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Do we need another browser?

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After a couple days off working on lingering household projects, I see that Apple has released a beta of Safari for Windows. I think this is great, and I'll probably give it a spin, but I have to ask...do we really need another Web browser? I regularly use IE7 ~90% of the time and FireFox the rest...so I don't see my need.

I also admit to being mildly confused by the bar graph extolling the performance of Safari. That is until I figured out I need to read it like a braking distance chart from Car & Driver, rather than a "bigger is better" bar chart.

Update: Tried out Safari for a day.

Likes:

  • I kinda like the borderless window, although I admit to not really noticing it in iTunes. I'm running Safari in a Vista VM (VirtualPC), so while I don't usually run any browser (or application for that matter) in full-screen on my host, I do in the VM. In fullscreen mode, all windows are "borderless" anyway.
  • It really is faster.

Dislikes:

  • Fuzzy fonts. The philosophical differences between Apple & Microsoft as it relates to font smoothing, anti-aliasing, and pixel rendering are somthing of a long-standing difference of opinion. I don't have an opinion on the subject...all I know is the fuzzy screen in Safari gives me a headache.
  • Sizing grip in the lower right-hand corner is the only way to resize. Maybe this is just a Windows user thing and not a real big deal.
  • Takes longer to startup than FireFox.

Indifferent:

  • Sizing grip only changes to a double-sided arrow when you click on the grip...not when you hover.
  • Longer startup time.
  • Faster. Honestly, how am I gonna drink that Venti coffee with things appearing on the screen so fast:(

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2007
    I guess most of you guys at Microsoft were under the same impression, hence IE was not updated (was it for six years?) till Firefox gave it a run for their money. A little competition is always a good thing. It produces innovation. Do you agree?