Safari 3

Monday brought a great announcement for web surfers on both the Mac and the PC. Apple presented their latest version of their standards compliant browser, Safari, to the public at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The new version is not only for the Mac, but is also a Windows application now.

Instead of waiting until the October release of Leopard Apple decided to release Safari 3 as a public beta. Shortly after the release a slew of reports cropped up all across the web about vulnerabilities in this new version, specifically on the Windows platform. People seem shocked and outraged at this. I suppose they do not understand what a beta is. So, let us define what beta software truly is, as defined by Wikipedia —

A beta version is the first version released outside the organization or community that develops the software, for the purpose of evaluation or real-world testing... Beta version software is likely to be useful for internal demonstrations and previews to select customers, but unstable and not yet ready for release... Often this stage begins when the developers announce a feature freeze on the product, indicating that no more feature requirements will be accepted for this version of the product. Only software issues, or bugs and unimplemented features will be addressed.... Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version.

To me it seems like this public beta of Safari on both the Mac and the PC are doing exactly what they were designed to do. They have identified a number of vulnerabilities and bugs that need to be addressed and eliminated before the final release in October. Many people see the term beta on software nowadays and feel that this is a branding that signifies completion. This is the furthest thing from the truth. A beta is just a step in the long process of development. One in which the developer, in this case Apple, asks their users to try to break things and discover faults so that they can make sure their product if bug free by its final release.

So for those complaining of faults, bugs, vulerabilities, etc in this beta version of Safari — Stop it. Just report the bugs to Apple and stop the whining. If you don't want to deal with bugs then don't download beta software.