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Free Firefox browser is better than Safari

Although I do agree that FF is better than Safari, I don't think this "review/article" offers any real arguments as to why. Bookmarks are bookmarks IMO, nothing to get too excited about...though the RSS bookmarks are pretty nifty, course Tigers Safari RSS reader will piss all over it :eek:
 
Unless it's been updated recently, the Mac version of FF is really buggy. For example, start a download, then close the browser window. Now open a new browser window. See the problem? :eek:

I have a copy of Camino on my system which I use for the occasional page that won't open in Safari. It's easy to load it too - just highlight the page address and press Cmd-Shift-U.
 
I agree this guys review is pretty much a fluff peice. Like ok, you like FF better than safari, good for you. I like noodles more than rice, should I become a journalist?
 
I use FF here at home on my PC with 56k dial up and find it a lot faster than IE. I also use FF at work on my G5 Mac running 10.3 with a T1 broadband connection and find FF to be faster than Safari. The only slower bit I have noticed when comparing it to Safari is when I launch FF, compared to Safari it takes longer to spring into action. I prefer the tabbed browseing in FF, something Safari doesnt have. I think a lot of this article comes down to each persons opinion of one browser over the other.
 
I haven't used Safari in a little over a year, but from what I remember the few months that I was using it regularly, it was way better than Firefox. They really should have used Camino as the foundation of Firefox, we really don't need more Carbon apps that don't play well with the rest of the system.

At any rate, I'll stick with OmniWeb. I've been using it since 1998 and it has served me quite well in that time.
 
winmacguy said:
I prefer the tabbed browseing in FF, something Safari doesnt have.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any real difference between the tabbed browsing in FF and Safari. What feature are you talking about? :confused:
 
FF renders forms element ugly as heck...sure there is a hack to help it out there but it's still not the best. As far as I can tell FF is faster, but overall the feel of things is not as smooth as Safari.
 
Nermal said:
I haven't seen any real difference between the tabbed browsing in FF and Safari. What feature are you talking about? :confused:
Click to expand...

The main difference for me is that Firefox's method for closing one tab is annoying to me.

I also prefer the gray look of Safari (stands apart from pages instead of blending in with white pages and adding to the Inredible Creeping Web Clutter) , the black icons (ditto on the clutter) and the compact toolbars... at first it makes you think, "where's the rest of the browser?" And then you're GLAD Safari fits the same stuff in less space. (But I do turn on the Status Bar.)
 
IMO, FF has only 1 thing on Safari. Long select bars with scrolling. Having to actually wade through a jillion entries in a scroll bar on Safari sucks. Otherwise, FF is too Netscape like.. an interface I cannot stand.
 
yellow said:
Otherwise, FF is too Netscape like.. and interface I cannot stand.
Click to expand...

Yep, I reckon that's one of the main reasons so many more people visiting this site (a Mac-advocate site) use Safari as shown in a recent poll. Sorry, I'm far too lazy to look it up. ;) I personally can't stand Firefox or any of the affiliate programs. They're too messy in both GUI and their placement of essential files.
 
Apart from the 'new window' bug, and another bug where all keyboard shortcuts randomly quits working (for a random time period), I still prefer Firefox over Safari because:

- Firefox can allow some sites to open pop-ups (e.g. the wireless network at school has a portal solution where I have to have a pop-up window open to have access), while in Safari pop-ups ar on/off making surfing at school a pop-up-H*ll...

- My internet bank works again - the b*stards "upgraded" their bank in November, and I can no longer use Safari, not Safari's fault, but still...

- I can add separators in the bookmarks, which is very handy when you have a lot of bookmarks, and try not to have too many folders in the bookmarks bar... bookmarks already are in html-format: No need for the debug-menu in Safari for import/export...

- Firefox displays the contents of the alt-tag when an image is missing, while Safari only has a stupid questionmark...

- the Searchbar at the bottom of the screen is fantastic, and makes Safari's (and all other browsers) Find-window seem like dark age technology.

- Firefox has RSS-support, which Safari still misses...

- The Send Link... command, very handy I use it several times daily, is missing in Safari...

- Firefox asks if you really want to quit if you hit cmd-Q with more than one tab open... hasn't got a count of how many times I accidently hit cmd-Q in Safari when I was aiming for cmd-W (right next to each other), and then 'lost' all my tabs and had to go through History to get them back...

That said: I'll give Safari 2.0 a try when Tiger arrives... I don't mind 'switching back'... ;)
 
I'm suprised how little weight is given to the extensions offered by FF. I use several that are now essential to browsing.

As far as tabbed browsing goes, if you get used to the FF extension "tabbed browsing preferences" it is hard to go without it. This extension makes the tabbed browsing in FF far better than that of Safari

As far as aesthetics go, Safari is MUCH better, but I wouldn't switch for that reason alone.

Smooth Scrolling is also a huge plus in FF. I hate scrolling in Safari.

/If anyone knows of any Safari add-ons in these areas I've mentioned, please share.
 
safari plugins

swindmill said:
I'm suprised how little weight is given to the extensions offered by FF. I use several that are now essential to browsing.

/If anyone knows of any Safari add-ons in these areas I've mentioned, please share.
Click to expand...

There are a number of plugins for safari. visit this site:

http://pimpmysafari.com/

swindmill said:
I love the way Firefox saves complete Web pages.
Click to expand...

I don't. Try saving any page that has a CSS and firefox messes it up completely. Neither the CSS file, nor the files linked through the CSS file are saved. which means that for a large number of sites that follow web-standards, Firefox is unable to save a page properly.

The only browsers that manage to save CSS properly are IE (windows) and Opera.
 
yellow said:
IMO, FF has only 1 thing on Safari. Long select bars with scrolling. Having to actually wade through a jillion entries in a scroll bar on Safari sucks. Otherwise, FF is too Netscape like.. an interface I cannot stand.
Click to expand...
Safari list shortcut: type part of the item (like a state name or whatever). Press Return to select it.


Arpan said:
The only browsers that manage to save CSS properly are IE (windows) and Opera.
Click to expand...
I believe that Tiger adds the ability to save an entire page with "the works" from Safari. Anyone know how well that feature works with CSS?
 
Both browsers have their advantages. Firefox seems to be more compatible in general; that doesn't mean there aren't any sites that look fine in Safari but not in Firefox (ATI's page, of all things, was one of them - I don't know if it still is).

I like Safari's bookmarks system. Most browsers (including MSIE) have a two-tier bookmark system. Frequently used bookmarks go in the bookmarks bar; less often used bookmarks are in the bookmarks menu. Safari's is three-tier: bookmarks bar, bookmarks menu, bookmark collections screen (for stuff you don't use often enough to put in the bookmarks menu, but that you still want to have around). Another advantage to Safari (at least for .Mac members) is the bookmark synchronization with .Mac - no other browser on any platform that I know of does this.
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
- Firefox can allow some sites to open pop-ups (e.g. the wireless netwoork at school has a portal solution where I have to have a pop-up window open to have access), while in Safari pop-ups ar on/off making surfing at school a pop-up-H*ll...

- the Searchbar at the bottom of the screen is fantastic, and makes Safari's (and all other browsers) Find-window seem like dark age technology.

- Firefox asks if you really want to quit if you hit cmd-Q with more than one tab open... hasn't got a count of how many times I accidently hit cmd-Q in Safari when I was aiming for cmd-W (right next to each other), and then 'lost' all my tabs and had to go through History to get them back...

That said: I'll give Safari 2.0 a try when Tiger arrives... I don't mind 'switching back'... ;)
Click to expand...

These are all very valid points, I remember how impressed I was with the searchbar at the bottom of the page when it first came up.

Here's one thing Safari does that Firefox doesn't, it allows you to launch the first 9 bookmarks in your bookmarks bard using command then a number (determined by the order in which the bookmarks appear).

Ever since I've started using this, I use it extensively, I mean, who want to move the mouse ALL the way to the top of the screen after launching Safari? ;)
This is especially useful on my laptop, as I try to aviod the track-pad as much as possible.
 
FireFox is too buggy for me, but Safari has it problems. My main grip with FF is that new windows are opened larger than the current window. This is a small thing, but It drives me insane, actually it drove me back to Safari.

With Safari, scrolling is a problem. But the main gripe i have with safari is that a right click doesn't give u the option to go "back", "forward", "reload". Having to move my curson all the way to the top of the browers to do these things drives me nuts. To have a browser without this function is a horrible design flaw. I wish they would fix this in the next release of Safari.
 
nagromme said:
Safari list shortcut: type part of the item (like a state name or whatever). Press Return to select it.
Click to expand...

Yes, but that only works if you know what you're looking for. Unfortunately most often I use Safari at my work with some home-grown crap written for the web by people who clearly don't understand the web. They'll create a select bar with 200 names! WTH?
 
Using the latest nightly build of Camino. They've ditched the ugly page tabs and it seems far less buggy to me than FF. I never need to kill the process.
 
so i use chimera.

i don't like safari's bookmark system, and don't like that camino has adopted it. i like sidebars, so sidebars it is.

there are other things, like sometimes i think safari gives up good rendering for speed.

FF will be a great browser one day, i have no doubt. it just need time to mature. until then it is chimera or mozilla for me.
 
I love FF's "Find", and as a previous poster said, it makes all other Find boxes rather archaic.

I miss how the middle mouse button (scroll wheel button) opened a new tab in Safari.
 
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