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firefox vs. safari

M

Meric

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 24, 2010
150
0
I made a simple test by opening same webpages with firefox and safari..

facebook, gmail, apple start page and an internet newspaper...

in activity monitor safari was using 270 mb of memory versus 170 of firefox... on a clean reboot...

before after using safari for a while.. kept the open pages and reopened them in firefox.. it was safari 550 mb vs. firefox 250 mb...

does this to make firefox a better browser?

thanks.
 
Meric said:
I made a simple test by opening same webpages with firefox and safari..

facebook, gmail, apple start page and an internet newspaper...

in activity monitor safari was using 270 mb of memory versus 170 of firefox... on a clean reboot...

before after using safari for a while.. kept the open pages and reopened them in firefox.. it was safari 550 mb vs. firefox 250 mb...

does this to make firefox a better browser?

thanks.
Click to expand...
No it's simply different.

Browsers are a very personal choice and they are all very good. Safari has been optimized (obviously) for the Mac interface.

Yet that said, the others are very close competitors. Why must we declare one the best?

My personal preference is Chrome, yet I use them all. Each for it's particular advantages that appeal to me.

Cheers... :)
 
I don't like safari, especially with air because it requires more processor and memory. I rather use chrome and firefox. Chrome is faster I think than firefox, but don't have any clue about safari since I didn't test it.
 
I'm running Firefox and I'm happy with it. The main reason for me is that I work with different kind of web development, and all the plugins available for Firefox makes my work SO much easier (for example Firebug, Web Developer, Tamper Data and so on).

Other than that, most browsers nowdays are pretty equal. Some render the pages and run javascript faster, but in turn uses a bit more memory, some doesn't use much resources at all but might lack functions important to you, and so on. Just give a few different browsers a test-drive for a week each, then choose the one that suits you best.
 
I also use Chrome Browser. It's a faster browser. People might say, it took more memory. But, who care? I have 4GB, I am no where near 2GB of usage with tons of other stuff running. I go with speed. Firefox is good also.
 
Stingray454 said:
I'm running Firefox and I'm happy with it. The main reason for me is that I work with different kind of web development, and all the plugins available for Firefox makes my work SO much easier (for example Firebug, Web Developer, Tamper Data and so on).
Click to expand...

You'd love Chrome. Firebug is actually a feature of the browser itself, not an extension. There's plenty of tools for web developers in Chrome. And the release version is faster than Firefox.

I've switched after being a Firefox user since Mozilla Phoenix 0.1.
 
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Stingray454 said:
I'm running Firefox and I'm happy with it. The main reason for me is that I work with different kind of web development, and all the plugins available for Firefox makes my work SO much easier (for example Firebug, Web Developer, Tamper Data and so on).
Click to expand...

Chrome is better. Period. If speed is your thing, you can't really argue that one. As far as Firebug goes... Chrome has NO comparison. I am also a web developer, and firebug is an INDISPENSABLE utility... I have chrome and firefox loaded, only run FF to use firebug.

Chrome has some amazing SEO tools though, which is what I do.... so I use chrome 85% of the time, and firefox to debug websites using firebug... it's just the nature of our business.

Chrome is getting better, slowly, in the extensions department... but until it has a direct port of firebug (not something like it, directly firebug)... I'll always have firefox loaded on my machine.... I do REALLY hate firefox though.

I personally do not know a single self-respecting web developer who DOES NOT have firefox loaded, at least just for firebug.
 
I switched to firefox when safari kept hanging up and freezing on me a few years ago. Then I started using both. With my work I find it helps me stay organized if I have certain project windows open on firefox and another project's research on safari. And now it's firefox that sometimes gives me trouble and I have to force quit and reopen.

But I use them both. One thing I like about firefox is that one click in the top bar highlights the entire URL and I don't have to scroll and click to do so before entering the next one. It's the little things for me.

I'm wondering if I'll have the same firefox force quit issues on the new MBA.
 
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safari

It seems to me that safari at least on my machine is getting worse and worse by the day. It seems from the above post that a few of you are pleased with chrome I may have to give it a try. I am not a huge firefox fan so in that regard I'd pick safari over it.
 
KnightWRX said:
Chrome has all the features of Firebug I use. It's fine for me and for many others. A rose by any other name...
Click to expand...

Firebug's DOM inspects and persist options are better than Chrome. Not even sure Chrome has a persist option at all.

Chrome is coming around though... I say 2011 sometime and it'll be close or equal to firebug possibly
 
Like many others who have posted to this thread, I use Chrome and love it. Google has given Chrome some terrific features, which I have come to rely upon.

I switched to Chrome from Safari more than a year ago and never looked back. Safari was satisfactory in most ways but had a weakness I grew exceedingly tired of dealing with. Upon being first opened after a reboot of OS X, Safari would usually take a minute or more to load my home page, IMDb. To make sure IMDb wasn't the culprit, I changed the home page to another site and Safari was just as slow to open that home page after a reboot as it had been when trying to load IMDb.

Chrome's primary weakness is its tendency to cause kernel panics. That is easily corrected, though, by closing Chrome's open tabs, closing Chrome itself, and then reopening it. Fortunately, it has happened only once in the five weeks I have been using it on my MBA. Anyway, Chrome's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, it seems to me.
 
I've recently been using Firefox almost all the time because Safari just hangs up when trying to go to certain sites. For example, this site. Couldn't get on it with Safari, but when I fired up Firefox it went right to it. Safari also crashes too much for my taste.
 
Been running Chrome daily on my 27" iMac for just under a year. It was the first thing I installed after purchase. Haven't had a single kernel panic due to Chrome, or anything else for that matter. Chrome just plain works. And with its Apple-like minimalist aesthetics, it doesn't get in your way at all when you're trying to use it. Some browsers you have to wrestle with just to get access to basic functions.
 
I've always used Safari when on the Mac, haven't had any kernel panics, and I've had it crash once. Netflix seems to run smoother in Safari than Firefox/Chrome, and the Glims extension and Click to Flash has made it wonderful to use.

Browsers are a personal decision, to each their own!
 
gwsat said:
Like many others who have posted to this thread, I use Chrome and love it. Google has given Chrome some terrific features, which I have come to rely upon.

Anyway, Chrome's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses, it seems to me.
Click to expand...

Please post what some of Chrome's features and strengths are. I tried it for a short time about a year ago (coming from Firefox) and promptly returned to Firefox due to crashes, an ugly UI, and a lack of plugins.
 
YMark said:
Please post what some of Chrome's features and strengths are. I tried it for a short time about a year ago (coming from Firefox) and promptly returned to Firefox due to crashes, an ugly UI, and a lack of plugins.
Click to expand...
Chrome's most important feature to me at least is the prompt asking if I want Chrome to save my user name and password for a site I am logging into. If I answer Yes to the prompt, the next time I log in at the site, Chrome automatically enters my user name and password. I love it. The last version of Safari I used didn't have this feature but Safari has been updated several time since I last tried it. I haven't used Firefox in years so have no idea what it can do.

The bottom line for me is that Chrome has proved to be eminently satisfactory for 18 months so there is no reason for me not to stick with it. I agree with another poster's observation that which browser one uses is a personal decision. Fortunately, there are a number of them that appear to be quite good.
 
gwsat said:
Chrome's primary weakness is its tendency to cause kernel panics. That is easily corrected, though, by closing Chrome's open tabs, closing Chrome itself, and then reopening it.
Click to expand...

Hum, you do understand that a Kernel panic results in having to reboot your computer right ? I don't think Chrome is quite causing Kernel panics in your case.
 
Though I've used Firefox for years on my VAIO, I decided to give both Chrome and Safari a fair chance. They're both crazy fast compared to Firefox, but unfortunately Chrome kept crashing on me (I'll need to wait till it's out of beta), and Safari doesn't offer much customization - typical of Apple. I really wanted to embrace Safari as my primary, too.

I didn't think I'd notice at first, but minute things like searching from the address bar, and displaying only favicons on my bookmarks toolbar gets sorely missed after a day or two!
 
KnightWRX said:
Hum, you do understand that a Kernel panic results in having to reboot your computer right ? I don't think Chrome is quite causing Kernel panics in your case.
Click to expand...

Does anyone else expererience flash crashing frequently in Chrome? I always get the "Aw Snap" message. A bit annoying

I do wish safari/firefox would implement chromes single search bar for both url and google search. I like that quite a bit
 
It is a balance between speed and customisation. I would love to use Safari as my main browser but the download window just annoys me. Firefox has Download Status Bar. Things like this make me wish Safari had more customisation.
 
One thing that I can't live without on browsers is the Cmd+# shortcuts for switching between tabs! I would have used Safari for the speed advantage instead of Firefox, but this feature is really important to me. Now I use Chrome, which supports this feature, and I get the speed.
 
Has Chrome finally fixed that forced display of "Other Bookmarks" yet? Silly as it is, that's the main thing that's turned me off about it.
 
I prefer using Chrome. Faster browser, simple interface and great plug-ins. Love the bookmark bar and being able to log into any mac or pc and everything syncs.
 
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