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vistadude

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 3, 2010
1,423
1
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

macrumors 68030
Oct 28, 2006
2,798
398
Alice, TX
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.
 

jojoba

macrumors 68000
Dec 9, 2011
1,584
21
I use Safari, except for when I use WordPress which for some reason is extremely slow in Safari - then I switch to Chrome.
 

SingularityG

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2012
338
0
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.:)
 

vdubbeet

macrumors member
Jan 25, 2012
62
0
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.
 

forza69

macrumors 6502a
Jan 30, 2010
777
126
No one? Really? I use Chrome as my main browser. I don't know why, but Safari just seems a bit sluggish to me.
 

dusk007

macrumors 68040
Dec 5, 2009
3,411
104
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

macrumors 68000
Dec 9, 2011
1,584
21
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

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2012
338
0
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

macrumors 65816
Oct 26, 2009
1,046
21
Down the rabbit hole
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 :mad:

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.
 

t0rr3s

macrumors 6502
Dec 23, 2010
477
52
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

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2012
977
0
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.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

davidg4781

macrumors 68030
Oct 28, 2006
2,798
398
Alice, TX
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

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2012
338
0
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.:)
 
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