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Which web browser do you use (as your primary) on your Mac?

  • Safari

    Votes: 91 55.5%
  • Chrome

    Votes: 44 26.8%
  • Firefox

    Votes: 21 12.8%
  • Opera

    Votes: 4 2.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 4 2.4%

  • Total voters
    164

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
I have been a pretty consistant Safari user every since I made the switch back in Dec 2007. I have always been confident that Safari was at least on a similar level with all the competitors out there, and all I really need is a browser that works.

But I feel like Safari has lost the attention of Apple with all that is on their plate with the explosion of iDevices. Firefox and Crome are really stepping up to the plate. I'm typing on chrome right now, and it is pretty darn lightning fast.

Anyway, it got me wondering how many of people on MR (pretty technically competent, with a pretty strong love for Apple) have stuck with Safari or moved elsewhere.

So which browser do you use? If you picked "other" please let me know what it is!

*bonus point* do you use anything different when using a PC?

Edit: Question: on Chrome is there a way to change the shortcuts? The one I'm looking for is the page up/page down. Safari is option+up/down, but chrome is fn+up/down. I don't like the change
 
Last edited:

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
i use safari for the new lion gestures. if it were not for that i would use chrome in a heartbeat

ah yes. I haven't upgraded to Lion yet. But I thought I remembered hearing that Chrome added the 2 finger swipe for forward/back (although I heard they worked reverse the way of safari). Are there any other gestures to use in safari?
 

Tigerdaly

macrumors newbie
May 11, 2009
22
0
After changing over to Mac 3 years ago I still cannot understand why anyone considers using something else other than Safari.:confused:
What am I missing by not using chrome ? What can it do that Safari can't.
Or is it a case of folks wanting to break the mould and not use all that is provided and feeling too trapped by the Apple machine ?;)
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
After changing over to Mac 3 years ago I still cannot understand why anyone considers using something else other than Safari.:confused:
What am I missing by not using chrome ? What can it do that Safari can't.
Or is it a case of folks wanting to break the mould and not use all that is provided and feeling too trapped by the Apple machine ?;)

I use Opera. It syncs bookmarks, notes, speed dials etc between machines very easily. The addressbar also acts as a search bar where I can specify the search engine really easily for example: "g macrumors" would search google for macrumors, "w macrumors" would search wikipedia for macrumors etc. etc.

I use Opera on both of my macs and on various windows machines and I always have my bookmarks synced.

The one browser used the most in the day time though is IE8 on a work machine.
 

Tigerdaly

macrumors newbie
May 11, 2009
22
0
I use Opera. It syncs bookmarks, notes, speed dials etc between machines very easily. The addressbar also acts as a search bar where I can specify the search engine really easily for example: "g macrumors" would search google for macrumors, "w macrumors" would search wikipedia for macrumors etc. etc.

I use Opera on both of my macs and on various windows machines and I always have my bookmarks synced.

The one browser used the most in the day time though is IE8 on a work machine.
Thanks for your insight.
I guess it makes multi type machines more sync'ble as in PC's and Mac's.
I am all Mac .......... iMac, iPad and iPhone and all of things sync perfectly especially the bookmarks. I am happy with the Searching on the toolbar and I can change it to multiple search engines.
Perhaps I am worrying over nothing. :)
All I will say is I ams so pleased at changing everything to Apple, totally stress free and no worries sorting it out and backing up. I just hope they bring out the Media 5.1 surround sound gear for the lounge they are rumouring and then I wont spend my money with Bose. ;)
 

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
After changing over to Mac 3 years ago I still cannot understand why anyone considers using something else other than Safari.:confused:
What am I missing by not using chrome ? What can it do that Safari can't.

Well that's like asking why would any PC ever switch from IE.

Some differences between browsers that I can think of off the top of my head are stability, security, speed, extensions, the look, ability to use address bar as a search bar, and additional options/features.

Safari has always been a great option so I never really cared to try any of the other browsers, because honestly it wasn't worth it to me for just a browser. But now I have been hearing so many good things about chrome, and I feel like safari has been sitting on its duff for like 2 years. I tried it out and it seems pretty nice honestly. Very snappy :p
 

SoftDel

macrumors newbie
Jul 26, 2011
27
0
I use chrome, I got fed up with safari taking ages to load up (around 15 seconds)
 

Mad Mac Maniac

macrumors 601
Original poster
Duff-Man says....oh, it's time for the weekly (or is it daily?) "which browser" thread.....oh yeah!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1194684/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1153182/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1176010/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1172415/

And those threads already have links to other "which browser" threads.....

and yet none of those are polls..... :rolleyes:

You may notice this isn't really a "which is better" thread. It's a which do you use.
 

ozaz

macrumors 68000
Feb 27, 2011
1,571
511
Firefox. But because of a particular extension rather than the browser itself.
 

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,228
2,498
Chrome for normal stuff
Firefox for University stuff, like blackboard, assignments, prof.'s websites, etc.
 

devilcm3

macrumors 6502a
Jan 3, 2011
642
7
South Melbourne, Australia
well , there are some extensions that are only available in Google Chrome than Safari and i believe Chrome has wider range of extensions versus other browsers.
besides , which browser that allows you to sync all your personal settings up to the cloud? :D

but i do have other browsers on my applications folder , just in case i can't open certain websites
 

saberahul

macrumors 68040
Nov 6, 2008
3,645
111
USA
Safari hogs my mac down. With 8GB ram, I end up using about 3+ with Safari... maybe it's a bug. I resort to chrome for gmail chat as that really kills Safari but for browsing and what not I stick to Safari.
 

BadaBing!!

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2010
402
1
Chrome for me for all-around performances and features. Chrome Sync is the top reason though (syncs bookmarks and all other stuff across my PCs)
 

lexvo

macrumors 65816
Nov 11, 2009
1,467
551
The Netherlands
I use Safari and find it very quick and responsive on my 2009 i5 iMac.

We occasional use Firefox because I can't get Citrix to work under Safari.
 

blatopilot

macrumors regular
Sep 24, 2011
149
0
I use Chromium and Safari. I have Opera and Firefox installed as well. I like my browsers to be stocked like a good liquor cabinet.
 

Mackilroy

macrumors 68040
Jun 29, 2006
3,906
539
I primarily use Chrome, though I dabble with Firefox, Chrome Canary, Safari and Firefox UX. Never really liked Opera.
 
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