Which web browser do you use?

[mudpuppy]

Switchers always tend to install Firefox on their mac to give them some form of a remnant of their past days. But soon the dark cloud that is Safari swoops over, and after that you learn to appreciate Apple software and how it is designed. Once you go the Safari way, there's no turning back.

I use IE at work as it is required for some of the applications we run.
As to why I put FireFox on my Mac I tried Safari but I think FireFox works better for me. Firefox supports true tab browsing, and two of my favorite add ons, Add Blocker Plus & FireFTP. Just about to drop Safari in the trash to free up disk space.

 

[mudpuppy]

Switchers always tend to install Firefox on their mac to give them some form of a remnant of their past days. But soon the dark cloud that is Safari swoops over, and after that you learn to appreciate Apple software and how it is designed. Once you go the Safari way, there's no turning back.

I use IE at work as it is required for some of the applications we run.
As to why I put FireFox on my Mac I tried Safari but I think FireFox works better for me. Firefox supports true tab browsing, and two of my favorite add ons, Add Blocker Plus & FireFTP. Just about to drop Safari in the trash to free up disk space.

 

[goobimama]

Well you can add an ad blocker to Safari. Works well for me. As for FTP, well, I use Coda so that's taken care of.

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week. Use it and nothing else. Try and work your way around all the things you miss from Firefox. After a week, if you aren't sold on Safari, then trash it is. Though I highly doubt that.

 

[goobimama]

Well you can add an ad blocker to Safari. Works well for me. As for FTP, well, I use Coda so that's taken care of.

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week. Use it and nothing else. Try and work your way around all the things you miss from Firefox. After a week, if you aren't sold on Safari, then trash it is. Though I highly doubt that.

 

[D3v1L80Y]

FireFox works better for me. Firefox supports true tab browsing, and two of my favorite add ons, Add Blocker Plus & FireFTP. Just about to drop Safari in the trash to free up disk space.

I second that. It's the exact same reason I use Firefox as my main browser. Safari works okay, but lately it's been pretty flaky on loading some pages. Plus, the tabbed browsing in Firefox is far superior to Safari's.
And while there are extras and plugins for Safari, it cannot hold a candle to the oodles of plugins and extras that are available for Firefox. Makes for a much more customizable web browsing experience when compared to Safari.

 

[D3v1L80Y]

FireFox works better for me. Firefox supports true tab browsing, and two of my favorite add ons, Add Blocker Plus & FireFTP. Just about to drop Safari in the trash to free up disk space.

I second that. It's the exact same reason I use Firefox as my main browser. Safari works okay, but lately it's been pretty flaky on loading some pages. Plus, the tabbed browsing in Firefox is far superior to Safari's.
And while there are extras and plugins for Safari, it cannot hold a candle to the oodles of plugins and extras that are available for Firefox. Makes for a much more customizable web browsing experience when compared to Safari.

 

[mudpuppy]

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week.

That's what I did. The big deal breaker for me was launching a new tab not a new window when clicking on a link embedded on a web page. I even found the thread here to make this happen but it had mixed results posted about it so I passed on that. Don't get me wrong I have made an effort to install and use Mac based apps on the Air, and I have found that Mac did a lot of things better than Windows but honestly some things make me say "what were they thinking".

 

[mudpuppy]

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week.

That's what I did. The big deal breaker for me was launching a new tab not a new window when clicking on a link embedded on a web page. I even found the thread here to make this happen but it had mixed results posted about it so I passed on that. Don't get me wrong I have made an effort to install and use Mac based apps on the Air, and I have found that Mac did a lot of things better than Windows but honestly some things make me say "what were they thinking".

 

[ILoveMyMacbook]

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week.

Hmm... what would be the main reasons to switch to safari?
Safari loads pages slower than Firefox for me, that alone would be a very good reason to stick with FF. Also - firefox has everything that I need, and the couple times that I used safari (I wanted to use it longer, but I always ended up frustrated because it's not firefox, haha) I just wasn't impressed, while I fell in love with Firefox as soon as I started using it, when I switched from IE.

So... what features does Safari have that Firefox doesn't?
And does anything like MeeTimer exist for Safari?

 

[ILoveMyMacbook]

A true test of whether you like Safari or not, is to use it for a week.

Hmm... what would be the main reasons to switch to safari?
Safari loads pages slower than Firefox for me, that alone would be a very good reason to stick with FF. Also - firefox has everything that I need, and the couple times that I used safari (I wanted to use it longer, but I always ended up frustrated because it's not firefox, haha) I just wasn't impressed, while I fell in love with Firefox as soon as I started using it, when I switched from IE.

So... what features does Safari have that Firefox doesn't?
And does anything like MeeTimer exist for Safari?

 

[goobimama]

1. There's a simple terminal command that makes every new window open in a new tab. It's a feature of Safari only not enabled.
2. Safari is faster than Firefox. That's a fact.
3. Safari has a developer menu. Of course, if you aren't a web developer, it's not very useful.
4. Lack of features is in fact a feature. Look at the browser. It's so minimalistic, yet it has some really awesome features (the link to which points to a post I wrote on my blog. Visit if you feel like it)

 

[goobimama]

1. There's a simple terminal command that makes every new window open in a new tab. It's a feature of Safari only not enabled.
2. Safari is faster than Firefox. That's a fact.
3. Safari has a developer menu. Of course, if you aren't a web developer, it's not very useful.
4. Lack of features is in fact a feature. Look at the browser. It's so minimalistic, yet it has some really awesome features (the link to which points to a post I wrote on my blog. Visit if you feel like it)

 

[AlyciaAnimation]

I tried using Firefox for a little bit, but I came back to Safari. What bothered me most about Firefox is that you can't view pdfs in the browser. I don't even come across pdfs on the web that often that I look at, but enough that I found it annoying that they would download.

I do love the "inspect element" option in Safari. I have a web developer plug in on firefox, but safari's is so much simpler and yet still full featured.

The only thing I do miss about Firefox is the StumbleUpon plug in. Maybe it's for the better, because I don't need more ways to procrastinate.

 

[AlyciaAnimation]

I tried using Firefox for a little bit, but I came back to Safari. What bothered me most about Firefox is that you can't view pdfs in the browser. I don't even come across pdfs on the web that often that I look at, but enough that I found it annoying that they would download.

I do love the "inspect element" option in Safari. I have a web developer plug in on firefox, but safari's is so much simpler and yet still full featured.

The only thing I do miss about Firefox is the StumbleUpon plug in. Maybe it's for the better, because I don't need more ways to procrastinate.

 

[goobimama]

^^ Check out Stumbi. It's very basic, but my stumbleupon friend seems to like it. And the cost is some minimal $2 or something.

 

[goobimama]

^^ Check out Stumbi. It's very basic, but my stumbleupon friend seems to like it. And the cost is some minimal $2 or something.

 

[dtravis7]

On OSX I use the latest Webkit build. Very fast. Am on their team reporting bugs. So far caught 3. Gives me something to do when I am bored!

 

[dtravis7]

On OSX I use the latest Webkit build. Very fast. Am on their team reporting bugs. So far caught 3. Gives me something to do when I am bored!

 

[ILoveMyMacbook]

2. Safari is faster than Firefox. That's a fact.

Not for me. I have no idea why, but Safari "felt" slow to me, so I tested it and it does load pages slower. Not by a horrible amount, but enough to be annoying.
(Could it be that it's because my firefox already has the cookies for that site, or something like that? I'll have to test it again.)

3. Safari has a developer menu. Of course, if you aren't a web developer, it's not very useful.
4. Lack of features is in fact a feature. Look at the browser. It's so minimalistic, yet it has some really awesome features (the link to which points to a post I wrote on my blog. Visit if you feel like it)

Not a web developer, I like the features of Firefox. And if I ever get tired of them, I can disable them. ;D

I read your blog post.
Numbers 4, 5, 7 and 8 made me curious to test it (when I'm back home on my mac), but 2, 3 and 6 aren't important to me and 1 is a reason for using FF for me because I like the way it looks better.

What bothered me most about Firefox is that you can't view pdfs in the browser. I don't even come across pdfs on the web that often that I look at, but enough that I found it annoying that they would download.

That's one thing that annoys me a bit with FF too, sometimes. But on the other hand, I do like it that it downloads the files and that I can find them easily in my download folder later.


I don't feel a need to change my browser, I'm happy with what I have, but I will give Safari another try because I was also happy with IE before I tried Firefox and so many mac users love Safari so much. (Note: I tried Opera some years before Firefox, I used it for a while (so I did give it a chance), but I just didn't like it, which was why I was reluctant to install FF back when I did.)

 

[ILoveMyMacbook]

2. Safari is faster than Firefox. That's a fact.

Not for me. I have no idea why, but Safari "felt" slow to me, so I tested it and it does load pages slower. Not by a horrible amount, but enough to be annoying.
(Could it be that it's because my firefox already has the cookies for that site, or something like that? I'll have to test it again.)

3. Safari has a developer menu. Of course, if you aren't a web developer, it's not very useful.
4. Lack of features is in fact a feature. Look at the browser. It's so minimalistic, yet it has some really awesome features (the link to which points to a post I wrote on my blog. Visit if you feel like it)

Not a web developer, I like the features of Firefox. And if I ever get tired of them, I can disable them. ;D

I read your blog post.
Numbers 4, 5, 7 and 8 made me curious to test it (when I'm back home on my mac), but 2, 3 and 6 aren't important to me and 1 is a reason for using FF for me because I like the way it looks better.

What bothered me most about Firefox is that you can't view pdfs in the browser. I don't even come across pdfs on the web that often that I look at, but enough that I found it annoying that they would download.

That's one thing that annoys me a bit with FF too, sometimes. But on the other hand, I do like it that it downloads the files and that I can find them easily in my download folder later.


I don't feel a need to change my browser, I'm happy with what I have, but I will give Safari another try because I was also happy with IE before I tried Firefox and so many mac users love Safari so much. (Note: I tried Opera some years before Firefox, I used it for a while (so I did give it a chance), but I just didn't like it, which was why I was reluctant to install FF back when I did.)