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Safari vs. Everything Else?

V

vorbb

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 18, 2010
47
0
Hey guys,

I'm looking at taking the plunge in to a Mac. I've been a Windows user for the last 15 years, so it's gonna be a big change, but I've just been so impressed with the prvious Apple products I've owned that it's worth it. That, and, of course, my new job is very Mac-centric, so I want to fit in ;)

Anyways, one question I have is, how does Safari stack up against Firefox, Chrome, etc? I'm a bit of a minimalist, so I don't care about addons and crap in Firefox, as I won't use them. I'm primarily concerned with things like speed, system integration, aethetics, etc.

What do you guys think about Safari vs. other browsers in that regard?
 
vorbb said:
Hey guys,

I'm looking at taking the plunge in to a Mac. I've been a Windows user for the last 15 years, so it's gonna be a big change, but I've just been so impressed with the prvious Apple products I've owned that it's worth it. That, and, of course, my new job is very Mac-centric, so I want to fit in ;)

Anyways, one question I have is, how does Safari stack up against Firefox, Chrome, etc? I'm a bit of a minimalist, so I don't care about addons and crap in Firefox, as I won't use them. I'm primarily concerned with things like speed, system integration, aethetics, etc.

What do you guys think about Safari vs. other browsers in that regard?
Click to expand...

Have you tried it out on your pc already? Good luck, I switched recently and am very happy that I did.
 
Safari is the default browser for a reason ... it just works well on a Mac

people that go to FireFox, Chrome, Opera ... blah blah blah ... are usually PC users coming aboard or Mac users that have convinced themselves they can improve their Mac or are just looking for a change.
 
I strongly disagree. I believe that Safari does work better as a "Mac App" than the other browsers, however, I think Chrome is the best from an overall perspective.

If you find yourself zooming in on websites, you'll hate Safari because Safari doesn't remember zoom levels by domain. ( The custom CSS zoom doesn't work well on certain websites such as gmail. )

With Chrome and Firefox, they remember your zoom level across all of the websites you visit, so it's extremely convenient. Being able to "pin tabs" is another biggie for me.

Text is extremely small on the high res 27 inch displays, so you'll probably find yourself zooming in a lot on websites, unless you have eagle eyes.

So, besides a couple of very small annoyances, I think Chrome is an amazing browser and rather easily beats Safari in most areas. But that's just my 2 cents.
 
personally i think Chrome is a *much* better browser by far. either on windows or OSX or linux. it beats safari, IE and FF by a long long margin.

it is nearly twice as fast, has a better (javascript) performance, minimalist UI. More logical tabs-on-top solution (like in the beta of safari), syncs everything in the cloud like history, bookmarks and even extensions.

Further it has much better memory mnagement and the process per tab makes it much more secure and less prone to total browser crashes besides it's updated more frequently.

I also could not browse anymore without the omnibox that always know what i want for some reason, searches as i type, does google instant, autocompletes and looks through my history so that the site i want is always just a few keystrokes away.

the biggest annoyance is that the address bar of safari 404's on whenever i type something in there that isn't a valid URL, something *all* other browsers get right by now.

Finally it has has none of those fancy smansy things like coverflow history or cilinder shaped thumbnails.

if only it would use the intel card without gfxcardstatus it would be perfect, but for me it is so much better then safari that i prefer gfxcardstatus+chrome by far over safari 5.0.2
 
In my opinion Firefox has never quite felt right Mac.

Chrome is probably the best option. Safari is perfectly capable though.
 
aeaglex07 said:
Safari was always my favorite until ver. 5 it sucks now.. slow and unresponsive on a new Mac Pro... they need to fix it
Click to expand...

I agree. I have had numerous lockups and found Safari 5 very slow altogether. I switched to Chrome and couldn't be happier.
 
gestures

Personally I love Safari because of the integration with the Mac. I use my gestures all the time on my multi-touch capable MacBook and Magic Mouse on the iMac. Perhaps the other browsers support this now too? I haven't tried many of them lately. On the MacBook three finger swiped to the left goes back and three to the right goes forward. Its similar with the Magic Mouse, only its two fingers.
 
I personally don't get the chrome love. I've been using it this past week and its DEFINITELY subpar to Safari. Speed is a hit or miss and its handling of Flash HD content is abysmal.
 
I love Chrome and all the features it has. Safari is just slow and isn't as smooth as it used to be. Firefox isn't smooth (due to the nature of the UI) but its a good browser. I like Chrome because its like Safari, but better. I like how I can right click a link and choose to view it in private browsing or not, I like how fast it loads, I like how smooth it feels, I like how when I open a new tab, it gives me quick access to old tabs and frequently visited websites. I also have the option to restore tabs if I want. Chrome is the best in my opinion. I didn't really like it at first, but I really like it now. Safari seems kind of slow and buggy. Firefox is good, fast and reliable but it doesn't have the features that Chrome has such as having the link automatically show up when I type in the letter (Safari has this, but Safari is buggy like I said), it will show up the link I visit first. I'm really used to typing "F" then clicking "enter" to get to Facebook. I also like the new tab screen on Chrome (so I can easily view my recently closed stuff and my most popular hits)

Try it out.
 
If you're getting a Mac regardless, then I'd advise trying Safari. There's no "penalty" if you decide to switch to another browser later so give it a go and see what you think.

Personally I've been using Safari as my primary browser since the first beta in 2003.
 
Another VERY satisfied Chrome user here.

Just made the switch about a week ago from Firefox and couldn't be happier. Prior to Firefox, I was a Safari user for years.
 
I have been using Safari since it ever came out, it used to be a great browser.

I recently switched to firefox and can't believe I have been using Safari all this time.

With Safari 5, and some time before, it is extremely slow. Not at rendering websites, but even switching from one tab to the other and it seems like its choking when you run couple of different things on it, say flash video, website with ads, and some other thing.
It goes slow too with multiple tabs, and crashes quite often.

It is very un-Apple like. After being frustrated thinking my macbook is old and slow(1.5 years old) , I switched to Firefox.

No more slow downs, no more hiccups , it just works..
When you first use Safari you won't notice it , but after 4 months or so you will realize it.

I can't say anything about Chrome because I don't use it, but I didn't give it much of a chance because when watching flash videos on it , it almost burns my laptop due to heat. I am not sure if that is a bug that has been fixed or what. I just don't use it any more.
 
Nermal said:
If you're getting a Mac regardless, then I'd advise trying Safari. There's no "penalty" if you decide to switch to another browser later so give it a go and see what you think.

Personally I've been using Safari as my primary browser since the first beta in 2003.
Click to expand...

Excellent response ... I give extra Kudos to someone who seems to be in the know ... and I am sure has tried them all
 
daneoni said:
I personally don't get the chrome love. I've been using it this past week and its DEFINITELY subpar to Safari. Speed is a hit or miss and its handling of Flash HD content is abysmal.
Click to expand...

I can play 1080p videos in Flash from YouTube just fine in Chrome.

I really enjoy Safari and I love its integration with the OS. However, I've found that Chrome is generally faster (and it has free sync, unlike Safari) so I generally use Chrome. I still use Safari enough to keep the icon in my Dock, though.
 
Firefox is bloated crapware on the Mac. Safari is nice, but I switched to Chrome about a year ago and find it to be more compatible with most sites I visit, and has the added benefit of the ability to sync bookmarks, preferences, cookies, passwords and extensions with Chrome on all my Macs via Google Bookmarks.
 
Coming from Windows Vista/7, Google Chrome is way better. Safari takes 30 second to open up and load, while Google Chrome takes like 5 seconds. Safari's speed is a hit and miss, sometimes it's really fast, but sometimes it's really slow. I prefer the font smoothing on Safari though :D
 
iThinkergoiMac said:
I can play 1080p videos in Flash from YouTube just fine in Chrome.

I really enjoy Safari and I love its integration with the OS. However, I've found that Chrome is generally faster (and it has free sync, unlike Safari) so I generally use Chrome. I still use Safari enough to keep the icon in my Dock, though.
Click to expand...

1080p with Chrome would mean i actually wanted to murder my computer.

Here are stats from a mediocre quality 720p playback using chrome (first column is CPU usage).

...i was back in Safari faster than you can say fried CPU.
 

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Based on your preferences, I'd say stick with Safari.

Chrome is also nice. It's a good backup to have.

Despite the debate, there's not a huge difference between the two browsers. They both have their positives, negatives and performance issues.
 
elppa said:
In my opinion Firefox has never quite felt right Mac.

Chrome is probably the best option. Safari is perfectly capable though.
Click to expand...

I did not like Safari for a long time, but since I have been using it for the last few months I really like it....its simple and elegant.
 
daneoni said:
Here are stats from a mediocre quality 720p playback using chrome (first column is CPU usage).

...i was back in Safari faster than you can say fried CPU.
Click to expand...

So just over 50% CPU usage is way too high?

Just tested Flash out in Safari vs Chrome... CPU usage in Chrome is only slightly higher than in Safari. Obviously, different computers and situations behave differently.
 
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