Are there huge differences between Safari versions on Windows and Mac OS?

Question

I have recently engaged in a conversation where were people defending that you should test your websites on Safari for Windows and on Safari for Mac, because they're very different. As a webmaster, there is this constant concern on having my web applications or websites running on every browser, but I don't have a Mac available for me to try the performance and/or rendering engine.

Long story short: are there huge differences between Safari for Windows and Mac? Does anyone use Safari for Windows as their main browser and can tell me if it's important for me to test on it too?

Answer 1

The biggest difference I have noticed is with form elements such as dropdowns and input boxes.

These can be manipulated easily on Windows Safari (e.g. padding, rounded corners, line-height) but Mac Safari does not adhere to much of this CSS on it's forms.

I've also noticed further differences between 'desktop' Safari and mobile Safari - i.e. in an iPad.

(Sorry I can't provide any screenshots to demonstrate this but I'm not in the office at the moment)

Answer 2

One to remember is the difference in Mac's rendering of fonts, and that seems to be at it's most extreme in Safari.

I just took these screenshots on my Mac, and you can see that Safari renders the line a bit bigger. Over lots of text, this can have a significant effect on the size of divs.

I don't have Windows to hand, so if somebody else could post a screengrab of Safari on Windows that would show the difference.

edit: added Win7 images.

Firefox (Mac)

Safari (Mac)

Safari (Win7)

Firefox (Win7)