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Why all the hate on Safari?

Which browser do you use in OS X.

  • Safari

    Votes: 62 76.5%

  • Chrome

    Votes: 13 16.0%

  • Firefox

    Votes: 5 6.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Total voters
    81
mattonthemoon

mattonthemoon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 25, 2007
215
17
Toronto, ON
Been lurking on these forums as I was awaiting for my rMBP, and one thing that really surprised me is how so many people loath safari!

I am wondering why?

I've been using Safari since 2006, and have always thought it was a pretty much perfect (or as perfect as it gets for os x). I use chrome on Windows, never thought about on the Mac, since safari was fine. What's everyone using then and why?

Also: I know some people were complaining the rMBP demo units in the store had jerking scrolling, but I haven't witnessed this personally.

Thanks!
 
Safari always crashed on me on my old MB, especially when browsing with ~10 tabs, which I do quite frequently. On my new MBA, the performance is fine, but I really dislike how you edit bookmarks in Safari. Chrome is much simpler.

Chrome is also very much like a Mac in that it is simple and easy to use and that once you use it, you won't go back to anything else. I may look at Safari again when ML updates it (smart search bar definitely makes it more like Chrome), but for now, I am more than happy to use Chrome.
 
I've used Safari since the Public Beta, but alas it looks like Apple is trying to kill it off in Mountain Lion by removing all the useful features (such as RSS). I'm planning to look at Chrome over the next few days to see whether it's any better.
 
I had been using Safari until I think Leopard, but I found that it began running very slow for me for some reason I was never able to pinpoint. Eventually I switched to Chrome, then to Chrome Canary when I upgraded to Lion, which has worked well until the past week, when it's started having page loading problems, so I'm working in Safari right now until I figure it out. There's no inherent reason one should be used instead of another, it's all down to personal preference and compatibility with the sites you visit. I keep Safari, Firefox, Chrome (regular and Canary), and Opera downloaded on my computer just in case.

jW
 
I bought my first Mac last year. Prior to that I was quite the Firefox addict but it started looking/acting weird after a while. Anyway, after I switched I haven't been able to go back from Safari. I just feel like the features on Safari, especially with Lion, are just a lot nicer than Chrome and Firefox.

Anyway, I've been noticing the hate too. I'm not sure about what Mountain Lion is going to offer but I love Safari on Lion - especially compared to Snow Leopard. It could be because I've been on iOS longer than I've been using the Mac but I'm rather welcoming to these changes.
 
I find Safari's UI nice and clean, I like how it scrolls (feels weighted, whatever that means), how it zooms content (the double tap) and it very rarely crashes these days. I don't use top sites, but I like reading list, and use it all the time. Chrome is fine enough, I use it when I boot into Windows, but I can't stand Firefox.
 
I like Safari. Can't stand chrome. The way chrome tries to decide what to google and what to actually connect to seems off. I have never wanted to google 192.168.0.1, yet apparently I need to, at least according to Chrome. :rolleyes: I will use Chrome when on Windows, simply because it is faster then Safari for Windows or IE. I love Safari 6. It actually does a good job picking what is supposed to be a google search, a website URL, or a bookmark name.
 
For me, on OS X, Safari probably works the best. I do like Opera a lot though. At the end of the day, people use what works for them. I'm sure people don't hate on Safari without good reason. It does have it's weaknesses when compared with other browsers, running decently on Windows being one of them.
 
I use Safari on my Mac and its the most consistent. My wife insists on using firefox and moans when she has problems. I don't know why she just doesn't use safari.

Back and forward page animations are beautiful on Safari. Very slick and very Apple.
 
My only reason is the omnibar. I cannot get use to having a separate google input box anymore since I've used Chrome, and that omnibar extension hardly worked. But Mountain Lion will fix this and give Safari a single input address bar :D.

Just got the safari 6 preview on Lion and looks like I found my new browser :]
 
Last edited:
I've been a long term Firefox user since 1.0 and recently switched to Safari. I like the full automatic synchronisation of bookmarks between my iPad and two MBPs using iCloud. The addition of extensions to Safari allows me to have the only two Firefox extensions I really care about, Adblock and Ghostery. Plus Safari does render stuff very nicely on OS X. I've been using it exclusively now for a couple of months, and it's stable and pretty fast. I don't see any reason to switch back.

I suspect some people's first experience of Safari may have been trying it out on Windows, and can understand why that would be off-putting because the Windows version is not great and never has been.
 
Since the WWDC keynote, I've been trying to force myself to use Safari more. Even changed the settings to make it my primary browser. However, I still use Chrome often. Chrome was my go-to browser for many years. I just love how simple it is to use, and the extensions are great. Safari is getting better, its just not there yet. We'll see how it is once ML comes out.
 
Nermal said:
I've used Safari since the Public Beta, but alas it looks like Apple is trying to kill it off in Mountain Lion by removing all the useful features (such as RSS). I'm planning to look at Chrome over the next few days to see whether it's any better.
Click to expand...

boomboom2 said:
Because Chrome is awesome. I wish it was on ipad.
Click to expand...

I used Safari since my first Mac in 2006 and liked it a lot; I still do. However, I recently switched to Chrome due to it's ability to "sign-in" with my Gmail account and sync my bookmarks and settings across platforms; OS X and Windows 7.

But I do miss some Safari features like being able to right-click on a word and looking it up in the system Dictionary or in Wikipedia.

I too, wish Chrome was on iOS, then my cross-platform solution would be complete.
 
Before Safari 3 (or 4?) i hated it.

The selling point for me was cover flow history, and full page bookmark previews.


I rarely bookmark stuff, and I don't remember the name of the page when i do, but a visual preview is just awesome for me.

Until some other browser gets this feature, i don't care how much faster they are or whatever. Safari has me for the time being.

Chrome to me feels clumsy on the mac and i don't like the google tracking. Firefox has lost the plot.
 
Safari ftw. It was the first program I used extensively after switching to Mac 2 years ago, and it helped me to shift my mindset from Windows to OS X. Great feel, great look, simple and easy to use.

I really like the "reader" option for blogs and reviews. Totally changes the experience to more of an e-book instead of a computer screen. Brilliant.
 
Glad to see i am not alone with Safari.

I had spent many years trying to find the 'perfect' browser while i was a Windows user between, IE, Opera, Firefox, etc. But Safari has been the closest to perfection for me for many, many years!
 
mattonthemoon said:
Been lurking on these forums as I was awaiting for my rMBP, and one thing that really surprised me is how so many people loath safari!

I am wondering why?

I've been using Safari since 2006, and have always thought it was a pretty much perfect (or as perfect as it gets for os x). I use chrome on Windows, never thought about on the Mac, since safari was fine. What's everyone using then and why?

Also: I know some people were complaining the rMBP demo units in the store had jerking scrolling, but I haven't witnessed this personally.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


well I'll tell you, I have a program called Ableton Live 8, and I like to change Ableton Skins every so often, but when I try downloading the skins in Safari..is a no go..I get a text file opened in Safari..I used Firefox and it downloads the same file with no problem......little things like that irks me about Safari..but over all I think is ok...
 
mattonthemoon said:
Glad to see i am not alone with Safari.

I had spent many years trying to find the 'perfect' browser while i was a Windows user between, IE, Opera, Firefox, etc. But Safari has been the closest to perfection for me for many, many years!
Click to expand...

I am back on sl with one of my macs (I had it running sl, but I had it in another house away from were I live and I ve now brought it back home), and can start to understand why I began to like safari, on lion it's so damn buggy and leaks to high heaven.
 
safari 6? what is that? I have a 2007 MacBook 2.16 running lion 10.7.3 and it has safari 5.1.5. where do i find safari 6?
 
Safari just seems to work better in OSX (smoother scrolling, zooming, etc.)

I love Chrome in Windows, but the Mac version just seems really choppy. Maybe future releases will be better.
 
joec1101 said:
Safari just seems to work better in OSX (smoother scrolling, zooming, etc.)

I love Chrome in Windows, but the Mac version just seems really choppy. Maybe future releases will be better.
Click to expand...

I use Chrome on Windows 7 and OS X, and it works smoothly and flawlessly for me. Perhaps try deleting it from your Mac and then reinstalling it. See if it runs any better then.
 
I can't understand the appeal of chrome, it uses the same rendering engine as Safari, but with the nasty habit of letting google own anything you type or upload with it.

The other feature that keeps me to safari, besides the awesome integration and gestures is the keyboard shortcuts. No other browser I've tried lets me navigate so quickly through my bookmarks. Simply hitting Command + 5 to get here is so much easier than going through menus and frees up screen space by not having the extra 20 or so pixels that the bookmarks bar takes up.
 
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