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MacPowerbookG4 · Dec 31, 2006, 09:20 PM

Hi all,

I'm looking for an alternative web browser aside from Safari. Which web browser do you use and why?

Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

Blasphemy · Dec 31, 2006, 09:25 PM

Firefox

It's Universal (=fast on MacIntel)
It has adblock - simple, effective, comprehensive crap blocking.
It has a number of other useful plug-ins (add-ons)

Combined with OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster DNS , it's instant-fast on page loads.

Veltliner · Dec 31, 2006, 09:32 PM

Blasphemy, what are the advantages of firefox over Safari?

I was quite satisfied with Safari so saFARi.

Blasphemy · Dec 31, 2006, 09:58 PM

Well the OP wrote 'beside safari' so I went from there.

It has useful add-ons (for ftp, ad blocking, and many others). But apart from that, I think it's a matter of personal choice. i prefer text display on safari, but not enough to switch.

zerock · Jan 1, 2007, 12:31 AM

I use Safari+google reader. (normally)

but sometimes i fire up the following:
Firefox 2,
Camino (trunk)
flock

larrinski · Jan 1, 2007, 12:49 AM

Well, here we go again...

I use Omniweb as my main browser for the ad blocking, speed and general Mac feel. I use Safari for private browsing with SafariStand and the hack for quickening up page loading. Safari is still the fastest for me with the hack, and I can do address bar searching with SafariStand.

I still find Firefox slow (1.5 & 2.0) with both my PPC and Intel imac.

Peter · Jan 1, 2007, 07:25 AM

Omniweb.

houstonmacbro · Jan 1, 2007, 07:42 AM

Originally Posted by Veltliner

Blasphemy, what are the advantages of firefox over Safari?

I was quite satisfied with Safari so saFARi.

I second Blashphemy. FF is hands-down the best browser.

I've tried them all: Safari, Camino, Opera, SeaMonkey, and prolly others I am forgetting.

I always come back to FF for it's ability to render pages correctly, it's functionality with plugins, and most importantly (for me) ... keywords.

techtrucker · Jan 1, 2007, 08:07 AM

Omniweb, although it's not free for me it was worth ponying up. Per-site preferences, thumbnail tabs, and Workspaces made it well worth it.

wataru · Jan 1, 2007, 08:10 AM

1. This is an Application question, not an OS X question--wrong forum.
2. This has already been discussed to death. Do a search.

houstonmacbro · Jan 1, 2007, 08:23 AM

Some things definitely are worth paying for.

philm · Jan 1, 2007, 11:41 AM

Firefox + GrApple theme for me works well.

angelmb · Jan 1, 2007, 12:02 PM

I like Camino, http://www.caminobrowser.org/

and Shiira, the japanese browser, is also cool, upcoming 2.0 version seems to be quite a nice update. http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en

Both do really need to support the built-in Mac OS X spell checker so badly.

jasong · Jan 1, 2007, 12:03 PM

Jeez, you could have waited until today to post this so at least we could say "at least this hasn't been discussed yet this year."

jmiddel · Jan 2, 2007, 01:54 AM

Firefox for stability. Safari crashes a bit, FF never yet. Because I prefer Safari's interface, I use it for non critical stuff, but when I need a bunch of open windows I can't afford to lose to crashes, it's FF.

I understand folks being upset at the no search and wrong forum issue, I also belive that people who have been with us for a shorter time need the immediacy of connection and response that asking and receiving give. It takes a while to get comfortable doing it on your own.

frankthetank966 · Jan 2, 2007, 08:30 AM

Firefox is by far the best alternative browser. It has built-in spell check, good bookmarking system, and a better find tool that safari (sorry guys but it is great!!!)

CatOne · Jan 2, 2007, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

Firefox is by far the best alternative browser. It has built-in spell check, good bookmarking system, and a better find tool that safari (sorry guys but it is great!!!)

OMG built-in spell check?! WOW!

Umm... seems strange when something is the BEST alternative browser and so the features you cite are complete "me too" features compared to Safari

mac128k-1984 · Jan 2, 2007, 01:06 PM

If I couldn't use Safari, then I'd say that firefox would be my next choice and I agree the searching mechinism of FF is superior. I like the idea of having a bar at the bottom of the window to do my searches instead of a pop up window.

sc_markt · Jan 2, 2007, 10:38 PM

I like oprea because you can turn off the disk cache. I wish you could do this in Safari.

- Mark

mrmister · Jan 2, 2007, 11:11 PM

Camino.

- - e r i k - - · Jan 2, 2007, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by CatOne

OMG built-in spell check?! WOW!

Umm... seems strange when something is the BEST alternative browser and so the features you cite are complete "me too" features compared to Safari

Especially when that feature does not even take advantage of the BUILT-IN spell check, which means no learned words or custom dictionaries.

The guys who prefer Firefox on a Mac are the same guys as the Anything-But-iPod guys. Alternative for the sake of being alternative, blind to any actual technical advantages.

Now using Firefox on Windows of course is something completely different altogether again.

El Magnificante · Jan 3, 2007, 05:29 AM

IMO there isn't a good browser yet. Safari looks the best, to me, but is ridiculously slow. Camino and Firefox are faster but, again IMO, aren't as aesthetically pleasing and I experience random crashing with both (more often with Firefox).

Hopefully Apple will hire someone who can help Safari handle JavaScript

houstonmacbro · Jan 3, 2007, 06:36 AM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

If I couldn't use Safari, then I'd say that firefox would be my next choice and I agree the searching mechinism of FF is superior. I like the idea of having a bar at the bottom of the window to do my searches instead of a pop up window.

I also like that you can add different search engines instead of the Google one in the search box. I like being able to search IMDB, WIKI, etc.

As far as I know, this cannot be done in Safari, but can be done in Camino by fiddling with the preference files.

utw-Mephisto · Jan 3, 2007, 08:04 AM

Firefox ... I'd say Firefox ... Did I mention Firefox ?

drainyoo · Jan 3, 2007, 10:04 AM

I think FF is the worst. No self respecting Mac user should ever use a browser that doesn't use OSX native widgets.

Personally I think Safari and Camino are the best in the biz.

frankthetank966 · Jan 3, 2007, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Especially when that feature does not even take advantage of the BUILT-IN spell check, which means no learned words or custom dictionaries.

The guys who prefer Firefox on a Mac are the same guys as the Anything-But-iPod guys. Alternative for the sake of being alternative, blind to any actual technical advantages.

Now using Firefox on Windows of course is something completely different altogether again.

First off let me say I have an iPod. So your theory is wrong. Anyways I use safari as my default browser. I love how you can use Safari with Onyx to customize options in safari.

drnkn_stylz · Jan 3, 2007, 10:57 AM

Safari is slow, and doesn't have enough features.

Firefox has a lot of features, and it's fairly fast, but it's a resource whore.

Camino has speed/features like Firefox, looks better, but is still in early stages.

OmniWeb is fast, has great features, looks awesome, and is my final browser choice. It sucks you have to pay, but seriously how broke are you?

the_glassman · Jan 3, 2007, 12:19 PM

Now that Camino has built in spell check I have no other uses for Safari or Firefox. Omniweb is great, but I'm not paying if there are alternatives that are just as good for free.

Chuckit · Jan 3, 2007, 02:00 PM

Safari. Camino is buggy, OmniWeb isn't sufficiently better to justify the price, Firefox is clunky, ugly, buggy and slow, and Shiira just isn't quite there yet.

El Magnificante · Jan 3, 2007, 06:47 PM

This thread, like the other browser threads, illustrates how poor the options are for Apple, and that there isn't one clear cut winner. They all suck in their own special way. Truly sad, and inexcusable. Until Apple sales are affected I doubt it will change. When I return to the States I will be buying a PC and using Firefox.

Cadaver · Jan 3, 2007, 07:08 PM

OmniWeb.

• Awesome per-site preferences (font, font size, popup blocking, cookies, browser spoof, download location, stylesheets, etc.)
• Native cocoa application, so it looks & works like an OS X application should
• Can fully use OS X system services and spell checker
• Workspaces and snapshots for multi-window management
• Bookmark sync across multiple machines via webDAV
• No brushed metal windows
• Speed is equivalent to Safari (as far as I can tell, but my machines pretty fast anyway)

Does occasionally crash (for me about 2 times per week of heavy use), but Omni has built-in a crash reporter system much like the TalkBack system Mozilla has. And the app is updated on a fairly regular basis.

I bought a license back in the version 4 days, and I've since bought a second so I can have it running on two machines at once (checks to see if a license is already in use on the local network). Somethings are worth paying for. And its only $14 anyway.

Chuckit · Jan 3, 2007, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by El Magnificante

This thread, like the other browser threads, illustrates how poor the options are for Apple, and that there isn't one clear cut winner. They all suck in their own special way. Truly sad, and inexcusable. Until Apple sales are affected I doubt it will change. When I return to the States I will be buying a PC and using Firefox.

So because the Mac only has crappy browsers like Safari, IE, Camino and Firefox, you're going to switch to PC and…use Firefox? Your logic seems to be lacking.

- - e r i k - - · Jan 3, 2007, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by frankthetank966

First off let me say I have an iPod. So your theory is wrong. Anyways I use safari as my default browser. I love how you can use Safari with Onyx to customize options in safari.

You ought to read up on analogies

- - e r i k - - · Jan 3, 2007, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

So because the Mac only has crappy browsers like Safari, IE, Camino and Firefox, you're going to switch to PC and…use Firefox? Your logic seems to be lacking.

Yeah, that one flew past me too. Logic seems to be quite hard for some people.

Cadaver · Jan 3, 2007, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by El Magnificante

This thread, like the other browser threads, illustrates how poor the options are for Apple, and that there isn't one clear cut winner. They all suck in their own special way. Truly sad, and inexcusable. Until Apple sales are affected I doubt it will change. When I return to the States I will be buying a PC and using Firefox.

Yeah, doesn't quite make sense.

Firefox for Windows is different from Firefox for Linux is different from Firefox for MacOS exactly how?

Of course, you could always use Internet Explorer

larrinski · Jan 3, 2007, 08:41 PM

A quick hack in the terminal makes Safari the fastest in my opinion.

Quit Safari and type "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay -float 0.0001" without the quotes. Start up Safari and hold on tight...

I think El Magnificante may forget that a browser does not an OS make...

El Magnificante · Jan 4, 2007, 08:11 AM

While I prefer OS X to Windows, I have a web-based business that requires me to be online with several browser windows/tabs open simultaneously. Firefox under Windows has been the best performer, sadly.

chrisdisregard · 11:33 PM

I'd say the exact opposite. Trying to find a usable browser on my sister's PC was a bit of a headache (I finally settled for Opera, even though it's ugly as all hell. Used Firefox as an alternate from time to time)

As for OS X (why I feel compelled to weigh in on this "important" and overly undiscussed issue is beyond me at the moment)

- Safari looks the nicest (obviously since it matches the OS), but is a little low on features and not always the fastest/best equipped.
- Firefox 2.0 brought me back around to the Firefox camp. 1.5 seemed to be getting a little bloated and sluggish, but 2.0 seems improved in those respects and it's now my main browser. With all the different plugins available it's clearly the most featured. Personally I haven't had any crashing errors since the new version came out, though I do occasionally get the beach ball when a lot of tabs are open and a lot's going on. (EDIT) Oh ya, not to mention the Inspect Element option! That alone makes it the best browser for me (/EDIT)
- Camino is an alright Safari-like alternative, but I seem to recall some minor annoyances that made me stop after a few uses. This was quite some time ago though so it might have improved.
- Opera (as stated above) is fairly ugly. There seems to be too much going on and it all seems a little awkward to me. Performance-wise it seems alright though.
- Shiira was what I was using in between Firefox versions and it's got some really neat features. Even nicer looking ones are apparently coming in the newest version. It was fairly fast and the auto resizing sidebar was a great idea. There were a few minor things it seemed to be missing and/or did in an odd way, but overall I'd put this one right up there near the top.
- SunriseBrowser is kind of an interesting idea from a web designers point of view. Kinda seems ...well gimmicky isn't the right word, but something along those lines.
- Flock I haven't tried, but it also seems a little odd and too MySpace-ish to me.

JKT · 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by drnkn_stylz

OmniWeb is fast, has great features, looks awesome, and is my final browser choice. It sucks you have to pay, but seriously how broke are you?

Yes, it has really crippled me financially that I have spent a grand total of $30* for using every single version of it in the nearly 6 years since I first moved to OS X ($20 initial cost for version 4.1 as an academic, and $10 for the upgrade to version 5)... Especially, when it was the most feature-filled browser of the lot (and by a huge margin) when OmniWeb 5.0 was first released. It has taken Firefox almost 2 years to catch up in terms of the extensions available to replicate most of the features and exceed some of them, but the usability of FF still leaves a lot to be desired on the Mac.

Anyway, OmniWeb on the Mac, Firefox on the PC. For me, Safari is only usable if I have Safaristand installed.

* It may be $40 if the 4.5 version was a paid update, but I forget...

simdude · Jan 5, 2007, 11:25 AM

I think this is true with most browsers but I'm using Safari right now so I'll comment on it. Quit Safari and launch the activity monitor (or top in a terminal). Launch Safari and check the real memory being using. It's fairly low. Open and close pages etc. After a couple hours, Safari is eating over 200 MEG of memory even if every window is closed. I assume it's caching for speed if you go to the same page again?

If you run 10-15 applications, eventually you'll start to see memory paging out which will slow your system down. I usually can free up real memory by just quitting and relaunching Safari. Are there any browsers that handle memory better?

TimmyDee51 · Jan 5, 2007, 02:38 PM

I like each for different reasons, but my day-to-day browser is OmniWeb. The thumbnail tabs and saved state features are well worth the price of admission.

Madrag · Jan 5, 2007, 02:42 PM

I mainly use Safari, but since I design and produce web pages, I use FF 2.
The extensions are a must-have and turn it into an excelent browser!

Timo · Jan 5, 2007, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by larrinski

Quit Safari and type "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay -float 0.0001" without the quotes. Start up Safari and hold on tight...

what does this do?

misterdna · Jan 6, 2007, 01:22 AM

In the past few years, I've only used Firefox and Safari (no hacks or customizations to either -- I'm not that clever). I find Firefox seems to render most websites more accurately and have generally less problems. I prefer Safari when actually downloading files (as it doesn't pause like Firefox). However, Firefox seems to play movie files faster and better than Safari.

Chuckit · Jan 6, 2007, 04:05 AM

Originally Posted by Timo

what does this do?

It tells Safari to start rendering the page quicker. There's a built-in delay to give it time to parse external resources (CSS, Javascripts) to avoid that "flash of unstyled text" that you'll sometimes get on slow-loading sites, and that command basically sets the delay to 0.