Comments for Has Apple tripped up with Safari?

Oli said "The context for junk and no merit was this beta release. These betas have no merit as a serious effort for a desktop browser"

I couldn't disagree more. A beta release is a way for the developer to obtain the widest amount of feedback about a product. The developer is not forcing anybody to test the beta, it's up to the people to decide to use it or not. If they do then they know they are engaging in a test cycle. Beta is not "preview" software. It's a look inside things to come. Some of those things will change, don't make it, will be completely reworked. It's part of the deal. Apple never said this beta for Windows is ready for prime time. Personally, I like it. I loaded it on my XP box and it runs smoothly. I'm not able to test my websites on a wide variety of o browsers. In a weeks of work, Safari for Windows crashed only once so, from my point of view, it looks like a pretty mature beta.
I'm in the private alpha and beta testing of some Adobe products and I can tell you that things get a lot rougher early on in the development. Anybody who spent more than 20 minutes developing software knows that. There is no obligation from Apple to do a public beta. They provided it so that people can have a taste of things to come. This is pretty different from what Apple has done in the past. They have been criticized for their secrecy, for not being more open with the community. Now that they open up they get blasted because a beta program is not production quality. Damned if you don't do it, damned if you do it.
BTW, one Safari-specific feature that I didn't see mentioned here is the "Private Browsing". Now, that's something that I'd like to see on all the other browsers.

Its only focus is trying to harvest iPhone developers, hence its massively premature release.

How is this "harvesting developers?" This simply makes something people are going to do anyway easier. If anything, this shows how Apple is willing to provide the necessary tools and resources to assist developers create sites that look great on Mac OS X and the iPhone.

Since Safari on Windows looks and renders just like Safari on Mac OS X, developers can use it to accurately preview how their site will render, including color correction and font rendering. If this were not the case, you'd have to buy a Mac to see exactly how things would look. By looking at the number of IE only sites out there, it's obvious that very few developers have access to Macs.

I'm not saying the final will be so bad but releasing something in this stage shows Apple's immaturity and lack of trust towards its own developers.

Again, I've been using Safari on XP, including he original release in production testing for over a week. It's been solid, which is much better than I expected for a beta. Especially the first ever version on Windows. Security updates were released in less then 48 hours. If anything, I'd describe the installation problems as "lack of experience with third-party apps and exhaustive testing", rather than immaturity.

Also, care to clarify what you mean by "Lack of trust towards it's own developers"? Since I'm actually both a professional web developer and registered Apple developer, perhaps you can explain how I'm supposed to feel regarding this so called lack of "trust" Apple has shown towards me?

Well, we all have our opinions on the font rendering. I prefer OS X's font rendering as well too, I find it easier to read and easier on the eyes.

I've always wanted a Mac, ever since I used one a few years ago. My friends are starting to switch to Macs and they say they love it, it's more stable than Windows, everything looks better, it's faster and has more eye candy {without sacraficing any considerable amount of speed}

Well, maybe the font rendering in Windows doesn't hurt my eyes 'cos I've used it for so long {around 12 years now}

But I think that when I finally switch to a Mac this summer, I'll never turn back for sure. I'm one that decides on a piece of software and sticks with it until I can find anything better {that I think will work for me}

So, I found Windows, used it, got sick of it when I read all those articles about the speed of Linux and Mac, tried Linux on a Pentium II IBM 600E {worked faster than Windows did on my Pentium IIII} then I remembered Mac, the OS that no other compares with.

I've wanted a Mac for years now, I'm not going to stop wanting one either. It's the very best OS I've seen in my life, there is yet to be an OS as good as it.

Mac's font rendering is also a lot easier on my eyes, and everything's just so much clearer in general. Especially for people like me, on the computer all day, with rests, but always reading, Mac's rendering is just gonna make my life so much easier!