Which web browser do you use?

Which web browser do you mainly use?

  • Safari

    Votes: 341 44.0%
  • Firefox

    Votes: 214 27.6%
  • Chrome

    Votes: 198 25.5%
  • Opera

    Votes: 15 1.9%
  • Camino

    Votes: 5 0.6%
  • Other

    Votes: 2 0.3%

  • Total voters
    775
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vansmith

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HAHAHAHAHA
why all the hating on firefox?
The application itself is terribly slow and bloated, the browser component used to be considerably slower than the other browsers (4.0 seems to have caught up) and it looks terrible. The UI doesn't integrate with OS X at all - take a look at the different ways that it renders a drop down box for instance (compare one from the preferences and one from inside the browser to see what I mean). If you like Firefox, by all means use it. The dislike for Firefox is a personal dislike - it suits the needs of a large portion of internet users.
 

iWhat

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The application itself is terribly slow and bloated, the browser component used to be considerably slower than the other browsers (4.0 seems to have caught up) and it looks terrible. The UI doesn't integrate with OS X at all - take a look at the different ways that it renders a drop down box for instance (compare one from the preferences and one from inside the browser to see what I mean). If you like Firefox, by all means use it. The dislike for Firefox is a personal dislike - it suits the needs of a large portion of internet users.

Bloated is what I always would equate FF to. It just doesn't encompass the true feel of a Mac OS X into its design. The personalization is really nice in FF, the addons, the themes, and the personas. The other thing that bothers me is the personas, they don't look good at all on the mac. But they look a lot better on Windows.

Chunkiness is another one.
 

vansmith

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I forgot about the personas! I'm with you on that one - they frequently look terrible. To be fair though, I'm not one for skinning my apps.

Firefox continues to be the slowest loading browser and the UI, although it has gotten faster, is still sluggish compared to other browsers especially those that use Cocoa. I'm hoping that there goal of "OSX 10.7 system integration" in their roadmap is met. They're also shooting for "no more than 50ms delay between user action and application reaction" which would be fantastic.

I'll give Mozilla credit for building a browser with a great extension ecosystem. I've read that because of the way the UI is designed and managed, writing extensions for Firefox is not only easier but a developer can access much more of the browser. Personally though, the few extensions I use are available for other browsers. ;)
 
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Well I tried what you guys said and gave a run on Safari and I gotta say I'm quite pleased. Having switched from a PC a little less then a year ago now and using FF there, I just figured I would use it on here and didn't give Safari a try. I think I'm pretty well sold already. Thanks guys.
 

iWhat

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Well I tried what you guys said and gave a run on Safari and I gotta say I'm quite pleased. Having switched from a PC a little less then a year ago now and using FF there, I just figured I would use it on here and didn't give Safari a try. I think I'm pretty well sold already. Thanks guys.

I'll admit, FF is nice on Windows. But it just doesn't make the mark compared to the quality of Safari and Chrome. The last browser I used was Chrome, but I had to switch from it to Safari in the end. I was just having a not so great experience with videos on YouTube on my slow MB. However, Safari handled the videos just fine on the computer. I still like Chrome, but Safari has a better experience all around.

Glad you are happier with Safari though!
 

vansmith

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Firefox is great in Linux as well.

I don't blame you for switching to Safari if you view a lot of YouTube videos - Chrome has been struggling with the Flash versions of videos now for a while and I haven't got the slightest clue why this is the case. If you switch to the YouTube HTML5 beta, a significant number of videos are encoded for it and play like a champ but that doesn't excuse the terrible Flash performance (for once, I'm not blaming this on Flash itself). Regardless, Safari is a good choice.
 
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I was using Firefox on my PCs and added it to my Mac as soon as I got the Mac. I do use Safari, but only for Facebook. I am hoping that using Safari only for Facebook will limit the cookie info that FB collects.

Safari is fine, but I don't like the bookmarks. I have not been able to figure out how to make them work as I would like. Perhaps I am trying to make Safari work like Firefox.

I use Opera for a difrerent Facebook login. Opera is not as good as either FF or Safari in my opinion.

Larry H
 
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safari an firefox if i need it
 
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I was using Firefox on my PCs and added it to my Mac as soon as I got the Mac. I do use Safari, but only for Facebook. I am hoping that using Safari only for Facebook will limit the cookie info that FB collects.

Uh.....

I think you're creating a conspiracy around something that doesn't exist. Facebook does not, and cannot, read all your cookies.

I mean if you're that afraid of Facebook, why even have an account there?
 
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So far..for me..I like it ( FF 4 ). It feels a bit snappier. I like the clean interface and the tremendous options for customization. Thumbs up for me.
 

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Firefox 4 has been released. Let us know, if you have switched, and what you like and don't like about it.

Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client

Quoting myself, since I was the last post of page 8.

So far..for me..I like it ( FF 4 ). It feels a bit snappier. I like the clean interface and the tremendous options for customization. Thumbs up for me.

I'm thinking about using FF 4 strictly for my old MB with 1GB of memory on it. It's running very nice on it thus far. I'm addicted to YouTube, so I really need a browser that doesn't struggle. Safari works great most of the time, but when I need to run lots of apps, FF doesn't struggle as much as Safari now. Just wish FF looked nicer!
 

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Might I suggest that you join the YouTube HTML5 beta? Any videos encoded in WebM format on YouTube (the number of WebM videos seems to be growing at a quick rate) will play in their HTML5 player which, although it's not perfect, may or may not be easier on your system compared to Flash.
 

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Might I suggest that you join the YouTube HTML5 beta? Any videos encoded in WebM format on YouTube (the number of WebM videos seems to be growing at a quick rate) will play in their HTML5 player which, although it's not perfect, may or may not be easier on your system compared to Flash.

I've toggled the HTML5 beta on and off in the past. But it's been months, since I've tried it. I can't remember what issues I was having, but I think I was having issues with some videos showing up without video, only audio. There were some other issues, I wish I remember what they were.

I'll opt back in and see what it's like again.
 
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Ugly interface and my Australian English Dictionary was disabled due to incompatibility :(
It's still my choice of browser though, as I've not suffered freezes, crashes, or flash problems as I have with Safari.
The update does seem to have made things feel a little snappier, but this could just be in my mind :)
 

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The update does seem to have made things feel a little snappier, but this could just be in my mind :)

This is always a struggle for me. Every time, I try to switch to an updated browser, my perception is always that it's faster no matter what. Yet, I'll eventually change my mind and switch back in most cases. :p
 
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So far it's much better than 3. Although Ill have to see if the memory leaks have been fixed. I like the out of the box html5 support, except that I had to hack one of my sites since it disabled my form validation routines. For some reason it's really slow on my localhost sites.. which is really really strange.

Chrome is still the browser that I use most though, so we'll see as time goes on :)
 
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I haven't installed FF 4 yet, but shall shortly. I've been absolutely fine with FF 3.whatever up till now. Every time I install FF, I always modify a lot of settings with the about:config menu system, which results in it being blazing fast in terms of rendering pages. Yes, start up for FF has always been a bit sluggish, but why should I care about that, really ? Once it's up, it's up..

As far as looks go, yeah. I hate the persona's. I don't like them on Windows, either. Safari has a far more streamlined look to it, and I find it odd that it hasn't been replicated in one of the persona's ?

But two other things stop me from using Safari exclusively. It's a lot more memory hungry and doesn't have (ironically enough) full swipe gesture integration. I can NOT live without the three finger swipe up and down gestures! (goes to top or bottom of page) It baffles my mind wondering why this hasn't been implemented in Safari.

Guess I'll try FF 4 now.

Doug
 
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Sorry, this is a bit of a cross post but: I just totally uninstalled 3.6 and installed 4. Holy cow this thing is blazing fast right out the box! It's even faster than my 3.6 with all the about:config modifications. Start up seems to be less than a second! Whereas before, it could take up to about 8 seconds !

One thing I've noticed though is that I can't pinch to zoom with my magic trackpad. Maybe it's something I need to check in preferences. Anybody have info on this ?

The interface is MUCH nicer now. Integrates a lot better with OS X and I wouldn't dare touch any of the persona's. The UI profile also seems trimmed down a bit, not as clunky. I haven't customized anything yet, so ... More later, play time now!

Doug
 
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Another cross post:

Pinch to zoom in FF 4 is disabled by default for some stupid reason.. but here's how to restore it:

1. Go to a new tab, type in about:config hit enter
2. Click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button
3. search for “browser.gesture.pinch.in” right click on it and hit modify
4. A drop down that says “Enter string value” appears type in cmd_fullZoomReduce
5. Click ok
Find the other ones and do the same. After you have entered all four you should see them in bold and on the right under value you should see only this cmd_fullZoomReduce part.
6.Once you have it all entered just close the tab and it should work.
I didn’t have to quit Firefox for it to work, but you may.
I’m using a MacBook Pro and it worked great, Hope this helps.


Preference Name / Value browser.gesture.pinch.in / cmd_fullZoomReduce
browser.gesture.pinch.in.shift / cmd_fullZoomReset
browser.gesture.pinch.out / cmd_fullZoomEnlarge
browser.gesture.pinch.out.shift / cmd_fullZoomReset
And in order to get twist gestures to work (for switching tabs) this is how to enable those:


  1. Enter about:config in the Firefox 3.5 URL bar. If you get a warning about voiding your warranty, click the "I'll be careful , I promise!" button to continue.
  2. In the Filter box, enter browser.gesture.twist. You'll see a few entries, including the two you need to modify: browser.gesture.twist.left and browser.gesture.twist.right.
  3. Double-click on browser.gesture.twist.left and enter Browser:prevTab in the dialog that appears. Double-click on browser.gesture.twist.right and enter Browser:NextTab.

Doug
 
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