What Web Browser Do You Use ?

RnR

Using OSX 10.5.3.
I see some suggesting I should use FF.
CAn someone explain the advantages V's disadvantages?

Thanks,
RnR

Breezer

Oh sweet Jesus - 440Hz and babypink, can we please sticky this or something?

Sorry OP, no offence meant, but this is the second time in 2 days we've had a browser thread and there's been about a million others.

Right, advantages of each browser:
Safari: Fastest, Apple native, nicest UI. But AFAIK if you're running Panther you're stuck at version 2, so I'd use Firefox/Camino over it if possible (see below).
Firefox: Most extensible and customisable, best compatibility with websites, possibly better security (although that's very debatable).
Camino: Firefox without the bloat/extensibility.
Opera: No need for extensions, everything you could possibly think of comes with it.
Others: Avoid unless you have some specific reason for using them.

I'd actually be willing to write an in-depth commentary on these and others if the thread will be stickied and none of us ever have to do it again. Mods?

Sad Professor

+ 1 on the sticky idea. A guide need only be brief, even a list of links to some of the previous browser threads would do. Each browser is always evolving so a complete guide might become outdated very quickly. Maybe what we really need is an official "which browser is best?" thread, and sticky it; then all future discussion on the matter can be lumped in there.

It's a common question and people are right to ask it but there's no point us regurgitating the same answers every week.

Breezer

Sad Professor wrote: »

It's a common question and people are right to ask it but there's no point us regurgitating the same answers every week.

Sorry, maybe I came across a bit strongly. Mondays do not a happy Breezer make

Yeah a sticky discussion thread would be good, although I think if this were the case it might be beneficial for the mods to prune it every so often to stop it getting unwieldly.

Diarmuid

Breezer wrote: »

Safari: Fastest,

I think with Firefox3 the speed advantage of Safari has disappeared.

babypink

sticky'd.........lets keep the browser showdown here and here only

Dr_Teeth

Firefox and Safari seem to be pretty even now in terms of speed and quality of rendering.. what puts Firefox over the top for me is the extensibility. There's no way I could live without addons like Adblock Plus.

drunkmonkey

I like using Shiira..

I like the way the tabs work and the simplicity of the browser....and the icon in the dock looks cool....

http://shiira.jp/en.php

hupyago

I recommend flock
http://flock.com/
I was using firefox 2 a lot and wass getting peeved off with the overheating that started up once too much was happening
flock is miles better in terms of features and cool bits
Its also based on the same software as firefox so n e add ons also work on flock
cannot recommend it highly enough, cuts out a lot of stress when browsing
also flock 2 is on its way ,based on the firefox 3 build

Cabaal

Firefox 3 for me on both Windows and OSX

drunkmonkey

When's chrome out for the Mac? Anyone tried it on windows?

Sad Professor

drunkmonkey wrote: »

When's chrome out for the Mac? Anyone tried it on windows?

I tried it out for a bit on VMware last night. Seems really good, very fast. I'd be a better judge of the mac version though. No date yet, it'll probably be a good while, several months at least, maybe years. On the positive side Google say they want to do a proper mac build and not just a port of the windows version.

jtsuited

just started using FF3 and I already love it. safari was acting funny lately.

Paddy@CIRL

Swapped from FF3 to Opera, found FF to be getting very clunky and fairly sketchy. Got a set of AdBlock filters for Opera and have enjoyed it since. Only problem is that it's not a supported browser by our colleges WiFi login, so need to login via Safari then swap back. Also find that it sometimes struggles with forms that need filling out.

adambeaumont

Firefox is definitely the best browser - customizations with greasemonkey are the way forward.

condra

There is no such thing as "the best browser" per se.
Different people like different browsers for different reasons.

I like Opera. It looks and feels just like Firefox, but I love it's built in Bit Torrent and IRC, aswell as its many advanced features.

I can make a custom quicksearch letter(s) out of any search box on the internet with Opera.
For example, if I type "YT example" in my address box, it will search YouTube for the word "example".
I was to type "HM example" into my address box, it would search for the word "example" in Hype machine, and so on and so forth..

Opera has too many advanced features to name here, but if youre a tweaker, or a speed surfer, Opera could be suitable for you.

vinnycoyne

I'm currently using Webkit and loving it.

Looks & plays exactly like Safari (because it is Safari really), but way way faster.

Plus, it autoupdates every day with the nightly builds.

It's beta software though, so it can be a little buggy now and then.

Well worth checking out though...

Red Alert

I like Safari because it's able to sync my bookmarks with MobileMe.

ethernet

Using Firefox. Version 3 looks decent (better UI than 2.x). Foxmarks is my saviour. Also works with Safari and IE.

Neverwhere

i have firefox and google chrome.

i think safari works best for macs. I use a mac with firefox and safari and safari is definately superior.

My default browser is google chrome however, and i think thats been my favourite so far. It's really fast and the home page is great. Just mini pages of my most frequented sites. Quick and easy access!

440Hz

Neverwhere wrote: »

i have firefox and google chrome.

CrossoverChromimium? Or are you talking about Chrome on Windows?

shrtdrk

Which is the best Safari or fire fox it depend on what I want it to do.

Safari is fast and to the other browsers I use I prefer the way safari files the bookmarks and allows me to drag and drop them to sort/ tidy them if I wish.

Fire fox is excellent as a research tool as it allows the user to save web page in their totality. Both browsers are also available for WPC and work as well on Mac and WPC

Opera can vary usually I use it from Mac to get an idea of how a site might misbehave in Internet Explorer before I check from the WPC.

I have also used iCab for mac it's basic and the reminder to pay for it can be irritating especially as it doesn't touch Safari or Fire fox for quality
Is a working version of Web monkey for mac deceased?

The Camino, shirra, flock and webkit are a few more browsers I must check
out for my entertainment sometime.

I'd suggest fire fox to someone who wanted and all round web browser.:D

Locamon

Just downloaded the new version of Safari, v4, and while I have not played around with it too much so far the concept is brilliant. Operates very like cover flow on itunes for your favourite web pages, so you have 12 pages previewed in front of you when you start. Also the tabs have been moved to the top which makes more sense. So far it is a little slow starting up each individual page but once you are in to a site seems to rip along.

Kid Nothing

I found it to be very glitchy (to be expected from a Beta) and switched back to 3.

I do like the Cover Flow history & the preview of tabs though, i'm looking forward to the full version.

Bonavox

In my personal opinion:

1) Firefox
2) Safari
3) Opera

All with extensive reasons!

I mad the switch to Mac a couple of weeks ago, and I only downloaded FireFox, like three days ago.

I had FireFox on my PC, but (laugh if you want) it wasn't the same as the Mac version.

Dunno why, though . . .

silvine

I like Safari for Coverflow but Firefox just has too many useful extensions to be ignored e.g. Autopager.

gangqin

1) Safari
2) Firefox
3) Opera

Safari is the quickest for me but that might have something to do with my ancient Tiger operating system.

Kid Nothing

Really liking Safari 4 so far, got rid of the Beta back when it came out because it was annoying in a few ways. It's quite quick, thought i'd miss the blue loading bar but the "loading" box does the trick. Overall i'd call it a very good improvement

Sad Professor

Arrggggghhhh!! Why did they have to move the reload button on Safari 4? I keep going over to the left side of toolbar.

They could have at least left it as a choice in "customise toolbar".

Hobbes

I've been testing Safari 4 vs FF on some of the common sites I visit. The difference in speed is incredible.

One intensive site took 6 seconds to open on average (which I thought was fast). On Safari 2 seconds.

I love the coverflow and search and the top sites view. Find in a page is a bit strange but will get used to.

Bit sad no plugins like FF but at least they have Adblock Safari which works great.

Anyone know of a Firebug for Safari?

Hobbes

Woot! just noticed they have a Firebug built in. Go to advanced preferences and enable developer menu. After that you can right click and inspect elements.

conchubhar1

i still find firefox better and faster on leopard - even with safari 4

altho i love the bookmark frontpage thing and it does look sleeker

lalee17

What about the zoom on Safari? There's no zoom on FireFox AFAIK.

condra

Opera has a great zoom feature, just hold down CTRL/CMD and scroll wheel in or out.

Safari drives me nuts the way tabs dont redraw properly while loading.

I use it for Java stuff. That's all really.

lalee17

I have the new MacBook, and have that new pinch/drag option which only seems to work on Safari.

miralize

If you use the Firefox 3.5 Rc, that supports gestures

Mac055

I've been using firefox.. bit it been crashing alot lately!!!

conchubhar1

safari crashes more than firefox - altho i use it more so...

safari looks slicker - but you can make ff look however you want

ff - better custimization, add ons etc

opera - it has a great feature that increases speed on a slower connection
has that frontpage feature that safari has


so i use safari, ff and opera at different times for different things

BanzaiBk

Mac055 wrote: »

I've been using firefox.. bit it been crashing alot lately!!!

+1
Bloody hell, firefox crashes 3/4 times a day for me now Have done a clean install and everything. Gah, back to Camino.

dixierip

I do think that safari looks much sleeker, ie multi bookmark frontpage thing. However in my experience firefox is much quicker and less prone to crashing.

Yawlboy

I've been using Chrome on my MacBook Pro for the last week - I'm after making it my default from FF.

rayhartjnr

changed from ff to chrome

it's not brilliant yet but I think it'll get better

strangely it doesn't accommodate google toolbar

thebossanova

Chrome ftw! Very fast! Should be good when it can accommodate add-ons. Still firefox for any webwork though.

Gerard_Smith

This copy and pasted from a post I made about Firefox 3.6s flash performance over on the mozillazine forums

Some interesting results here. This a is a stress test primarily designed to compare Flash to Silverlight but also works as a handy measure of Flash performance in the big three mac browsers.

http://www.shinedraw.com/mathematics/flash-vs-silverlight-fps-meter-stress-test/

On my machine Chrome averaged 56fps on the standard 3 rotating icons and it took more clicks than I can count to get it under 30. Safari surprisingly averaged 30fps on 3 icons while firefox brought up the rear on a terrible 7-10fps right from the get-go. Adding more icons didn't seem to lower the frame rate but it did slow the browser almost to the point of being unusable. I also tested Camino which performed the same as firefox.

Hopefully once HTML 5 makes its inevitable assent we can be done with Adobe and its buggy CPU hogging plugin but as it stands right now Firefox still needs to work on playing nicely with flash.

jimmyendless

FF had gotten slow. I could not move, delete or add new bookmarks so I abandoned it and am using Camino now. Really like its speed and simplicity. One thing I don't like is when I create a new tab, it doesn't highlight the address bar first.

maccored

ff 3.5 seems to be a good bit better than previous versions. I was noticing a lot of crashing, eating a lot of ram and hogging the system (only seem to start doing allt hat at around v 3) - so much so I moved to camino for general browsing. Only really stuck with FF for stumbling. 3.5 is alright so far though

MacGrrl

Google Chrome is where its at. I love all the plug-ins and its super fast compared to FF.

tinner777

MacGrrl wrote: »

Google Chrome is where its at. I love all the plug-ins and its super fast compared to FF.

is everyone still happy with chrome?

conor.hogan.2

Chrome has some of the speed of safari and some of the extensions and addons of ff.

it is a halfway point of both, personally I hope it gets better until I make it default.

Sad Professor

tinner777 wrote: »

is everyone still happy with chrome?

Yeah, enjoying it. It's still a bit buggy though and I haven't abandoned Safari completely.

Sad Professor

Google Chrome beta 5 is now out. Even faster.