OS X Browsers

sozbox

I am interested in finding out which browser people are using and why?

I've used Safari, Firefox and Camino before finally settling on Camino. I didn't like the way Firefox looks on the Mac and Safari's memory leakage drove me insane!

smcelhinney

Being a flickr-phile I use Flock a lot. Its just a Firefox clone, but its quite a nifty little browser..

Havent noticed any performance issues either..

Urban Weigl

The 4 main web browsers for the Mac are, in order of appearances: Safari, Firefox, Opera and OmniWeb.

I have all 4 installed, though I mainly use Safari. There are other browsers as well of course, such as Camino and Flock and many more, which all have their user bases.

m_stan

Jason1984 wrote:

...I didn't like the way Firefox looks on the Mac ...

This might make you feel a bit better about FF on a Mac.

Sad Professor

Camino. I used to use Firefox which is excellent on a pc but it's not a real mac app and it's become so bloated. I still use it for certain websites though. Safari had so much potential but it's showing it's age and Apple aren't too bothered about it anymore.

I really do encourage people use Camino. It's not quite there yet but it's basically Firefox minus the bloat. It's written in Cocoa so it's true mac app and it's got a nice interface. Just make sure you get one of the nightly builds (v1.6) from here as the current stable release is only 1.0.4 and is missing a lot of important features.

triple h

I use firefox all the time.

I am not been smart here, but i would like to know what "bloated" means, professor.

Safari drove me mad the way it would not go to some web sites.

K.O.Kiki

I'll have to give the nightly Camino builds a try; last time, the build I got would not load any sites at all!

Camino is lovely though. In fact, the only thing it's missing is VideoDownloader (like for FF)...

Sad Professor

triple h wrote:

I am not been smart here, but i would like to know what "bloated" means, professor.

See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bloat

I still think Firefox is a good browser but it's headed in the same direction as IE and Netscape. It's the non-mac-like interface that bothers me the most. I know you can get themes to fix that but it still feels like a windows app. I just feel it's better to support a true made-for-mac browser.

crosstownk

I use Safari all the time and never have any hassle - I like its simple and uncluttered appearance.

Oriel

*stands up

Hi, my name is Stephen, I've been a Mac user for 4 years now.
And I HATE Safari, and any brushed metal Mac app-interface.

Sad Professor

Oriel wrote:

*stands up

Hi, my name is Stephen, I've been a Mac user for 4 years now.
And I HATE Safari, and any brushed metal Mac app-interface.

I'm with ya, brother. I can't stand brushed-metal, it's just awful. Can't wait for Leopard to get rid of it for good hopefully. Uno will do till then.

440Hz

Oriel wrote:

*stands up

Hi, my name is Stephen, I've been a Mac user for 4 years now.
And I HATE Safari, and any brushed metal Mac app-interface.

lmao!

I dont think I even have Safari on my machine.

Camino for me, every time.

Basq

I use Safari most of the time but need Firefox for stuff like GMail Chat and some webpages (Eircom etc.)

faceman

after reading this thread yesterday i downloaded camino but i havent really noticed any difference between it and safari.

then again i only use the web for browsing, youtube etc. Im goin to trial it for 2 weeks anyway

jpfahy

Does anyone know what the browser in Leopard will be

Sad Professor

jpfahy wrote:

Does anyone know what the browser in Leopard will be

Safari 3.0

K.O.Kiki

Still can't get Camino 1.6a to work.
Downloads fine w/CaminoKnight, installs, CaminIcon installs a theme.

Then it won't load a single page.
Not a-one.
WTH?

Urgh... back to non-RSS-supporting 1.0.4

smcelhinney

its not a proxy thing is it? or a firewall thing, where the firewall is on and preventing outbound requests from Camino.

Sad Professor

K.O.Kiki:

Have you also tried deleting prefs and that? And afaik certain add-ons aren't compatible with v1.6.

K.O.Kiki

Sad Professor wrote:

K.O.Kiki:

Have you also tried deleting prefs and that? And afaik certain add-ons aren't compatible with v1.6.

Aye, that's what it was -- CamiSession & CamiTools are incompatible w/anything post-1.0.
1.6 now, cheers for just making me ****ing Google it!

Dont be at yourself

Firefox all the way.

Check out Shiira, it's a Japanese browser based on WebKit and some of the localisation is pretty funny!

Oriel

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Check out Shiira

Tried that ages ago, too gimicky.

damo86

whats the general feeling on opera 9?
pros)
like the speed dial
not fussy
remember the pages you where on when you last opened it.
savage cache (unlike safari...dire!)

cons)
a bit slow on opening(firefox is the fastest)
dont like the idea on opening tabs for downloads and history,prefer seperate windows.


will give camino a bash and report back

Cabaal

I used Firefox on both my Windows and Mac machines, its the extentions that do it for me.
- adblock
- customise google
etc
can't live without them

babypink

Looks like i'm the only OmniWeb user here

sozbox

I tried that for a while but couldn't get used to the way it handles tabs. Other than that it seemed like a solid choice!

huggs2

Omniweb is my favourite browser. Takes less than a second to open on my macpro. Absolutely love the way the tabs work and of course its very mac like.Also like firefox for its extentions especially for "stumbleupon"

ZENER

It would have to be bloody good to convince me to actually PAY for a web browser when there are plenty of free options available. What's it got that the free ones don't have ?

ZEN

triple h

babypink wrote:

Looks like i'm the only OmniWeb user here

I read in macformat magazine ( a few months ago) that omniweb was the best Browser for mac.

But did i look into it, the answer is NO. I agree with Zener, why should you pay for something when a free option is just as good.

Firefox, I think came in 2nd place and safari was near enough to last. I think they tested 8 or 10 browsers.

I really like firefox.

Breezer

Firefox all the way. I can't live without extensions - maybe it's a remnant from my time on Linux but I like my apps to work the way I want them to and not the way the developer wants them to default to.

I tried Safari and hated it. The brushed metal look is horrible IMO although UNO solves that. What really gets me is its general lack of customizability and the fact that you have to pay for an ad blocker (pithelmet). There's probably other free ones floating around but I haven't come across them. I do appreciate its faster loading speeds though and I like how it looks once brushed metal is removed - I've a very Safari-like skin on Firefox and I'm using an optimized build that uses native aqua widgets.

Camino was nice, very fast loading, a nice skin (though not as nice as my Safari-like Firefox one) but again too hard to customize. I could live with the awkwardness of installing the odd 'extension' from pimpmycamino.com but what put me off was the lack of anything resembling Firefox's NoScript extension. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I LOVE that thing!

So Firefox it is. I'll sacrifice load time for a secure browser that works the way I want any day

faceman

Breezer wrote:

Firefox all the way. I can't live without extensions - maybe it's a remnant from my time on Linux but I like my apps to work the way I want them to and not the way the developer wants them to default to.

what extensions do you use?

zAbbo

Opera is the best browser I've used on a Mac, hmmm speedials.

or an optimised version of FF for Intel Macs - http://www.furbism.com/firefoxmac/

Breezer

faceman wrote:

what extensions do you use?

A lot, which probably contributes to the slow load time. The big ones that are deal breakers for me with Camino and Safari are:

NoScript (if I found something like this for Camino I'd probably switch. As it is I can't even block both Flash and Javascript at the same time, never mind whitelisting)
Adblock Plus and Adblock Filterset.G updater (OK Camino has this built in)
Back is close
OpenSearch Fox (makes it so easy to add search engines to the search box. It's much harder to do this in Camino even with CamiTools)
Tab Mix Plus (I HATE new windows popping up everywhere. Even with all the options to prevent that happening clicked in Safari and Camino I still get them).

I readily admit that equivalents to these may exist for other browsers and since it's now summer I'd be more than willing to try them out if that's the case. But I've looked pretty hard, especially for a NoScript for Camino, and found nothing.

crosstownk

I downloaded Shiira. When I launched it I was informed that an update was available which, apparently, cured some bugs. When I downloaded the updates it refused to open browser window. Now it's in the trash.

I'll stick with Safari as it's been reliable since forever. I use Firefox on my poxy Dell/Win XP machine in work, but I'll stand by Safari as being the best browser for my needs with Mac OS X.