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Best Mac Browser?

$

$MacUser$

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 27, 2005
330
22
Los Angeles
Hey there guys,

What is the best avalible web browser for mac? Im talking primarily speed, but also features and an intuitive interface. Ive been using Safari, but have heard of others such as FireFox and Camino. Im also aware internet explorer is out for mac as well, although Ill probably shy away from that one. Any recommendations? Safari has been nice, but there may be better options out there.
 
$MacUser$ said:
Hey there guys,

What is the best avalible web browser for mac? Im talking primarily speed, but also features and an intuitive interface. Ive been using Safari, but have heard of others such as FireFox and Camino. Im also aware internet explorer is out for mac as well, although Ill probably shy away from that one. Any recommendations? Safari has been nice, but there may be better options out there.
Click to expand...
I waver back and forth between Safari and Firefox. Firefox usually loads pages faster and it pretty much always takes less RAM than Safari to run.
 
RAM isnt so much of a concern for me, as Ill have more than enough. Loading speed is key, however. Which of the two has the more pleasing visual interface, both from an aesthetic and practical point of view?
 
$MacUser$ said:
RAM isnt so much of a concern for me, as Ill have more than enough. Loading speed is key, however. Which of the two has the more pleasing visual interface, both from an aesthetic and practical point of view?
Click to expand...
Haha, that's the thing, I really really like Safari's aesthetics and feel. But I am more into "cutesy" things. I think there's also something about Firefox that strikes me as more similar to IE or windows XP. Well, right this minute I'm on my boyfriend's Windows pc and I like Firefox on the PC more than on my Macs. Shrugg. Am I crazy, or are they actually different? :confused:
 
Safari has a better interface by far, IMO, but others would disagree.

The bookmarks interface on Safari is awesome, though, and you can't disagree with that.
 
zach said:
Safari has a better interface by far, IMO, but others would disagree.

The bookmarks interface on Safari is awesome, though, and you can't disagree with that.
Click to expand...
*waving hand in air* I agree! And you're right, I really really really like the way bookmarks are set up. I sort of forgot about that-- taking it for granted really.
 
I suppose Ill stick with Safari...it is the benchmark after all. One quick question, and you guys are gonna shoot me for this, but how to you get the safari window to display full screen? When I hit the green button on the window it doesnt expand....youll have to forgive me, if it isnt painfully obvious I just switched from PCs less than a week ago. Do you have to manually drag the window out? Is there a way to set it as default full screen, or assign the green button to do it?
 
$MacUser$ said:
I suppose Ill stick with Safari...it is the benchmark after all. One quick question, and you guys are gonna shoot me for this, but how to you get the safari window to display full screen? When I hit the green button on the window it doesnt expand....youll have to forgive me, if it isnt painfully obvious I just switched from PCs less than a week ago. Do you have to manually drag the window out? Is there a way to set it as default full screen, or assign the green button to do it?
Click to expand...
You really shouldn't ever need the browser to take up the entire screen. I actually resized them all down when I used to be primarly an XP user. So I was relieved when I started using Mac OSX and Safari.

You'll get used to it soon, because if you do make it larger (by manually dragging the corner of the window), you'll notice that the rest of the browser is essentially just white, supefluous space... or rather, a waste of space. Besides, I love being able to see what else is going on in my desktop, etc while browsing.
 
I was a die-hard Firefox user for quite a while, and I still think it's the most flexible/extensible. But it can get dog-slow over the course of a few hours, and is a huge memory hog - especially if you've got several tabs open (I've usually got four or five).

I've been using the "unstable" Safari CVS builds for a couple weeks now. They are amazingly fast! They've got a few quirks, so they're not for everyone. But I think over the next few months these amazing speed gains are probably going to move to the official Safari.
 
Safari 2.0 will kick the crap out of Firefox in speed, making it almost a moot point to have installed on a Tiger based system. As for Internet Explorer 5.2.3, yes it sucks especially since it hasn't been updated in years. According to Microsoft it is the final version of Internet Explorer for the Mac and would never recommend it to anyone for their main browser. It is also pretty ugly with the old skool Netscape style colours. Interesing thing about it too is Microsoft will stop supporting it as of the end of this year, so beginning 2006 it will be an unsupported product. However I will always recommend you have it installed, because there are a few websites out there that will ONLY work properly with IE. Since it is the Windows reference browser used by 90% of the computer population, even if they do not update it in the year 2020 I will still have IE 5.2.3 on my system so I can see the web the same way the "majority" sees it with their computer if I need too in those rare circumstances. So, I say have the latest version of Safari and IE installed and ready on your Mac. Any other web browsers (in my opinion at least) just a waste of time and hard disk space.
 
finalcoolman said:
Safari 2.0 will kick the crap out of Firefox in speed, making it almost a moot point to have installed on a Tiger based system.
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I'm running both on Tiger... and Safari still feels slower than Firefox.
 
Another vote for Firefox. Safari just seems so much slower to me.

I hear Opera is pretty fast too. Lynx is probably even faster.
 
Safari is the best, in my opinion. By far.

I've tried both Firefox and Camino and I always go back to Safari. In fact, Safari is now the only browser I have installed.

Not only does it feel faster than Camino and Firefox, it also looks a lot better.
 
Another vote for Safari. I don't understand the hoopla with Firefox; it's not bad, but what's the big deal?
 
$MacUser$ said:
I suppose Ill stick with Safari...it is the benchmark after all. One quick question, and you guys are gonna shoot me for this, but how to you get the safari window to display full screen? When I hit the green button on the window it doesnt expand....youll have to forgive me, if it isnt painfully obvious I just switched from PCs less than a week ago. Do you have to manually drag the window out? Is there a way to set it as default full screen, or assign the green button to do it?
Click to expand...

1) Drag any old url into the bookmarks bar.

2) Change the name to 'Full Page' or something.

3) Then change the address to:

javascript:moveTo(0,0);resizeTo(1680,970)

The resizeTo figures are for my 20 incher. You can adjust them until you get the right size.

4) Voila! Every time you click that bookmark it will move the top left of the window to the top left of your screen, and open the browser out.

Oh, you need Javascript, of course :)
 
I use safari for most of my browsing, mainly because it supports spell checking, but for websites that don't work (such as those that use contentEditable) I use Camino. If Camino had spell checking built in (it's a planned feature) then I would probably use it all the time.
 
*Blue sirenes*

devilot76 said:
You really shouldn't ever need the browser to take up the entire screen.
Click to expand...

Is this the screen utilization police at work?

I have a 12" PB and I really do need it to take up the entire screen if I should be able to read anything or get an overview of a page. If I need to what is going on I use exposé and it shows in no time - perfect! I also miss a maximize button.
 
hansen said:
Is this the screen utilization police at work?
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No, but the web design police should be. <opinion>Sites that need a full 1024 pixels to be readable, navigable and understandable are poorly designed. </opinion>
 
Rod Rod said:
No, but the web design police should be. <opinion>Sites that need a full 1024 pixels to be readable, navigable and understandable are poorly designed. </opinion>
Click to expand...

yes, I know - was just kidding. But I don't think Safari or the OS should be designed for a perfect world, but for the reality. I have to say I miss the maximize button
 
hansen said:
yes, I know - was just kidding. But I don't think Safari or the OS should be designed for a perfect world, but for the reality. I have to say I miss the maximize button
Click to expand...
Gotcha. When I'm on a page that has a really wide image and I click the green button, the browser window becomes wide enough to fit that image. In that case it's pretty close to a maximize button.
 
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