What browser for MacBook?

[vistadude]

I know this should go in a software or apps forum, but I wanted to ask people with similar hardware as me (or older) since macbooks haven't been updated in 2 years. I have a macbook 2009 with 8 gb RAM. I'm using opera 12 right now and been using since opera 6 on windows. But it's getting very slow. When I use safari, it's much better, but I hate safari because of the weird shortcuts you can't change and overall slowness because I can't make my own keyboard shortcuts and because the buttons are small and placed in strange places.

I can't imagine using firefox, we have it at work and it's as bad as Safari to me. I thought about using chrome but I don't like that google will be tracking everything I do and updating itself whenever it wants to.

What are you all using to browse and do you like the performance?

[davidg4781]

What are you doing online?

I've always used Safari, since 2006. It's always worked great, except for FaceBook games. I used Chrome for that.

[GGJstudios]

My preference is Safari. Which Mac model you run on is pretty much irrelevant, as long as you have sufficient RAM. For recommendations on browsers, you may find some useful information in some of the recent existing threads, such as these:

What browser are you using on your Air?
safari vs google vs ?
Browser of Choice for 27" iMac
What is the most common used Browser on iMac?

[jojoba]

I use Safari, except for when I use WordPress which for some reason is extremely slow in Safari - then I switch to Chrome.

[SingularityG]

Originally Posted by jojoba

I use Safari, except for when I use WordPress which for some reason is extremely slow in Safari - then I switch to Chrome.

Really? How so? Haven't used other browser than Safari in a while and this makes me curious, since Im on WordPress, too.

[Hungry&Foolish]

Webkit.

[JoeRito]

Love the recently updated Safari... brought this tool on par with other mainstream browsers.

[vdubbeet]

Originally Posted by JoeRito

Love the recently updated Safari... brought this tool on par with other mainstream browsers.

Joe~love that you added your Lab to your signature. All, I'm newer to the '09 MBP with 8GB and use Safari 6.0.2 and haven't had any issues with responsiveness. Occasionally when ordering cards from hallmark.com or filling in forms for some other sites, I use Firefox which I used on my Windoze machines for years. On my iPhone, I mostly use Safari and when I need to use Opera. Hope this helps.

[JoeRito]

Originally Posted by vdubbeet

love that you added your Lab to your signature.

Labs love to "Mac" right along with you! Thanks.

[forza69]

No one? Really? I use Chrome as my main browser. I don't know why, but Safari just seems a bit sluggish to me.

[BigDukeSix]

I have a 2009 Macbook with 8gb of ram. I use Firefox or Safari, and it works fine for me.

[dusk007]

As I have also been a long time Opera user since version 5 I think, I can tell you forget Safari. You can make Chrome work. I couldn't stand the stability of the Opera 11.X versions so I tried around with FF, Chrome and Safari.
Safari is just a nogo, not matter how hard you try and how installing all the extensions only makes it worse. Chrome works. You loose the site preferences and a few smaller things. Some things you can get back with addons.
Downloads are a little more annoying in the interface but it works okay. I am running Chrome now and the page zoom is actually better.

Performance is as good as it gets. Lately it stalls quite often from disk access or when the GPU is overloaded. There are still some issue with this whole GPU acceleration and multitasking. My 2010 could do better.
This whole GPU accel. is nice for a fluid GUI but it often does cause stalls where it wouldn't have in the old days. CPUs are simply better with context switching than whatever system they use for the GPU rendering. Performance wise this is the biggest complaint. If you focus on one fully loaded page, it works great in Chrome with performance. Heavy multitasking and responsiveness with many tabs Opera back in the days and Windows (where I still use Opera) is significantly better.
Benchmarks only really measure the one in focus tab and often don't really capture what actually matters.

FF I never liked. much Opera is faster and FF really only shines with the right extensions and I never liked how they break every other update. You need so many of them and they often make the software slower and clunkier than it should be with properly integrated features.

I didn't return to Opera on Mac from Chrome after I switched around 10.6 to 11.5. Never really tried because too much of my stuff (links, extensions, snychronisations, cookies, passwords...) is now in Chrome.

[jojoba]

Originally Posted by SingularityG

Really? How so? Haven't used other browser than Safari in a while and this makes me curious, since Im on WordPress, too.

I really don't know - I only noticed about a week ago as I usually always stick to Safari, but it was so slow to load wordpress and I decided to try in a different browser. I opened Chrome and was struck by how much faster it was, so since then I have used Chrome for that site (although I do most of my actual blogging in MarsEdit).

[SingularityG]

Originally Posted by jojoba

I really don't know - I only noticed about a week ago as I usually always stick to Safari, but it was so slow to load wordpress and I decided to try in a different browser. I opened Chrome and was struck by how much faster it was, so since then I have used Chrome for that site (although I do most of my actual blogging in MarsEdit).

I see. Wordpress loads quickly on my Mac but publishing/updating a post takes ~3-5 seconds. I'll give Chrome a go when under bootcamp.

[designs216]

Originally Posted by vistadude

I can't imagine using firefox, we have it at work and it's as bad as Safari to me. I thought about using chrome but I don't like that google will be tracking everything I do and updating itself whenever it wants to.

I use Firefox most of the time as I like the versatility of the search function and the configuration options you don't get with Safari, which is my runner up. There is no perfect browser so I switch back and forth among FF and Safari and sometimes even use Opera to capitalize on the strengths of each. Sometimes I'm even forced to use IE

Being wary of Google myself, I try to stay away from that engine and won't use Chrome either. I did recently discover DuckDuckGo and there are extensions like Better Privacy and GoogleSharing that are supposed to help.

[Macthemaca]

Chrome is fast and you can block most spying with "Ghostery"

[t0rr3s]

Last year, Safari and Chrome. Safari tend to have these moments when it would crash when I've got a few tabs open (which is often). Firefox this year, been blazing fast.

[turtlez]

On topic: Apart from personal preference (which in my case I cannot decide) I think it would come down to resource usage the most, especially for a macbook. That rules out Firefox for sure lol. Safari and Chrome are close but I think Safari wins in the resource usage. Chrome has the benefit of slightly more stability, not saying safari is a constant crash but maybe once a fortnight. In saying that, Chrome doesn't feel as solid as Safari.

[davidg4781]

Originally Posted by t0rr3s

Last year, Safari and Chrome. Safari tend to have these moments when it would crash when I've got a few tabs open (which is often). Firefox this year, been blazing fast.

Just to throw this out, I had 12 tabs open and no crashes. One's a youtube audio clip, one's a monoprice cart I've had opened for a few days, work email, facebook, netflix, and the rest were MacRumors threads I've got email alerts from.

I think there may be some other issue with your Safari maybe.

[SingularityG]

Originally Posted by davidg4781

Just to throw this out, I had 12 tabs open and no crashes. One's a youtube audio clip, one's a monoprice cart I've had opened for a few days, work email, facebook, netflix, and the rest were MacRumors threads I've got email alerts from.

I think there may be some other issue with your Safari maybe.

Agreed. I have been using just Safari for three years with not a single crash or a slow-down.