Safari [Beta] - Why You Should Try It - Be A Beta Tester
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Lets put all the rhetoric aside, stop trying to compare Safari to either, IE, Firefox or Opera, and look at this as a great opportunity to be a Beta tester. Apple has released Safari for a number of reasons.Bbut for those of you who have for months been wanting to be a Beta tester, this is a great opportunity to try new software that is still in development. A chance to see how test software works and submit your finding to the Apple development team.
I have received comment after comment asking ‘how to become a Beta tester’, or ‘I want to be a Beta tester’, and ‘can I Beta test a software if I don’t have a diploma?’ The first thing you want to do is determine if you even want to try the software. Some Beta software could mess up your system. I always recommend trying the software on a test box and not your main system. But that is just me. Next is to download the software. A copy of Safari for Windows can be found here.
Check the system requirements for the software. With Safari they are fairly liberal and should run fine on most systems running Windows XP or Vista. Safari is only 8MB in size so it shouldn’t be a problem downloading it, even if you are still on dialup. Now what?
Here comes the hard part. We all have favorite softwares. For me Fire Foxfox is my baby. However, FF has its problems and by no means is 100% perfect. It still sucks RAM like crazy from my system, but I learned to live with it. So put your prejudices aside when you try Safari. It is simple to say ‘it sucks because it just does.’ That will get you noticed and people will be knocking down your door asking you to try their software. If you have a problem with Beta software, be specific about what the problem was and any error messages you received. Most software development teams may also want to know your systems specs, OS and other software installed on your system.
Last, be honest. If you like or don’t like a software, say so. But justify your answer with sound reasoning. It’s easy to say ‘Windows sucks.’ But proving it may be difficult. 
Good luck and enjoy tying out new test software.
2 Comments
marc klink
June 13th, 2007
at 5:49am
I’m using it now, as I write this, not because I want to be a beta tester [b.t.d.t.] but because I really do want a Mac [a newer one that is], and want to see how nice this would be, or if I’d have to use something else. It isn’t bad, and the display of things is beautiful [typically Apple, I look at installed fonts, and don’t see Helvitica, but I swear it is. It looks much better that any Arial font in Windows], however, there have already been several zero day exploits reported, so for most who try it, I’d recommend they not install the Bonjour service that the installer offers, unless they know they are behind a good [read not Windows] firewall.
Safari is also fairly fast, however, on the website for it, Apple claims it is the fastest at rendering HTML code, with their little graphic showing Opera as slowest. I can only assume this pertains to OS X, because Opera is without a doubt faster than any Mozilla product on my machines, on both Windows and Ubuntu.
On Betanews, it is reported there will be nightly builds, so hopefully the public releases will be frequent. Research continues. I have the benefit of dual monitors on 3 of my systems, so I can use Opera and Safari side by side and check small differences, without having to recall.
Ron Schenone
June 13th, 2007
at 6:15am
Hi Marc,
Thanks for sharing the information. I noted the speed differences that Apple states as well. I guess we all just take those with a grain of salt.
Ron