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Web Browsers

What browser do you use in X?

  • Internet Explorer

    Votes: 73 67.6%

  • Netscape

    Votes: 7 6.5%

  • OmniWeb

    Votes: 15 13.9%

  • iCab

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Opera

    Votes: 4 3.7%

  • Mozilla

    Votes: 6 5.6%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 0.9%
  • Total voters
    108
AmbitiousLemon

AmbitiousLemon

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Nov 28, 2001
3,415
3
down in Fraggle Rock
::hangs head in shame:: i confess... i dont like osx.

ok mostly its just because my 333mhz g3 is too damn slow to run it but there are a few other things that drive me nuts. but lets save those for another day. one of the reasons ive been unhappy with my osxperience is that i cant find a good web browser.

so im hoping you guys can help me out. ive downloaded and tried the following brwosers:

internet explorer 5.1
omni web
mozilla
icab
opera
netscape 6.2

none of these have made me happy but im pretty sure there are newer versions now than when i last checked back when 10.1 first came out (or maybe it was back in 10.0.4 days i forget).

i want a web brwoser that is fast (duh), and is simple. buttons should be "back" "forward" "stop" and "refresh" if there a bunch of buttons up top it drives me nuts. no buttons on the side or bottom either, keep it simple people. well now that ive described what i want can anyone tell me if there is any browser out there that fits my needs. right now im in internet explorer. drives me nuts but its the only one with customizable buttons that allows me to remove all the "extras." still ie is sh*t and im so tired of it. please help me!!!

o and one more thing. do you think apple will start having more browsers preinstalled in x?
 
Re: Omni!

Originally posted by voicegy
Well, I'm usually more verbose when I post, but all I can say about OmniWeb running on OS 10.1.2 on my G4 is...

"It's da bomb!!"

You can customize the heck out of it, and it can't be beat for eye candy!!

Scott
Click to expand...

ok so i just tried omniweb out again. it has changed a bit since i used it last.

something is screwed up with their website so it took about 2 hours to download (this was my first hint that perhaps omni wasnt the solution to my problems). installed omniweb used the customize toolbar thing to get it my way and typed in www.apple.com. worked fine. speed seemed average. next i typed in www.macrumors.com. crash! got the funny little thing asked me to send a bug report. i quit, restarted and started omni again. it hadnt saved any of my preferences (argh!). went to apple.com again (again fine) went to macrumors - crash! well i guess i wont be using omniweb anymore. worked much better the first time i tried it, wonder what happened.

so in cl***ic apple still has ie and netscape installed but in x apple only has ie installed. does anyone know why apple changed this? i always thought it was nice that apple gave people a choice. i think most people use ie in x because its preinstalled.
 
I'd have to say Opera. It's in beta 3 right now for OS X, so it'll be in final soon. I'm using it right now. You can customize it a lot, it's WAY faster than IE and Netscape, and you'll love it if you have a 2-button mouse (mouse gestures are the way to go!). I haven't used Omniweb too much, hopefully it or Opera will do for you. IE is just too slow.
 
i'd have to say that omniweb is easily better than ie or netscape. I love how you can so easily customise the buttons and layout. Haven't had a problem with it yet (10.1.2) loading any web pages. Mind you, netscape still beats it for ftp.
 
Just tried the Omniweb beta version (thought maybe it would work where the other version didnt). same problem. i can go to macrumors but not after apple. very odd. the new icon is cool though. i'll have to try opera again. last i checked it was fast but unfriendly but that was a long time ago.

do you think apple will ever start having more browsers preinstalled than just IE? its really annoying to see that most people use it since i think those who have tried others have all found better solutions. im a big fan of netscape 4.x in cl***ic. its the main reason i use cl***ic in OSX. still not pleased with netscape 6 (version 6.2 now) although ive read some very favorable reviews from the linux crowd. its interesting that even here where i think we are dealing with a very educated (computerwise) group of mac users most people have just used IE since it is preinstalled and havent bothered to look for anything better. i like omniweb since it is cocoa and uses the osx standard customize toolbar feature -- its too bad it doesnt work.
 
trying out Opera now. seems pretty good. speed seems average. but i do have one problem. it seems to display things differently than any other browser. as i wrote this the text is so small i cant read it. and buttons on this page are in different places and overlap eachother and text. dont think i'll be using opera very long. looks like i'll keep using netscape 4.7.8 in cl***ic since there dont seem to be any mac os x web broswers worth using. such a shame.

i guess this is why apple is only bundling IE with OSX, none of the other browsers seem to work properly. netscape6 is slow (very slow), omniweb would be perfect... if it worked, opera displays everything funny. any opinions on icab?

i would really like to see a functioning omniweb bundled with osx, but this is extremely unlikely since apple seems to have deals with netscape and ie.
 
Say that again?

Did you say you used a 366MHz G3? You said to leave that aside, but I think THAT is your main problem... 366MHz G3 is too slow for OS X. I have a 366MHz G3, and OS X certainly works horribly... have you tried using the browsers on a faster machine??


irmongoose
 
Re: Say that again?

Originally posted by irmongoose
Did you say you used a 366MHz G3? You said to leave that aside, but I think THAT is your main problem... 366MHz G3 is too slow for OS X. I have a 366MHz G3, and OS X certainly works horribly... have you tried using the browsers on a faster machine??


irmongoose
Click to expand...

:) i know. mac osx x is sooooo slow on my machine. but with the browsers im not too concerned about speed (they all seem about the same) i just want something that works.
 
i dont know if it makes a difference compared to the 366 machines, but im running 10.1.2 on my G3 400 iMac DV and runs just fine, bounce and all. it's fitted with 384 megs of ram but it runs circles around my G3 500 icebook (with 640 megs of freaking ram)
 
browsers and OSX on G3s

I have OSX running on a 350G3 imac it works just fine. I have also used iCab and Omniweb on this machine, they work great. I think you have some other problem. Maybe you should do some optimization of your sytem, run speeddisk etc.

I prefer that Apple does not preinstall stuff, it is easy to download what you need. If you had a big problem downloading Omniweb, then you probably have a problem with your system or your connection. You should do a little maintenance, Apple cant preload that for you.
 
Re: browsers and OSX on G3s

Originally posted by kansaigaijin
I have OSX running on a 350G3 imac it works just fine. I have also used iCab and Omniweb on this machine, they work great. I think you have some other problem. Maybe you should do some optimization of your sytem, run speeddisk etc.

I prefer that Apple does not preinstall stuff, it is easy to download what you need. If you had a big problem downloading Omniweb, then you probably have a problem with your system or your connection. You should do a little maintenance, Apple cant preload that for you.
Click to expand...

my system is fine thank you very much, as is my connection. the problem is with omniweb and their website.

im interested in whether you prefer omniweb or icab though.
 
frankly

frankly I think you have some other motive than choosing a browser. I downloaded no problem. I installed no problem. They work no problem.
OSX works great on this iMac 350.

Just try the browsers yourself, make up your own mind it is largely personal preference. For all that, I am beginning to wonder about some of the people who post and ask questions. You claim your system is fine. Why is it only you who has problems?

What about the rest of you, don't you think some of these questions are weird?
 
iCab is nice and small and fast...
i use IE usually though and it's just fine...
i have a 233 iMac, and on that i use iCab...
i know OS X is slow and all, but it's not that bad on that slow machine...
so, iCab and IE are the only ones i've used that work well all the time...
however, Mozilla is my back-up browser...
so out of those three, pick the one that is right for you...
for the slower machines you relly need more RAM as well to use OS X....
all in all, just play around and see what's right for you!
 
OmniWeb is awesome

I think i know your problem though...are you running 10.1.2? Omniweb beta and 4.0.6 are designed for 10.1.2 and not anything else. This beta i am using has not crashed once yet so it must be something on your system. Try Sneaky peek 27 or above. IE really does suck...

anyways, apple awarded Omniweb the best new piece of software for MAC OS X if i can remember correctly. It was said to be the best reason to upgrade!
 
Re: OmniWeb is awesome

Originally posted by Microsoft_Windows_Hater
I think i know your problem though...are you running 10.1.2? Omniweb beta and 4.0.6 are designed for 10.1.2 and not anything else. This beta i am using has not crashed once yet so it must be something on your system. Try Sneaky peek 27 or above. IE really does suck...

anyways, apple awarded Omniweb the best new piece of software for MAC OS X if i can remember correctly. It was said to be the best reason to upgrade!
Click to expand...

thanks for the help. omniweb does seem like it would be really awesome if it worked for me. im not sure what the problem is. im running 10.1.2. most pages seem to pop up fine but after apple.com it crashes. i really like how it is cocoa though seems like all the others are carbon. i should probably go ahead and send the report in to omniweb and see if they know whats up.
 
OW 4.1 beta and Apple.com

AmbitiousLemon:

I use OmniWeb, currently the 4.1 beta, and I have encountered a ton of problems on Apple.com. Almost any time I try to link to any Apple page from the home page, OW crashes. I've sent in a crash report each time it happens, and now if I have to look around Apple's site I use a different browser (IE or Netscape in classic).

Other than the problems with Apple's site, the OW 4.1 beta is great, although still slow as compared to Netscape 4.7 running in classic. OW is definitely by preferred OS X browser. I've tried all the others save for Opera, which I probably will get to when the finished version is out.
 
I use IE 5.1, in both X and when running 9.2.2 on any system.

My main reason is that they are both FREE. The Omni ones are not free. There is something wrong in paying for a web browser when there are free ones available. There has to be a good reason that Apple ships IE 5 with OS X as well as with 9.x. Maybe I will try Omni, if they ever provide a totally free, non-time restricted version (not an LE but full version).
 
Why IE? Because I have to.

While I'm ashamed to say it, IE is my default browser. Don't get me wrong, I was really excited when all the new alternative browsers popped up on the Mac horizon. And, I'm sure they still have a lot more coming. However, IE has been the only browser that's been able to effectively handle every page I've thrown at it, most notably secure sites and Java sites. I really really like OmniWeb, but it can't handle my online banking sites and renders some pages goofily. Netscape rocks too, except that opening a new page takes about 6-7 seconds for me, sometimes longer. Once open, though, everything's lickety-split. Problem is, I close my windows when I'm done with them.

The one quirk I have with IE 5 for OS X is that, over time, it just stops trying. It'll finish the page with unloaded images, finish with everything invisible (select all lets me see them again), or clicking the link once won't do anything; I'll have to click it again to respond. Rebooting IE fixes it, but I shouldn't have to do it. Anyone else having these issues? Thanks.
 
I'm using a...

...G3 233MHz, IE 5.1, 384MBs RAM, 7200rpm 30 gig HD, and it runs just fine. I tried Omniweb for a bit, but I didn't like the way it looked, and it didn't offer any improvements that I could see over IE. I may try it again, I haven't since pre 10.0.4
 
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