Safari 4, only to find it doesn’t run. Well… it runs. Sometimes.
Personally, I tried Safari 4 beta, but it has nothing my current browser (Firefox 3.5 beta) doesn’t.
One more thing: apple’s claims are just ridiculous.
100 million DLs in three days? How come I’m the only one around who even *know* the name?
The fastest browser? I’m doubting it. Firefox 3.5 is *very* fast. But speed is not all there is to it: the criteria to choose a browser is more complex than that.
A self-correction (before I get flamed): there are *two* of us who have heard the name “Safari”.
I’m sticking to Microsoft Internet Explorer. It loads non-roman languages, such as Arabic, much faster and much more accurately.
I’m more on safe surfing, so I’m still sticking to my favorite browser..
Yeah, I downloaded it as well. Excellent browser, super fast, blah blah blah. Doesn’t have all (or any) of the extensions I like on Firefox, so not much use to me.
You know what, as broadband as well as computer speeds keep on increasing, faster browsers won’t really mean a thing.
Would you really notice a 0.001 second difference between load times? I think not…
Agree… addons like iMacros or Autopager save you much more time than any Javascript tweak.
Of course they claim that their browser is 8 times faster than anything else, why not? would anybody sue them for misleading and publishing false facts?
It’s so ridiculous, everybody claim that their browser is X times faster than the comptitors’.
(not modestly 50% faster ,but damn, 8 times faster, what a joke)
I miss the password saving functinlaity in Safari and with low ram on my PC .. Safari takes 15O MB while chrome only takes 50 MB
Yeah, so what if it’s a little faster than Firefox? With all the add-ons I got for Firefox, I customized the browser the way I like and am by the same token much much more productive and happy.
Hey! Here’s the fastest car in the world… goes from 0 to 60 in less than a second.
Unfortunately it doesn’t come with airbags, or storage space, or seats…
Safari owns everything. Chrome FireFox and IE8 all suck in comparison. This is undisputed fact. Deal with it!
Lifehacker ran some independent tests. Chrome was pretty much the fastest across the board.
http://lifehack...rome-2-and-more
The new Safari Inspector is the bomb … as good as Firebug FF extension, better in some cases, only a few minor areas it lacks.
Love Safari 4 but it’s a memory hog compared to Firefox on OS X.
test
On my desktop I have Firefox, Safaria, Opera, Chrome, and IE (I like to check the websites I work on look good in all of them). Personally I use Firefox for the plugins, though sometimes I switch to Opera just for grins. I’m gonna say that using any browser is fine though, as long as it’s not IE with it’s horrible standards support.
The browser wars are good for the consumer, and I can’t wait for the day when IE’s share drops below 50% and they start to get their act together. Which is why I salute the EU’s proposed legislation to force MSFT to bundle other browsers with Windows.
“As Erick has stated before, the discussion regarding which company now markets the fastest browser – I’m sticking to Google Chrome – is irrelevant as long as all of them speed up.”
The speed improvements are important as web-sites get more and more complex. In fact some good websites designers will restrict what they can do, because the browsers are not up to the speed. The need for speed will likely continue for as long as there are browsers.
That might of been true a while ago but I really don’t see that as an issue now. We’re seeing millisecond increases in page loading time between browser updates, do you really think ANYONE, especially website designers, give a crap about that 1/10th of a second they are going to save?
It’s not about loading time, it’s about sites’ performance. Think about web applications like Google Docs, Facebook or popular webmail services, not to mention Wave or simple javascript animations – modern browsers handle such things way better than, for example, Internet Explorer.
I gave up on IE as soon as I could, back in the early days of FF (wisely stroking beard). Then FF lots its place in my heart when Chrome proved to be so much faster. Even without AdBlock and Greasemonkey I’m still on Chrome, the speed makes up for the loss of extensions (most of the time). Also, elegant handling of crashed sites in Chrome is good – especially as sites become more complex.
I tried Safari 3 when it came to Windows – but the installer is too aggressive for my liking. All of a sudden I was getting all sorts of other tat that I didn’t want installed (MobileMe, Bonjour, etc.) so I wiped it out.
The issue is Plugins and Addons for a true Sharebale or Social aspect to Safari. I love Safari, but without the addons I am stuck using a slower browser like Firefox.
Safari (Apple) please make the fastest browser, for Mac and PC with some functionality so we can use tools like Shareaholic and Bit.ly easier.
Chris Brogan – thoughts?
Thanks
Dean Holmes
The number of windows machines is about the same as Norton saying its last update for Antivirus had 40 million downloads.
Anyone with iTunes installed who just clicks through the update process without looking will end up stuck with Safari installed on their computer for them. Its checked to install by default.
So that number is REALLY just the number of iTunes users who updated and didn’t pay attention to what they were getting.
Do you suppose that these numbers include regular Apple updates, as opposed to people who actually intentionally downloaded the browser?
Safari is a nice browser, but why don’t they support secure https protocol on Windows? Just try using Safari on Windows XP to access secure https pages of any app and see what happens…
I’m sticking with IE6 cause it helps me download adware and the gif animation is faster than Safari and Chrome combined. IE6 is the future of browsing people.
yeah, all these downloads come from Apple Update which was offering Safari 4 to people. Most people usually just install whatever upgrade brings them, so no intelligent action from their side is required. It is not like they went and intentionally downloaded it from the web site.
Altho not keen on Safari meself, any news that IE share suffers is good. Think the new EU bill will give IE more hard time n’ stoke up this browser war.
I stick to firefox all along. Don’t say it is the fastest or has features others lack. firefox just makes me feel comfy surfin’ the web. I actually can’t wait for a new firefox release to set a download record. firefox 3 made one last june, didn’t it?
This might seem like a minor gripe, but on Safari 4 for Windows you can use middle click on a tab to close it, but it doesn’t work on Mac. Middle click to close tabs is pretty much a standard UI behavior in many applications, not just browsers.
Uhh.. wtf. I go to the download section, click on safari and it gives me two windows options to download? It says download for window and mac and i click through, but only xp options? One with quicktime and one without. I’m on a MAC, MAC!
Speed is good.
Safari is the best internet browser there is..period!
Installed Safari v4. The Coverflow history is gimmicky but probably good for grandma who can’t remember which site is which… I dug the performance on Gmail – in a purely unscientific test I found satisfying performance gains. Unfortunately the browser crashed (alot – 3 times in 3 hrs. use?) and I promptly uninstalled it. Chrome may not be as flashy but *stability* wins every time.
well i stick with IE and Firefox, although safari is tempting, but i dont want to have too many browser on my pc. sofar i am good with what i have and competition between browser makers is good, because the inventions and updates accelerate in order to stay with the competition, so its good for any user regardless of their browers.
Why does apple keep referring to ‘Personal computer’ as a computer running windows?
lol @ anyone claiming Safari4 is faster than Chrome.
One thing most people on this site forget about is that not everyone upgrades their computer every 2 years. Much like I’m sure you don’t upgrade your car every 2 years. This goes for most things. There are companies which run systems that are up to 40 years old! You know why? Its unpractical and its too expensive.
This is precisely the big selling point of having a “fast browser” (i.e. Chrome). You can run it on almost ANY machine no matter how fast or how slow and it always works – fast.
Now you might ask, “whats the geezer on about? Safari 4 works fine for me, hes just a noob”. Well then listen.Ii’m using a fairly old computer here and the new Safari 4 takes A LOT longer to boot up than Chrome. I’m talking like Firefox 3.0 slow. To ANY user who has a machine like this, you’ve completely over promised and under delivered with your “speed claim”. The same goes for its JS engine. It doesn’t feel as fast as Chrome’s on older machines (feels roughly the same on faster machines).
TopSites? What TopSites? Safari4 automatically disables this feature if it detects your specs aren’t high enough. WTF? Seriously guys, its just a thumbnail aggregation of websites you most commonly visit. You DO NOT need high specs to run this. It works super fast and super fine in Chrome. Heck, I can get a Firefox extension and it works without a problem there too. So why not in Safari4?
This is the problem with most of these “Apple innovations”. They over focus on visual aesthetics.
Take the developer tools as an example. They will never be as good as Firebug’s until they focus on what’s truly appropriate – practicality. Compare the two Resource inspectors (or the Net tab in Firebug). Firebug gives you a quick overview of whats been downloaded and how long it took. You can do a quick scan, see how long those files took to load and go back to optimising. In Safari, they make some big blob of a graphics mess where you have to roll your mouse over every item to see how long it took load. Why couldn’t they just place it beside the item? Because they focused on visual aesthetics rather than making it a bit less attractive but more practical.
Sorry Apple. Some of your products rock (the Time Machine) but some will never win a big share of the market.
P.S. Also, as if force me to download ITunes + QuickTime with your auto update.
I think like-for-like, no browser can stand up to the advanced web technologies implemented in Safari 4.
It represents the new web, the one we might see from Opera and Firefox in 6 months and Microsoft in 2010 or 2011.
Anyway, it’s not that stuff we were using waaaay back in 2008.
It’s quite impressive.
That’s not all that impressive when you consider the fact that Safari is the only browser that prompts you to upgrade from one major version to another (3 -> 4), even if you don’t use it. The installs are gonna level off pretty fast.
Who cares? Safari is a good browser but it basically competing in the “fast” category with Chrome – yeah Good luck Apple.