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Comment by thisislife2 | Hacker News Reader

Everyone should avoid Google Chrome, and as such this campaign is welcome. But my major gripe with Safari is:

1. It is not multi-platform. A browser that isn't available for Windows, Linux, xBSD is not a browser I would use or recommend to others.

2. I don't want "Intelligent Tracking Prevention" or some limited Apple curated lists of content blockers - uBlock Origin should be fully functional in it.

3. No requirement of an "App Store" to install browser extensions.

4. No built-in AI bullshit. Rather make certain browser APIs open so that any other AI tools can use and manipulate it as the user wants.

5. Fully open source (in Safari, only Webkit is open source).

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It did used to be available for Windows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_(web_browser)#Windows

And Internet Explorer used to be available for Unix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_for_UNIX

Funny story, but someone I know claims responsibility for killing Safari on Windows.

If you remember, those were the days when Windows software were kind of "bland" looking and Apple OS and software was "Shiny" with their brushed aluminium looks and glassy UI widgets (see screenshot here - https://jimmyg.org/blog/2007/safari-3-beta-for-windows.html ). So when Apple released Safari on Windows, it was more or less a clone of their Mac version with the "Aqua" skin. It really stood out in the Windows world and thus did become popular, briefly, in the Windows world due to this. Unfortunately because it was clone of the Mac version, it also retained the same UI quirks particular to Mac software like not having proper right-clicks (where Windows users expected) and some other UI interactions aspects that were different to Windows. Now, my friend who was using Safari because he loved the Mac-look of Safari, felt frustrated that it didn't conform to the expected Windows UI interactions norms. So he wrote a strongly worded email to Apple Support where in he told them that as a Windows user he was frustrated in using the Safari browser and he expected Apple to build software that complied with Windows usability norms. (What he wanted was a Safari with the UI skin of the Mac Safari version, but with UI interactions that conformed to Windows norms). [My friend claims] Steve Jobs' Apple being what they were then, took his complaints seriously and completely re-designed Apple Safari for Windows with native windows UI (Apple Safari 4 and later). But Apple Safari, as a Windows software, without the Mac skin, looked just as bland as any other browser (and it didn't really have any other great features to distinguish it from the other browsers of that time). They thus lost their USP which had attracted their initial userbase, and as it kept shrinking Apple abandoned it. My friend still regrets the tone of the email and not communicating properly about what frustrated him about Safari on Windows ...

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