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MAC newbie - firefox, safari, chrome, "other"?

S

searchless1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 31, 2011
1
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Got a MacbookPro. PC user, since before you were born! :) Friend said, "You're a MAC lover and don't know it!" Blindly walking through MAC-land.

Quite possibly subjective in nature, but... What do you recommend & why - firefox, safari, chrome, "other"? (My friend recommended safari, but only because it was recommended to him. He doesn't use the net much.)

ALSO, is it possible to import my firefox bookmarks using safari? (haven't downloaded FF on this computer)
 
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I am a PC guy for now and I love chrome: the extensions are amazing, it's super fast.

Safari is better with battery life and of course is essentially integrated with the OS (dictionary and whatnot).

Look into "clicktoflash" to speed up browsing.
 
I use FF, but that's just my preference. I'd download FF and Chrome, try all three out and use what you like best. Some pages work best on certain browsers, so it's definitely best to at least have a second browser available.
 
Firefox for me for one reason: three finger swipe up and down to go to the top and bottom of a page. I dot think the other two do that. I tried, and it didn't work. I use that all the time on my 13" since it has less screen real estate to work with.
 
smeg36 said:
Firefox for me for one reason: three finger swipe up and down to go to the top and bottom of a page. I dot think the other two do that. I tried, and it didn't work. I use that all the time on my 13" since it has less screen real estate to work with.
Click to expand...

Bettertouchtool can solve that problem for you.

@OP I use Safari and Chrome. I really wish I could combine all the features I love about all three browsers but I can't.
 
My Main browser is chrome, On my Mac I use Firefox 3.6, 4.0, Safari, Chrome and a few other version of chrome safari etc. In bootcamp I use Firefox 3,6, 4.0, Safari, Chrome, IE 7, 8, 9 (Virtual Machines). Ill let you guess what kind of a job I have :p

The reason I mainly use chrome is I like the skins, seems a little less chunky then firefox 4 and my personal favourite! The tabs dont resize until you move your mouse down from the top of your screen. Personal touch but it makes my day.
 
I'm a FF 4 guy. Always ran into problems with Safari, so I never use that. Never tried Chrome, but might now seeing as though many people really like that
 
i use chrome and safari regularly pending which phone im using lol if im on my iphone 4 then its safari because i can sync my book marks but when im on my infuse(android) i use chrome because the chrome to phone feature rules! and i can sync my booksmarks with my work pc.
 
I prefer Chrome – it's faster than Safari, has a cleaner interface than Firefox 4, and FF4 is also an enormous resource hog. Plus I enjoy being able to sync bookmarks and more between systems and OSes. :) Not that Firefox doesn't have syncing, I just only really use it on my desktop.
 
cons
- Safari and Firefox are resource hogs, 1gig at normal use
- Firefox and Chrome activates discrete video card, bad for battery life

pros
- Firefox lots of plugins
- Safari native to mac os, built in features
- Chrome simple, fast, low on resource

I use Firefox in windows. On mac i liked using safari, but eats up to much ram, so now I switched to Chrome, turning off discrete card with gfxCardStatus
 
mbp17xxx said:
I use Firefox in windows. On mac i liked using safari, but eats up to much ram, so now I switched to Chrome, turning off discrete card with gfxCardStatus
Click to expand...

That was my only issue with Chrome on my MBP. GfxCardStatus fixed it though and I was back to whole-day battery life :)
 
Internet Explorer!

...

Just kidding ;)
I like FF a lot personally, but Safari is pretty sweet too. Not a huge Chrome fan, but I've heard good things.
 
I like Firefox, so that is what I use. All of the browsers are quick enough these days and with modern hardware it is tough to tell the difference. Even Internet Explorer 8 is not terrible.

FYI, you can turn-off hardware video acceleration in Firefox preferences.

I do not like Safari's interface, but that is just a personal preference.

I just do not trust Google.</paranoid> I will not use Chrome until I have to once they have 95% of the browser market-share.
 
IE 6 for me. All the way.

Ok, just kidding.

I prefer Safari on Mac and PC, but again it's just personal preference. I like Opera too - but they're all pretty much the same.

I am using the link checker plugin for FF that's come in handy for a project at work.

Try 'em all though see which one works best for you.
 
They're all good in their own way. Today's browsers are all fast, stable, and easy to customize. Therefore it really is personal preference.

I prefer the speed and clutter free Chrome. I use Safari when downloading from Apple. In addition I use the latest versions of Firefox and Opera.
 
searchless1 said:
Got a MacbookPro. PC user, since before you were born! :)
Click to expand...

You sure about that? ;)

Quite possibly subjective in nature, but... What do you recommend & why - firefox, safari, chrome, "other"? (My friend recommended safari, but only because it was recommended to him. He doesn't use the net much.)
Click to expand...

For years I used Firefox for both Windows and OS X. The recent upgrade to FF 4 made it unusably slow and buggy for me, so I'm now getting used to Safari. There are still some things I don't like or haven't gotten used to, mostly little tricks and shortcuts that worked in FF but not in Safari, but Safari seems to be faster and more stable than FF 4. I gave Chrome a try but I never liked it.

ALSO, is it possible to import my firefox bookmarks using safari? (haven't downloaded FF on this computer)
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
Tomorrow said:
You sure about that? ;)



For years I used Firefox for both Windows and OS X. The recent upgrade to FF 4 made it unusably slow and buggy for me, so I'm now getting used to Safari. There are still some things I don't like or haven't gotten used to, mostly little tricks and shortcuts that worked in FF but not in Safari, but Safari seems to be faster and more stable than FF 4. I gave Chrome a try but I never liked it.



Yes.
Click to expand...

I use safari mostly, but only because I’m used to it and I don’t want to be left behind if some change should come about that makes safari better. My only real beef with safari is not being able to save a download where I want it when I click a link to download something. You have to pick a folder for safari downloads, and that can be annoying, if I wanted to save it in a certain folder. Of course, I also don’t like safari’s being such a memory hog.
 
I've used all three, and I have to say that Safari is my favorite on a Mac, followed by Chrome. Functionality and speed are the most important things to me, so I use Safari. But if I was wanted sheer speed, I'd go with Chrome.
 
Which browser were you using before? I recommend Firefox and Chrome since they can keep your personal data on the server and sync everything between your devices. And Chrome is faster than Firefox.
 
Ach111es said:
I am a PC guy for now and I love chrome: the extensions are amazing, it's super fast.

Safari is better with battery life and of course is essentially integrated with the OS (dictionary and whatnot).

Look into "clicktoflash" to speed up browsing.
Click to expand...

Chrome syncs bookmarks nicely across platforms. Use it at work on a PC and at home on my Mac. Also very fast.
 
Used to use FF for 6 + years but switched to Chrome (1 month ago). FF's latest version sucks and it's a memory hog! Loving every moment with Chrome.
 
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