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What’s your default browser on Sequoia?


  • Total voters
    141

MCKLMT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 27, 2018
299
126
France
I’m curious to know what is your default browser on Sequoia.
I’m sometimes tempted to switch to another browser than Safari but always come back to it.
 
Velja is a handy way to handle multiple browsers - by ways of manual selection and automated rules.

 
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Safari for me but I really wish there was a zoom option of 90% as opposed to 100% or 85%. I've been trying out Firefox as it offers 90% and it seems to be the perfect zoom level for me on my 14" MBP but I always just revert back to Safari as I'm just so used to it.
 
Firefox for me (security and useful extensions), and occasionally use Vivaldi (Chrome without Google) - but I've also experimented with Orion (uses the guts of Safari, but supercharged with the ability to use many of both Firefox & Chrome extensions).
Safari just too Apple for me - too much a proprietary nanny, forcing me to use the web in a limited manner because they really know best.
 
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I typically use the browser that comes with the OS (I use Safari with Sequoia, Edge on Windows 11) after years using first Firefox, then Chrome. Right or wrong, I figure the default browser is the fastest and most secure option without jumping through a bunch of extra hoops.
 
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When Brave allows scaling of the menus, and tab icons, I would switch from Firefox.
 
Orion. It's Safari webkit based, and It could install extensions from Firefox and Chrome. So useful with cookie delete for example, or uBlock origin for youtube browse witout ads.
 
because? (as it is, so far, the most popular browser on this poll)...
First and foremost because it's only semi-customizable. I have used Opera, FireFox, TenFourFox, Chrome, and now Vivaldi over the decades. All of these browsers allow customization beyond what Safari will allow.

Yes, Safari allows extensions. But changing the interface is not really allowed. If I'm wrong on that, I'm all ears…

I prefer to have my tabs at the bottom. And by the bottom, I mean at the bottom of the screen. You can't do that in Safari, but you can in Opera, you can in Vivaldi and you can in the other browsers via addons/extensions. Oh, and Vivaldi uses Chrome addons.

Screenshot 2025-01-20 at 17.51.04.jpg

I spend about 16+ hours a day in front of a computer and the browser is the one app that is always open and the most used. I prefer to have it look and function the way I wish to and not necessarily how Apple would like me to use it.

I will touch on speed for a moment. I do not deny that Safari and other similar webkit browsers are fast, probably the fastest browser. But I am an anomaly (again). I am quite willing to sacrifice some amount of speed within a browser to get the customization I prefer. And I'm not a tab hound. It is extremely rare if I have anything over 5 tabs open at one time. So, the ability to have a massive amount of tabs open at one time and still be fast is not a feature I seek.

Vivaldi has similar features to Safari too. If I open a tab on Vivaldi on my iPhone I can transfer it to Vivaldi on my Mac. Synced, bookmarks, etc. These are all stock features in Vivaldi. In the past, the other browsers I've used have had similar features either natively or through extensions.

Also, my history with Safari in loading pages and general function has just been dismal. I use it only when I must and the fact that I cannot customize it how I like prevents me from coming back to try any new features.

And finally, I'm invested elsewhere. If Safari could give me what I want, and was good at it I might try it. But each time I've checked up, it hasn't.
 
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First and foremost because it's only semi-customizable. I have used Opera, FireFox, TenFourFox, Chrome, and now Vivaldi over the decades. All of these browsers allow customization beyond what Safari will allow.

Yes, Safari allows extensions. But changing the interface is not really allowed. If I'm wrong on that, I'm all ears…

I prefer to have my tabs at the bottom. And by the bottom, I mean at the bottom of the screen. You can't do that in Safari, but you can in Opera, you can in Vivaldi and you can in the other browsers via addons/extensions. Oh, and Vivaldi uses Chrome addons.

View attachment 2474237

I spend about 16+ hours a day in front of a computer and the browser is the one app that is always open and the most used. I prefer to have it look and function the way I wish to and not necessarily how Apple would like me to use it.

I will touch on speed for a moment. I do not deny that Safari and other similar webkit browsers are fast, probably the fastest browser. But I am an anomaly (again). I am quite willing to sacrifice some amount of speed within a browser to get the customization I prefer. And I'm not a tab hound. It is extremely rare if I have anything over 5 tabs open at one time. So, the ability to have a massive amount of tabs open at one time and still be fast is not a feature I seek.

Vivaldi has similar features to Safari too. If I open a tab on Vivaldi on my iPhone I can transfer it to Vivaldi on my Mac. Synced, bookmarks, etc. These are all stock features in Vivaldi. In the past, the other browsers I've used have had similar features either natively or through extensions.

Also, my history with Safari in loading pages and general function has just been dismal. I use it only when I must and the fact that I cannot customize it how I like prevents me from coming back to try any new features.

And finally, I'm invested elsewhere. If Safari could give me what I want, and was good at it I might try it. But each time I've checked up, it hasn't.
ok, so it's (basically) about you and your (unique) needs, and that's certainly reasonable.

otherwise, for most of us, it's a great browser (i live & die by tabs, for instance). i want the browser to be invisible (more or less), it's the sites i want presented well (and fast, and stable). safari gives me that 👍
 
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ok, so it's (basically) about you and your (unique) needs, and that's certainly reasonable.

otherwise, for most of us, it's a great browser (i live & die by tabs, for instance). i want the browser to be invisible (more or less), it's the sites i want presented well (and fast, and stable). safari gives me that 👍
Well, yes. I mean, isn't it personal to each person? I'm not trashing Safari. It works for you and it works for a lot of other people. Just for me, personally, I hate it. Because it does not work for me. Or rather, it doesn't work how I want it to work for me. My opinion about it though, doesn't mean it's a bad app or change the fact that it works for many others.

Personal preference.
 
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Safari first. I'll use FireFox or Vivaldi if there's a problem (either bugs with WebKit or devs writing just for Chrome).
 
Velja is a handy way to handle multiple browsers - by ways of manual selection and automated rules.

That's cute. I like this as someone's little starter Swift app. Makes me want to get into Swift again.
 
Firefox.

→ I use Windows at work and like to be able to send tabs back and forth between systems.
→ uBlock Origin
→ Firefox has a more robust extension ecosystem, which allows for some functionality that I can't get from Safari (like having some "tab groups" use a proxy server and others not).
→ Also trying to avoid using a Chromium browser because I believe in a world with multiple rendering engines! I do have an "unbranded Chromium" installed for when I need to check something in the Chromium engine.

I actually use Firefox ESR which only has a major release once per year (rather than once every four weeks or something), partly for stability but also just so I don't have to worry about finding new stuff I want to disable except for on a predictable schedule.
 
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→ Also trying to avoid using a Chromium browser because I believe in a world with multiple rendering engines!
Same here! It makes things slightly harder as a web dev to have multiple engines but we need choice, choice is good. I also find that modern versions of Firefox and Safari are more performant than Chromium, but Chromium is probably a bit more stable so it's a matter of preference which one is more important.
 
I've always been a fan of using multiple browsers.
Safari is my primary, but I use Chrome for Chrome Remote Desktop and a non-profit gmail account.
 
For me, Chromium browsers seem to eat away your battery life, they use a **** ton of CPU and my battery dies almost twice as fast, as done in my testing (With Brave browser). And so the only two options left are Safari and Firefox. I do not like the way tabs are displayed in Safari, and how tab groups feel so pointless at times.

Firefox uses around 2-3% extra battery per hour as opposed to Safari but I'm willing to sacrifice this for the sake of uBlock Origin. Also I love the container tab feature, so no extra windows in my mission control 😁
 
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