I've gone full circle on Browsers. Back to Safari

[GimmeSlack12]

I had originally used Safari for a long time but slowly got lured away by Firefox and it's plugins. After a while I got annoyed FF's sluggish interface, and moved onto Camino for a long time. A smoother interface and I was convinced that it loaded faster than FF. I am still convinced that it is faster than FF. But recently I hit a website that did not like Camino, and so I switched over to Safari real quick to access that site, and woah... I realized something I had forgotten.
Safari is fast.

So here I am again back on Safari and thinking I'll stay here for a while.
Anyone else agree that Safari is faster than those Mozilla browsers?

[iGary]

Safari has never given me a reason to switch.

Admitted, it was tought the first year (I mean it's a good thing I wanted to support the platform), but I think they have a really fine browser now.

Now some W3C snob may have issues with it, but I don't.

[Ashapalan]

I went safari - firefox - safari.

It was during the apple event in Jan, firefox didn't update the macrumors live page without me physically refreshing which was a real pain, halfway through i switched to safari and found i had missed half a dozen updates.

I couldn't be doing with that, i find safari a brilliant web browser and will continue to use it in the future. Much better for installing downloads from apple such as widgets too, becuase it is all integrated, one of the reasons i switched to a Mac in the first place

[mad jew]

I'm with iGary. I've always used Safari and have only ever run into problems once, with the Dell Australia online store. To be honest, that site is sprogged on anything but Explorer for PC anyway.

I only have Safari installed on both of my Macs. :cool:

Of course, I only have Explorer installed on my Dell (which I had to buy from a friend's PC), so maybe my opinion doesn't really count anyway.

[GimmeSlack12]

Houston we have a problem.

Safari doesn't do Video Google or YouTube!!!???!?!?! WTF? Flip4Mac is installed and works fine for CNN.com on my other browsers, but Safari is not doing anything about it. What is going on?!
Please tell me I'm doing something wrong cause this is unnacceptable.

[UKnjb]

FWIW, I found Safari OK, but everyone was saying that Firefox and Camino were so much better/faster. So I tried both of them. Yup, certainly I found them faster, but more 'clunky' than Safari. And then someone else was raving about Shiira (http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en), so I tried that (about 7 months ago) and it has been the best of the bunch, IMHO.

So I have stuck with that. It's been ---- great. Fast, streamlined, sleek uncluttered interface. Never bombed on a site yet.

[Dale Cooper]

Houston we have a problem.

Safari doesn't do Video Google or YouTube!!!???!?!?! WTF? Flip4Mac is installed and works fine for CNN.com on my other browsers, but Safari is not doing anything about it. What is going on?!
Please tell me I'm doing something wrong cause this is unnacceptable.

It should work with flip4mac.

[Foxglove9]

All those sites work fine for me. When I was on Panther with Safari 1.x I couldn't get CNN vid's to work. But on Tiger with Safari 2.x that is now fixed.

I do have flip4mac installed, I didn't realize any of those sites were WindowsMedia related. Why not try reinstalled Flip4Mac and see what happens?

Houston we have a problem.

Safari doesn't do Video Google or YouTube!!!???!?!?! WTF? Flip4Mac is installed and works fine for CNN.com on my other browsers, but Safari is not doing anything about it. What is going on?!
Please tell me I'm doing something wrong cause this is unnacceptable.

[dpaanlka]

Houston we have a problem.

Safari doesn't do Video Google or YouTube!!!???!?!?! WTF? Flip4Mac is installed and works fine for CNN.com on my other browsers, but Safari is not doing anything about it. What is going on?!
Please tell me I'm doing something wrong cause this is unnacceptable.

All of the features you just mentioned work perfectly fine in Safari on my computer.

[decksnap]

I don't think those sites use WMV anyway... I think it's all Flash video. Work fine for me in Safari.

[Mord]

update flash and shockwave.

safari is the shiznay, best browser ever.

[miniConvert]

Mhm. I'm still on Camino. It's a zillion times faster than Safari on my Mac mini (Intel).

[GimmeSlack12]

I found my problem.

Safari>Preferences>Security: Enable Plug-Ins, was NOT checked.

Have no idea how it got turned off, but everything is Peachy-Keen now.

[joepunk]

I mostly use Safari but at times when I am on dial-up I use SeaMonkey as it seems to be faster (granted I don't have a frack load of bookmarks).

[XNine]

Safari owns the rest of the browsers in speed, features, and ease of use. It's really sad that Omniweb 5 sucks compared to it's 4.5 counterpart. Omniweb 4.5 was the ebst browser ever. No Safari has taken it's place.

[ke2000]

I use safari and camino. The latter is for sites safari would suck. I also found that Saft did slow down safari. So there you go a tip: avoid using those(another i can think of is pixehelmet), the additional features from system change shareware sacrifices good browsing experience. Keep the system clean and neat.

[gman71882]

Has anyone tried Opera (http://www.opera.com/)?
I guess i will :)
I Love safari but will play around with anything just to test it.

[GimmeSlack12]

I tried Opera briefly, but after using Safari, Camino, FireFox I couldn't be bothered to try out another browser. I've heard Opera does well though.

[QCassidy352]

IMO there is no real advantage to either FF or Safari with respect to each other, so I use both. The only real differences for my use are that FF forces new pages to open in new tabs instead, which is nice, and Safari as native spellcheck and private browsing (yeah, it is useful even without porn. :P). Camino is faster, but less full-featured, so I don't have it on my computer any more.

[danny_w]

Safari always bogged down after a few minutes on my mini w/515MB memory under both Panther and Tiger, but runs great now on my PB w/1GB and Tiger. I always seemed to prefer the look and feel of Safari, but could never make it work for me before. Now that is mostly all that I use. I just wish that it had a multi-tab homepage setting and session saver like in FF.

[Abulia]

I'm almost back to Safari. Rendering with Firefox on sites like CNN or ESPN is just sooooo slooooooow. :mad:

Are there plugins to make Safari look/feel more like Firefox? For example, the drop down list of your history?

[aristobrat]

I use Firefox on my Mac because I have to use Firefox at work.

With the 'Foxmarks' extension, I have both set to sync the bookmarks to a ftp server. Any bookmark I add at home shows up automatically at work, and vice-versa.

If there was a way I could do this with Safari at home and Firefox at work, I'd definately start using Safari!

[swindmill]

When I first switched, I use Camino only for quite some time, before giving Safari a chance. Since then I mostly use Safari because it has more features than Camino and is cleaner looking (when uno-fied). I can't imagine ever having a different primary browser.

[danny_w]

I use Firefox on my Mac because I have to use Firefox at work.

With the 'Foxmarks' extension, I have both set to sync the bookmarks to a ftp server. Any bookmark I add at home shows up automatically at work, and vice-versa.

If there was a way I could do this with Safari at home and Firefox at work, I'd definately start using Safari!
That 'Foxmarks' extension looks like exactly what I have been needing for years. I just wish (like yourself) that there was a way to also synchronize Safari. Keeping them synchronized even on the same computer is nearly impossible.

[cycocelica]

Stuck with Safari since the begining. Probably wont ever switch.

[zami]

FWIW, I found Safari OK, but everyone was saying that Firefox and Camino were so much better/faster. So I tried both of them. Yup, certainly I found them faster, but more 'clunky' than Safari. And then someone else was raving about Shiira (http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en), so I tried that (about 7 months ago) and it has been the best of the bunch, IMHO.

So I have stuck with that. It's been ---- great. Fast, streamlined, sleek uncluttered interface. Never bombed on a site yet.


I second that, also Shiira is by far and away the most beautiful browser out there with fantastic Japanese minimalist design and great choice of elegant colours in the toolbar.

Safari's metal look is dated, Firefox is clunky, Camino is close but no cigar and as for the "relic" Internet Explorer 5.2 - no comment.

[dornoforpyros]

when I first got my mac I was using Firefox just because it's what I used (and still do) on PC's. But after having it choke to death on enough flash sites I finally gave Safari and go and I've been using it ever since. I do use Firefox for web development though.

[pablofmichel]

i have switched back and forth since i got my first mac years ago with the Mac OS X Jaguar... those were good times :) hehe Back then Safari was still a little baby and I HAD to use IE:mac... no comment. then, guess where I read about Safari! Playboy magazine! amazing, yes, and so was Safari. Then still on Jaguar I tried out Firefox, since it was the innovative browser, it had adblock and all that, then, I wanted something less "heavyweight" and more mac-like so I went to camino. Then back to safari after so many updates etc because I love running Apple software... it just feels so integrated! Then I got panther for a couple months and I think I used Safari because there was this big change or something, then shortly after that I got Tiger and used Safari still. Then Opera. The Shiiira. The iCab. Then Flock. Then Firefox which I had really destroyed with horrible skins and plug-ins. Then Camino which was and still is really nice (it still has an important use). Then a month ago or so back to Safari, because I know how to block the ads now! I use camino's adblock for that. Go to Safari>Preferences>Advanced>StyleSheet...:>Users>~>Library>Appplication Support>Camino>chrome>ad_blocking.css ¡¡Voilá!!

[pablofmichel]

Safari's metal look is dated
OK I hate that too but just download SafariTools and then you can choose to have a Unified Layout! YAY!

[mileslong]

Safari owns the rest of the browsers in speed, features, and ease of use.
that just is not true. camino, firefox and shiira are all faster than safari. safari also has a jacked up bookmark feature, when i click on bookmarks i want to see a pull down list not a whole another page show up. i also want to be able to just click on the tabbar and open a tab not have to apple/t to open one. these are simple basic features that safari should have and doesnt. it is a memory hog and sluggish. i want to like it because it has a built in rss reader but thats its only redeeming quality.

[Mord]

it depends on your mac, safari has a smaller ram footprint for me than firefox so is faster on my ibook, but firefox is faster on my cube with 1.5GB ram.

[Lord Blackadder]

I use Safari and Firefox pretty much 50/50. I don't think one is vastly better than the other, they both have their strong points.

[Apple]

Internet Explorer all the way on my mac. It's the better way to internet with its customizable colors. It's so fast. wow. Im definitely just kidding. I love safari all the way.

[ppnkg]

I have been using Safari, FF and Camino, but I'm sticking with Shiira. Looks better and is as fast as Safari. Opera was completely disappointing, the layout and all.

One thing I haven't figured out yet: how do I make shiira the default browser for everything? Some applications keep opening safari.

[dpaanlka]

Internet Explorer all the way on my mac. It's the better way to internet with its customizable colors. It's so fast.

Scared me for a minute there.

Although... IE 5 is sadly still my browser recommendation for Mac OS 7.6.

[UKnjb]

I have been using Safari, FF and Camino, but I'm sticking with Shiira. Looks better and is as fast as Safari. Opera was completely disappointing, the layout and all.

One thing I haven't figured out yet: how do I make shiira the default browser for everything? Some applications keep opening safari.

Wacky, but you have to set this from within Safari!
Safari > Preferences > Default Browser ---- and set it to Shiira. :)

[gauchogolfer]

Safari's metal look is dated

Try downloading UNO 1.3 . You can remove the brushed metal look from most Aqua menus, and choose either a light (iTunes-like) or dark (iPhoto-like) smooth interface. I like the dark one, personally. Anyways, give it a try.

[goormart]

Is there a way to get my bookmarks on the left side of safari and the page on the right side, if not, it's all the way FF for me.

[odedia]

I came from the Windows world and was a die hard Firefox fan, but when I got my MBP, I felt it didn't give me what I needed from my browser. I tried Camino, but it is still very slow IMO. And I am sure there are some unhandled memory leaks, it's impossible how stuck it gets at times. It can eat my RAM real quick. So for the time being, despite it being limited for some sites, I am using safari.

Last night I tried Shiira and liked it very much (it's also based on webkit so it has all the safari goodies). The "open selection in tabs", tab expose', download manager and page transitions are really nice add-ons. Plus the shiira widget comes in handy what you want something checked out real quick.

Oded S.

[weldon]

I was using Firefox for the SessionSaver plug-in but decided to spring for Saft and I'm back on Safari. I love that I can save all tabs as bookmarks and restore all tabs when I relaunch Safari after a quit or a crash. I don't use the other features much, but those two features are a lifesaver for me and make Safari usable.

[Bern]

Coming in a bit late here I guess, but I have always used Safari. I've never seen FF in action, dabbled with Opera a few years back.

[UKnjb]

FWIW, I found Safari OK, but everyone was saying that Firefox and Camino were so much better/faster. So I tried both of them. Yup, certainly I found them faster, but more 'clunky' than Safari. And then someone else was raving about Shiira (http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en), so I tried that (about 7 months ago) and it has been the best of the bunch, IMHO.

So I have stuck with that. It's been ---- great. Fast, streamlined, sleek uncluttered interface. Never bombed on a site yet.

Sorry for quoting myself, but I am a confirmed Shiira user. However, this afternoon I needed to use IE and while it was running, went to my standard e-mail provider (a UK-based system). It seemed to take forever, so I ran a comparison with the various Browsers.

The exercise involved getting the browser to go to the home page of the organisation, logging in and then clicking on the button to go to my e-mail. And timing was done with my sweep-hand wrist watch, so a tadsworth of inaccuracy there. :(

Results:
Shiira: 6 secs
Safari: 6 secs
Camino: 8 secs
Firefox: 8 secs
IE: 135 secs !!!!!!!

With IE, the logging in to the home page took 80 seconds and then the direction to my mail box took the other 55 seconds. There was a spinning black/white whatsit while IE did whatever it did.

All caches of the various browsers had been cleared.

As far as these numbers go, there is no difference between any of the popular browsers covered in this thread (except I prefer Shiira for its simplicity) but I do not understand why IE should be so slow.

Any ideas, comments? :)

[GimmeSlack12]

Any ideas, comments? :)
I guess I'll comment on the obvious. IE hasn't been updated for nearly 3 years (maybe longer) on the Mac. So go figure.
Safari is still doing a fine job for me and I don't miss Camino.

[other]

I feel lost when I don't have Opera to surf the web with. Though I remember it wasn't as good in OS X as in Windows/Linux. I still used it though, since no other browser is as easily customizable (menus/keyboard shortcuts/whatever). Firefox is probably very customizable, if you know XUL, which I don't. So it falls on the easy part.

[fanbrain]

Safari>FF>Camino>Opera>Shiira.

I like Opera because I can save sessions and it has the little "trash" button so I can recover sites that I may have accidentally closed. I use Shiira because it's fast and looks good.

[GimmeSlack12]

Alright I'm back to Camino now. Safari takes A LOT! of memory. Was running my system into the ground.

Will I ever make up my mind? Probably... when I have a computer with more 1gb of RAM.

[officerdick]

Houston we have a problem.

Safari doesn't do Video Google or YouTube!!!???!?!?! WTF? Flip4Mac is installed and works fine for CNN.com on my other browsers, but Safari is not doing anything about it. What is going on?!
Please tell me I'm doing something wrong cause this is unnacceptable.

I had that problem to .. then i opened the safari prefs and saw the chechbox beside the text enable plugins, was not active. so i activated plugins then everything worked

EDIT: oh you found out ... my bad

[charmin]

Safari > IE > Firefox > Omniweb > Camino > Shiira > Safari

Camino is a great browser, but for one reason or another I stopped using it. Probably something to do with not supporting my online banking.

Shiira too looked very promising (I love the novelty of the page transition effects) until I realised it won't let me log in to my University webmail. Takes the username and password and tells me they're wrong. They are not wrong.

But Safari is such a good browser that there isn't all that much difference between them. It does what I need it to do (would be nice if ad-blocking was an Apple feature though).

[pjarvi]

Firefox > Safari > Safari/Firefox

Lately I started using Firefox again for 2 reasons:

-Double-clicking the blank space of the tab bar opens a new tab
-Extensions (specifically DownThemAll & Adblock)

I hadn't heard of Shiira until reading this thread, but I'm gonna give it a try when I get home.

[GimmeSlack12]

In-N-Out Burger > Fat Burger > Camino > Safari

I've said it over and over again that the best browser is a good hamburger.

[shadowmoses]

Firefox > Safari > Safari/Firefox

Lately I started using Firefox again for 2 reasons:

-Double-clicking the blank space of the tab bar opens a new tab


Just tried this in Camino and can confirm it works, thanks for the tip didn't know about that one,

SHadoW

[Platform]

Well I went IE > Firefox > Opera (a long time most time on the PC) > Opera (Mac) > Firefox > Safari.....just works great and I like the OS X feel of it....have used camino as well, but no RSS feeds so nop ;)

[wmmk]

I went safari - firefox - safari.

It was during the apple event in Jan, firefox didn't update the macrumors live page without me physically refreshing which was a real pain, halfway through i switched to safari and found i had missed half a dozen updates.

I couldn't be doing with that, i find safari a brilliant web browser and will continue to use it in the future. Much better for installing downloads from apple such as widgets too, becuase it is all integrated, one of the reasons i switched to a Mac in the first place

How can I make safari auto-update stuff?

[wmmk]

Safari's metal look is dated
try the smooth stripes theme for tiger. removes all stripes and brushed metal. rwally woderful. my mac is suddenly beautiful again!

[bousozoku]

I went safari - firefox - safari.

It was during the apple event in Jan, firefox didn't update the macrumors live page without me physically refreshing which was a real pain, halfway through i switched to safari and found i had missed half a dozen updates.

I couldn't be doing with that, i find safari a brilliant web browser and will continue to use it in the future. Much better for installing downloads from apple such as widgets too, becuase it is all integrated, one of the reasons i switched to a Mac in the first place

That's truly odd because every time I've had Firefox on a page that is automatically updated, it works just fine. In fact, it works just fine everywhere except for pages with Flash animations and that's a Macromedia problem that causes every browser to perform poorly.

[zorg]

I think Camino and Safari are up there for first place on speed, I however use Camino...just for...don't know why.

[applemacdude]

safari sucks for mysapce

[mikes63737]

I find safari to be really slow on alot of sites on my Mac mini, especially Newegg.com. I really like Camino. I'd use Firefox, but I can's stand how it shows buttons (reminds my of Windows).

[bousozoku]

I find safari to be really slow on alot of sites on my Mac mini, especially Newegg.com. I really like Camino. I'd use Firefox, but I can's stand how it shows buttons (reminds my of Windows).

Use Firefoxy with Firefox. Buttons of all kinds have a slightly glassy look.

[QCassidy352]

I keep switching too. Right now I am on Camino, but unlike some people, I have no "favorite" and think they all are great. I just get bored and want to try something new.

[zorg]

I seem to come back to Safari on occasion also, even though I am with Camino right now.

[iMarley]

Camino for me. Safari 1.3.2 on panther is a little too slow for my liking.

[Melkor]

I've always used Safari and I love it. Only once ever did I need to briefly switch to Firefox because a certain web page wouldn't load.

[Abstract]

Lots of various media things don't work in Firefox for me. For example, if I'm on a site, like even a .Mac webpage where someone has posted a bunch of photos, and say I'm looking at a particular photo and click on the next photo to try and view it, it won't. Media files generally don't load, like YouTube.

I like Safari, but certain sites I went to normally didn't work. That was maybe 6 months ago. I started with Firefox, switched to Safari, back to Firefox, and because of my problems with Firefox, I am trying Camino, and this baby works on every site. I don't care if it takes an extra 1 second to load up. It's insignificant, and if i can get onto the sites I want, then super. :)