Because I run all the major browsers on my various computers so I can thoroughly test my web sites, I decided to install Apple’s Safari for Windows.  It’s only in beta, mind you, but still I had to try.

Can I recommend it?

Absolutely not!  At least not yet.

The poor piece of crippleware is riddled with bugs, badly ported Mac-centric coding, and terrible handling of the Windows environment.

For example, if you have more than a few dozen fonts installed on your PC, Safari can’t handle it.  Does it say so and refuse to run, or does it limit the number of available fonts so it can run?

No.  Instead, it comes up fine but won’t actually display any text.  Not in the menu bar.  Not in the bookmark bar.  Not in a web page.  Nowhere.  You’re left with a blank window that has blank menus and blank pages (save images, that is).  It took me some time to troubleshoot, identify, and correct this font enumeration problem, and the only way to do so is to limit the number of fonts it sees.  Oh, and to download and install the default fonts it wants but doesn’t actually install in Windows.

Did Apple even try to port the software fully?

Again, nope!

Just take a gander through the options to see what I mean.  Not only are more than half of them disabled, but you also see a great deal of leftovers from the Mac platform, options that refer to Mac-specific items and settings.

Is the display even usable?

How about a resounding uh-uh?

For some bizarre reason I have yet to understand, Apple is using a proprietary font rendering engine.  Perhaps this works on the Mac, but it certainly doesn’t work on Windows.  All fonts, no matter the display setting, are shown as fuzzy, almost drawn, headache-inducing scribbles.  Even if I set the smoothing to its minimum, my eyes immediately start hurting the moment I load the page.

Overall, this beta is unusable, unsatisfactory, and unfinished—at best.

But don’t let this harsh review fool you.  I’ll be downloading and testing it as time permits, and I’ll keep it installed when the final version is ultimately released.  I don’t intend to use it on a regular basis, yet it is a cool little browser and will help me test my site code in the most popular Mac browser.

Keep in mind this is a beta.  There are bound to be problems.

And for those who hate IE like I do, this could be an alternative, although I’d offer a hearty recommendation that you try Firefox instead.  I find it to be the superior browser for Windows no matter what you’re currently using.  Safari has a long way to go to compete with IE, let alone Firefox, but I suspect Apple is up to the task.  Or at least I hope so.