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mayoke · Jan 7, 2008, 09:06 PM

which works better on a mac? i've heard that firefox is quite bad on a mac... any advice?

AKcrab · Jan 7, 2008, 09:10 PM

They are both good.

Cold Warrior · Jan 7, 2008, 09:19 PM

Firefox works great. As does Safari. I use both.

Chuckit · Jan 7, 2008, 09:27 PM

I prefer Safari, but Firefox isn't bad. It used to be, but it's actually quite all right now.

iMan G5 · Jan 7, 2008, 09:38 PM

Neither
Camino. Mozilla Power, Mac Style

cgc · Jan 7, 2008, 09:51 PM

I use Safari for most everything except my online college, which Firefox works best with. BTW, I use the Spectrum theme which I took from Netscape (can't DL it for Firefox for some reason) so now Firefox looks like Safari 3. Oh, and of course I applied FireFoxy (selected v1.5 to skin the Firefox v2.x buttons).

mduell · Jan 7, 2008, 10:33 PM

Firefox

Safari is a heaping pile.

Chuckit · Jan 7, 2008, 10:40 PM

A heaping pile of speed!

cbrfanatic · Jan 7, 2008, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

A heaping pile of speed!

Im finding iCab to be faster.

ghporter · Jan 7, 2008, 11:24 PM

I like Firefox a lot. I have seen people provide "reasons" why they don't like Firefox on a Mac, and these seem to boil down to "I don't like it." Style is the biggest thing they dislike-it's only just gotten to look like a Mac app in version 2...

With that said, Safari has its own issues, even version 3. The biggest problem with it seems to be that it's seen as something other than IE or "Netscape" and so browser-specific code gets switched on some sites so that stuff just doesn't work. For the sake of completeness I should add that I've had this sort of problem with Firefox on a very few sites, so it's not all a problem with Safari. In fact, it's not a browser problem at all, but a "lazy site coder" problem. Don't get me started.

Try 'em both, and decide which you like better for yourself. It can be fun!

iMan G5 · Jan 8, 2008, 12:06 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

A heaping pile of poo!

fixed if for ya.

TheoCryst · Jan 8, 2008, 12:35 AM

Safari for me. I have Firefox in my dock too for compatibility, but I rarely find myself needing to using it. Things are much better than they were a few years ago, when nothing worked in browsers that weren't made by Microsoft. It ends up coming down to personal preference more than anything. Check them both out: Safari is already on your computer, and Firefox is free.

Lateralus · Jan 8, 2008, 12:46 AM

Camino

Mac User #001 · Jan 8, 2008, 01:06 AM

Safari as much as possible; Firefox when I find things not working so well in Safari. And if you get Firefox, get Firefoxy.

dn15 · Jan 8, 2008, 01:13 AM

I use both Safari and Camino. (Camino has the same engine as Firefox but feels much more native.) However, if you are interested in the numerous extensions available for Firefox those will not work with Camino.

Transport 998 · Jan 8, 2008, 03:29 PM

I'm kinda partial to Safari but can't for the life of me get Hotmail to work on a regular basis....any thoughts? Other than using Firefox! Dictionary short cut doesn't work on Firefox either?

cgc · Jan 8, 2008, 10:54 PM

I'd like to see some benchmarks comparing all Mac browsers. I think the fastest are Opera, Safari, and Camino in no particular order. Prove to me iCab is fast...

dn15 · Jan 8, 2008, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

I'd like to see some benchmarks comparing all Mac browsers. I think the fastest are Opera, Safari, and Camino in no particular order. Prove to me iCab is fast...

I haven't used the new iCab much but I can't imagine it's that different from Safari because it uses the same engine now.

cgc · Jan 9, 2008, 12:05 AM

Originally Posted by dn15

I haven't used the new iCab much but I can't imagine it's that different from Safari because it uses the same engine now.

Right, but I see quite a few people saying how fast iCab is, even that it's faster than Safari. I think it's placebo effect, but I'd like some real benchmarks to show one way or another. Maybe I'll test a bunch of browsers using some common CSS, JS benchmarks along with AcidTest2 and the Apple benchmark.

dn15 · 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by cgc

Right, but I see quite a few people saying how fast iCab is, even that it's faster than Safari. I think it's placebo effect, but I'd like some real benchmarks to show one way or another.

I do think a lot of browser speed debate is the result of placebo and wishful thinking. Benchmarks are flawed and favor one engine or another depending on what and how they test. Every browser had a benchmark saying it's best, so who are we to believe? Plus, most people have a favorite that they want to be faster so they think it is. Realistically with a modern computer the speed difference for most browser tasks can't be perceived easily. Whether it's Safari, Firefox, Opera, or a random third-party browser based on WebKit or Gecko, it's all about the same. The performance of the Internet connection and DNS servers at the nanosecond you click a link probably has more impact than anything else. I switch between browsers a lot, but it's because of interface and features, not any supposed speed difference.

cgc · Jan 9, 2008, 01:53 AM

I ran some benchmarks to test page load time (initial load from internet, then four subsequent loads from cache), Javascript, CSS rendering, and AcidTest2 and found Safari 3 to be the fastest by little bit. The test results are attached as an image.

The CSS Rendering test results were so close and small it really didn't make much difference but iCab beat Safari by a small amount.

The shorter the bar the faster the browser. The numbers on the vertical (Y) axis is in milliseconds. Firefox and Omniweb both failed the AcidTest2, the others passed. Haven't tested Shiira yet since their web site is so slow and I wanted to get this posted. Also ran into issues with NeoOffice and lost some results.

Sarc · Jan 9, 2008, 09:03 AM

Firefox 3 betas FTW. They will use about half the memory that v2 does.
When other browsers get an ad-blocking solution as powerful as AdBlockPlus + Filterset.G I will consider them.
In the mean time, OmniWeb has a good ad-blocking solution, albeit not as powerful as FF's. Being based on Webkit, it will be as fast and as lightweight as Safari, although it will still lack on the compatibility dpt. however (gmail and hotmail for example).

wataru · Jan 9, 2008, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Sarc

an ad-blocking solution as powerful as AdBlockPlus + Filterset.G

You shouldn't use Filterset.G with Adblock Plus.

JKT · Jan 9, 2008, 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by cgc

Firefox and Omniweb both failed the AcidTest2, the others passed.

Interesting... which version of OmniWeb as it also uses WebKit (so it shouldn't fail the Acid Test unless there has been a regression in recent versions of WebKit because OmniWeb tends to be ahead of the currently shipping Safari). Also, including any timing of stuff downloaded off the internet will skew the results as download speed will vary from second to second (and, potentially, drastically so). Unless you do a statistically significant number of tests for each browser where any bias due to this would be flattened, you can't really take anything from your results other than, perhaps, a general picture that the WebKit based browsers are potentially faster than the Gecko and Opera based ones, but quite similar to each other in speed.

Edit: Just tested OmniWeb 5.7 sp 1 (build 96871) and it passes Acid 2 without any problems.