Apple’s Safari 3.1 Draws Flak From Windows Users

Controversies continue to plague Apple’s products. After drawing criticism from Mozilla CEO, John Lilly about the way it was launched, the Safari 3.1 Web browser has received several complaints from Windows XP and Windows Vista operating system users.

The frustrated users claim that the latest version of Apple's Safari Web browser functions poorly, or crashes altogether, on computers running Microsoft Windows XP operating system.

Apple's online support forum is full of complaints regarding the Safari 3.1 and has drawn more than 1,000 views in the past week giving a hint that the problem is common.

"When I try to start Safari 3.1 in Windows XP, it crashes right away," said SakJosep, in a post on a Safari support forum thread on Apple's Web site.

Danzok wrote, “My job Safari 3.1 works great (win XP) on my laptop, it keeps crashing before ever launching!”

"I have this problem too, I have no idea what it is," said another user, OllieK92.

There have been reports that the Safari 3.1 is not functioning properly in Windows Vista systems also. Some of the users also said that they faced no problems with previous versions of Safari but this new version is not working.

“3.0.4 Works well but 3.1 crashes on opening,” reported Larkkie referring to the Safari versions.

Another user Enzac said, “I have the same problem too. Won't start at all. Was working fine up to the latest beta prior to v 3.1 i.e. Safari v 3.0.4.”

Apple had released the Safari 3.1 web browser last week to generally positive reviews. The updated browser features enhanced search tools, support for a range of new HTML specifications, and beefed up security.

The problems with Safari 3.1 just go on to show that even thoroughly tested new software is not free from glitches. Even Microsoft's Windows Vista SP1 has been drawing complaints since its last week release from users who say it won't run on their systems.

Apple has been at the centre of quite a few controversies regarding its policies in the recent past. Mozilla CEO John Lilly had recently criticized the strategy adopted by Apple to launch Safari 3.1. Apple began pushing the Safari 3.1 browser to Windows users, whether it was previously installed or not, via the Apple Software Update, a practice which Lilly said is just “wrong.”

In his blog post last week, Lilly wrote, “Apple has made it incredibly easy, the default, even for users to install ride along software that they didn’t ask for, and maybe didn’t want. This is wrong, and borders on mal ware distribution practices.”

Even rumored plans of Apple thinking of bundling free access to the iTunes music library to customers who pay extra for an iPod or iPhone have been termed as anti-competitive. e-Music CEO, David Pakman had recently said that this policy by Apple would amount to "using market power you have in one market to damage competition in another."

Apple might not be thinking much about what its competitors have to say but, the company has to sit up and take notice about the genuine complaints by users regarding the Safari 3.1 Web browser.