I saw this this morning and quite frankly, I was a little angry as I don't have a need for any browser but Firefox.

WolfDemon

Does the star rating put you onto Giz's payroll? I mean the editor of this article doesn't even have a star.

robbywil

@frigg:

They're just sad b@st@rds with too much time on their hands basically....

MINI Driver

I love firefox and have absolutely no desire to run safari (or any other browser for that matter). Apple's pushing additional software via updates (their insistance on me installing quicktime, for example) and now safari is ridiculous.

I wish they'd give the option to exclude all future software installs I don't want.

Gofastmazda

@Pender: lousy, OSX users accuse windows being filled with unwanted apps, and their GOD, apple, is exactly the one doing these dirty things.. make sense? what sense?

clevin

@frigg: I think its just because they have a certain # of followers, but I'm glad to see you aren't going to think as anything more than average-joe commenters.

graffiksguru

Makes sense, even if it must be annoying to windows users. Browsers need market penetration for web developers to take them seriously, and this is a great way for Apple to get it.

Pender

@Akmed:

Are you serious? Why not use Firefox if you love spell checker? It's a better browser anyway, especially on Windows.

FranklinTurtle

I'm sure a large amount of light computer users with their iPods will just click install/OK to any Apple prompt and they'll get a bunch of lovely installs that way.

I'll happily reject it and iTunes over and over... and over. Seriously that's annoying.

FranklinTurtle

i love Safari. using it since beta came out for windows. open beta, or whatever it was. sometime last year lol.

best feature: spell check.

Akmed

@ParJoe: Yo, did you upload a .gif or .png to get a transparent bg image?... or is that image even transparent?

Joseph

Windows drones? Yea, good job changing the title but it still hit the feed. God forbid there was a post demeaning to Apple users - fanboys would come out in droves.

DomZ

apple sux

pek

Honestly, It is sorta backhanded. Software updates should really just be updates to existing software you have installed. The whole point is to keep your computer secure due to found security exploits. But then I also saw Sony due this to my Vaio, I forget what the new software was but I didn't install.

I have Apple Update uninstalled on the one computer I have iTunes on. iTunes will nag you to update when you start it anyways as will most software such as Java or Adobe Acrobat...

LJKelley

That's not good. I mean, I have Safari so I'm happy to get updates for it, but Apple should not be offering this to people who didn't download it on their own.

fpn1010

@nutbastard: @SchruteBuck @curves, @strider: congratulations on your stars!

We're all very proud and have asked a certain patent-holding professor emeritus laser scientist to bake you a star-shaped cake in your honor. She has yet to respond. No doubt her hands are covered in flour and is unable to get to her emails.

Anyways, to be honest, I find it a little intimidating to see those stars by your names. Frankly, I've always been a little intimidated by you, and this certainly makes it that much harder to walk up to you at a party and start a conversation. I am already rehearsing potential conversations with friends who have graciously stickied your names onto their shirts so that it will be that much less awkward at the next Gizworld. So far, I've rehearsed conversations about the weather, Creed, Abba, continental drift, the future of the human foot, and Kinshasa as a conduit for emerging viruses. If you have any other interests, please let me know!

I would also imagine the pressure on you guys to deliver the goods is now off the charts. As star commenters, everything you say will subsequently be judged by an unprecedented level of scrutiny, much the way Apple has engendered hyper-vigilance as they too have flourished in recent years. While you too will have your fanboys and bashers, please know that I for one will try to continue to think of you all as the same regular joe commenters-of-the-people that you have been for so many years. And if that doesn't work, I'll shout "commentard" three times as loud as I can, and I'm pretty sure the star will just kind of disappear long enough for me to read your comment.

At the same time, I can't help but notice that the Giz has never awarded a star to any of their Amish (or Mennonite) commenters. I may just be a little sensitive on the subject, but I would hate to think this is indicative of any underlying bias. Surely, just an oversight. Anyway, as this is your big day, I don't mean to sound anything but 100% positive and happy for you all! I am!!! You deserve your stars, as Paula says, "you are stars," and I think I speak for the rest of the Giz community when I say I hope they last a good long time before going supernova and collapsing into space-sucking radiation-spewing black holes.

frigg

Well just wait for their next announcement that Safari 3.1 has 1 billion downloads *little finger to mouth* in 2 seconds of release. At least you know where that figure comes from.

alukard

It's sort of funny how I download safari with the updater after reading this article, closed firefox and came back to giz with safari, and the first thing I see is "vista is the worst tech product in history" on a banner ad.
(it also reminded me of how much I love ad-block plus)

mferrari

it sucks, i tried it once and it crashed on first launch, right now i'm using ie8 bata, it's running quite well, has not crashed yet.

wetworker

Over my dead body - I'll never use that browser

kibets

I concur with the common sentiment here. It's fast, but ugly, buggy, (on windows) and severely limited without FF's extensions.

Apple's just tryin to pimp their wares to win users. I'm glad I got to try it and it's useful for web design.

ParJoe

@Zlevee:
Exactly.

secretmanofagent

that's interesting I will have to turn me pc on when I get home and see what happens, as a side note I can has stars yes?!

lilaliendog

Oh, so that's what UAC popped up for. =/ Guess I should have read what I was updating before clicking Install. Safari is just another browser. I have like 5 on here: IE, FF, Opera, Maxthon, Safari... I only really need 3.

ph15h

Too bar Safari on Windows blows. It looks horrendous. I'll stick with Firefox 3 with my wonderful extensions.

xxdesmus

Safari for windows is a crippled program. Forget extensions. Almost all of them only work with Safari on OSX. And paying for a lot of them? Looks so much like that other proprietary browser- IE 7. Safari for windows also renders fonts differently. Thus, while on screen internet fonts look the same in IE, FF & Opera, they don't with Safari. And what's with the flat, boring, 90's battleship grey UI? Dare to think differently! Skin your browser for free with FF. Extend your browser's capability with literally hundreds of FREE extensions.

Apple makes some really excellent software. This windows version isn't one of them.

lianna_g

Well at least you can check it off if you don't want it, not like IE where you can't delete it, which is something like leaving your front door wide open is you ask me. Safari is not the fastest as apple states but its a really good alternative, no pop ups no spam to worry about, it also does not eat up your system resources which is real good

snitch29

There are still a LOT of websites I go to that do nto support Safari. Firefox/Camino/Opera are good enough for me.

BostonPimpDaddy

It's an all-star blogging team!
....err....
Nevermind ;)

comp_wiz101

I gave it a shot.

It isn't bad. But it's missing a few features that Firefox has (most notably extensions, but a few others) and so far I can't find any tangible benefit it has over Firefox. So plenty of cons, no pros.... fail.

bobman1235

I got this popup yest...

Y2KGTP

This isn't new. If you just have Quicktime installed, it always tries to push crappy iTunes on you. It's been doing this for years, and it's part of Apple's whole Schizo mentality towards its users, where it can't make up its mind whether or not it wants to help them or harass them.

unit3

I hate it when Apple tries to push iTunes on me when I just want Quicktime. Cant' wait to see what else they are pushing on us.

HJTravels

It's true that they have always tried to push you to dl Quicktime and iTunes together, and then finally made Quicktime necessary for iTunes. Perhaps this trend will continue and Safari will be necessary to surf the iTunes music store. Let's hope this is not the case.

allthosemoments

Windows drones? Funny. Look at your RSS feed.

avsfan123

appearantly what it means for me is i don't know how to work these tubes properly, and im totally restarded.

nutbastard

@Zlevee: I've noticed that too. It also repeatedly installs a startup agent. Maybe Apple has been taking some design cues from Symantec lately.

Tracert

Well, finally Apple's getting as ballsy as MS - maybe this'll get them an even better market share for cumputers.

multimoog

Until they fix that retarded RETARDED issue(feature) where <TEXTAREA> HTML blocks have a little dragging nubbin, I'm not using it as my primary browser.

Joseph

Yeah, but Apple has always tried to push them as a package, even when you just download iTunes from their site, it tries to install Quicktime.

matt buchanan

@SchruteBuck: Hey at least you got one! Now I don't feel special anymore.. :(
Regarding Safari, I like it (not as much as FF), even though it took me a while to figure out how to get fonts to show up when I first installed it. I don't think they should be forcing it upon people though.

graffiksguru

motherfucker.... i hate this comment system!

nutbastard

@SchruteBuck:
no, the stars were implemented incognito and incommunicado, but it means you're a kick-ass commenter (a Star Commenter, officially)

so far it looks like you, curves, strider and I are the only ones.

nutbastard

@SchruteBuck: It means we're watching you.

matt buchanan

@SchruteBuck:
no, the stars were implemented incognito and incommunicado, but it means you're a kick-ass commenter (a Star Commenter, officially)

so far it looks like you, curves, strider and I are the only ones.

nutbastard

@SchruteBuck:
no, the stars were implemented incognito and incommunicado, but it means you're a kick-ass commenter (a Star Commenter, officially)

so far it looks like you, curves, strider and I are the only ones.

nutbastard

*double post avoidance bump*

nutbastard

@SchruteBuck: I wonder the same thing. Though looking at the source:

(open tag)em class="star cem_46677" style="" title="nutbastard is a Star Commenter"(close tag)*(open tag)/em(close tag)

Thomas Palmer

Actually it did previously try to add stuff to your PC. If you had Quicktime but not iTunes, it would try to add that.

Zlevee

well, it's obviously a good thing coming from apple.

AlexLand

I haven't seen any improvement going from Firefox to Safari on my computer. Thus, I am sticking with Firefox.

Thomas Palmer

@nutbastard: Hey what's the deal with the star icons next to these comments. Did I miss a meeting?

SchruteBuck

if it doesn't work with windows update, which i believe requires IE, i dont see the point - better to go with FF and have all those juicy addons!

nutbastard

@nutbastard: So that's how you get to be a "star" commenter...

FritzLaurel

@Joseph: I LOVE the text area draggables. I'm sick of websites expecting me to enter a paragraph in a tiny little box. There's no good reason I should have to stick with website-chosen text box sizes.

guywcole

I've accepted the 'iTunes... +Quicktime' installers since if you're going to be using one, you'll most likely need the other.

And the Apple 'software update' is fine pushing me this.... IF I already had a previous version of Safari to actually UPDATE. But this just looks like a desperate attempt to push software on people that do not need/want it.

Thanks, but I passed. I'll stick with my Firefox since it's, well, better.

TKWarrior

SAFARI SUCKS. I have Firefox on my Macs and PCs! <3 Mozilla. Might be the best software company out there, followed closely by Google.

lafond66

Never been impressed with Safari. It was the most incredibly crash-worthy piece of junk on my old iMac. Even less impressed that they're trying to push it onto my Windows machines now. And why is it that you can't indicate to Apple Updater to stop offering a particular update (I'm lookin' at YOU iTunes)? I've managed to justify having Quicktime on my work machine (locked down corp config), but no way for iTunes. Not letting me remove it from the update list simply makes it an accident waiting to happen....

Mandatory_Field

@Zlevee: Yes. And it continues to push iTunes even after you expressly ask it to ignore it.

[www.dtgeeks.com]

I'm glad someone's finally talking about this. Maybe it'll get Apple to finally stop doing it.

UnnDunn

@nutbastard, Curves, Strider, and Schrutebuck:

STARS!?!?!?! They're giving these people STARS!?!?!?

Its been over a week and I can't even get my account approved--oh, wait...I can read this NOW...I guess my account HAS been approved...

Umm, well, errr...

My sincere congrats on the stars!

(I actually HAVE been reading Giz long enough to know that it IS well deserved.) :^)

NumbersGuy

Don't forget that browser makers get a cut of each Google ad clickthrough if it's on a search page that comes from the browser's search toolbar. So there's more than bragging rights at stake here...

rekoil

i didn't even think OSX users used safari...

jbhitter24

Ironically, this update actually adds security holes to your system.

Darkest Daze

@Pender: No, no it isn't. Firefox developed market share because it's main competition (IE) is terrible, and when people started asking "what else can I use?" the answer they got from their tech-saavy friends/children was: Firefox.

Safari is absolute garbage on Windows. Well, I should say, 3.0 was enough that I won't let it back on my computer again. Aside from crashing near constantly and being incompatible with almost every web-app I use, it makes no effort to fit in with the operating system. Different keystrokes, the fact that you can (perplexingly) only resize a window from the bottom right corner, and the terrible Mac font anti-aliasing thing (please, Apple- steal ClearType. Microsoft's not looking)...it doesn't fit.

Topcat

They seem to have always bundled iTunes or Quicktime with something, whether it be one or the other. Thing is, they are deceiving users by saying it's an "update" when it's just installing the program.

The browser itself on Windows is not impressive, and even IE looks better. I use a Mac, and I don't even use Safari, it's Firefox all the way for me.

kylo4

@AlexLand: of course, let's bend over.

foureight84

IMHO, Safari still blows on OS X. It's not skinnable, and the tabs do not show the favicons.

The Great Aussie Evil

Safari is getting better and better everyday. I have switched from Opera to Safari, at least on Mac OS X. Firefox who?

phytonix

Apple attaches everything to whatever you want... and I don't want Quicktime. Only iTunes. Now it's worse...

Dooga

I'm waitnig for FireFox 3.0 Final.

perrobg

Apple is getting big-company-itis. Adding software (unsolicited) pisses people off. Stop doing it.

graham1010

@graham1010: It's more like cult-leader-itis. They know that they can do anything and the fanboys will still bow before them. Now they're trying to back door more members in.

TrikeKid

Majority of people using windows already have IE unless they uninstalled it, and for a lot they also have Firefox. I keep my IE for the lack of plug in support for the Firefox 3 beta. But when there are a numerous amount of windows users with two internet browsers already why would they download a third???

ajlafontaine

@matt buchanan: and
@allthosemoments: and
@TKWarrior: and
@kylo4: They do give you the option of downloading them independently if you look for it. The best way to avoid this "push" annoyance is to either not allow the install of the Apple Updater, or to uninstall the Apple Updater, which you can do without uninstalling the application you acually wanted such as Quicktime.

Zlevee

Apple really wants me to stop using any product of their manufacture if they keep up this forceware BS.

Fire your forceware gorilla marketing asshats ASAP Apple. they are not helping you.

axiomatic

With Microsoft's experience in forcing the use of IE to dominate the market years ago - Apple should be careful with stunts like this. Especially considering how iTunes has become the IE of music and videos for portable devices.

totoro

Yeah, I wasn't very happy about seeing this in my Apple Update window. It really surprised me. However, being the good little geek, I simiply clicked "Cancel" it magically disappeared! I love magic!

Incidentally, you can remove IE from Windows, through "Add and Remove Windows Components". Obviously, the main structure is there as "explorer.exe", but the IE program will be removed. You just have to be careful of the automatic updates, because they'll install it without you knowing.

dtaschler