

Mac People: Safari or Firefox 3? - noelchurchill

I've stuck with Safari till now for performance as well as aesthetics.  I like the new firefox look on mac, and the performance is better as well.  Anyone switching over?  Why or why not?
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markbao
I'm still sticking with Safari. Firefox's faster, but there's nothing that
beats the speed of Safari on Mac, and in addition it is Cocoa (while Firefox
is Carbon.) For some reason, this makes Safari _feel_ like a more solid
browser, and Firefox feeling like a typical Carbon app (whatever that is -
just a weird user experience using it.)

If the dealbreaker is extensions, then I have to say that the only extensions
I use in Firefox are Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug, which are excellent
extensions. I only start Firefox to a) test sites on Firefox and b) use the
aforementioned extensions.

Safari has a good built-in alternative to Firebug, which is available by going
to Safari > Preferences > Advanced and checking _Show Develop menu in menu
bar_. Then go to Develop > Web Inspector (or the other tools there.) Good for
quick Javascript troubleshooting, as it also has a Javascript error/eval
console.

In Firefox, I've found that other extensions usually make the browser more
bloated and slower to use. They're nice, and sure, you could have ForecastFox
tell you the weather, but it's not worth the bloat, in my opinion. And
themes... :|

If you're like me, you'll miss a lot of extensions, but realize in the end
that you don't _really_ need most of them. del.icio.us was a favorite
extension of mine. On Safari, I put the del.icio.us bookmarklet as the first
bookmark on my menu bar. Then I hide the menu bar (apple+shift+b.) When I want
to bookmark something to del.icio.us, I hit _Apple+1_ , tag, save.

Firefox is a great browser, and Firefox 3 makes it even better, but Safari is
a fast, no-frills, and great web browser. Although Safari has less 3rd party
addons (and most of them superb, like Inquisitor) it's a web browser that does
what you should expect it to do, and fast - browse the web.

~~~
sc
> it also has a Javascript error/eval console.

It even has tab-completion, which makes it feel even more solid than what I've
experienced with FF and various extensions.

I only open FF for FF-specific testing.

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tortilla
When I switched from Windows, I went straight to Firefox because I felt
comfortable there. But (3 years ago), Firefox started getting buggy and slow.
I loved the add-ons, but I switched to Camino because it was more Mac-like and
stable. But since Beta 3 for Firefox came out, I've switched back and been
really impressed with it.

One feature that Firefox and Camino both have is the "Search for text when I
start typing" which I use a lot for mouseless navigation.

I don't have any major gripes against Safari, I just prefer Firefox.

The GrApple Delicious theme for firefox is a must have for any Mac user.

~~~
noelchurchill
Safari has the search for text while typing now too. It's cool.

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comatose_kid
Really? How would I enable this? I don't see anything in prefs for Safari
3.1.1.

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noelchurchill
Command + F then start typing what you're looking for on the page. Command + G
will proceed to the next instance of your search phrase on the page.

~~~
comatose_kid
Okay, I think there is a misunderstanding. I want a feature equivalent to
'find as you type' in Firefox. Just start typing while the focus point is on
the content area of the tab, and the first search result gets highlighted. No
need for command+F.

This is really the main reason firefox is my default browser.

~~~
elidourado
This kept me on Firefox as well until I discovered SafariStand, which includes
this feature.

<http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html>

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wigglywonk
Firefox is a -beast- on the mac. It drags and constantly seems to be using 5%
of CPU, doesn't do fonts right, and hangs and lags a lot. So, i use Safari
about 80% of the time.

However, it's got a lot of great plugins, so I use it for any questionable
stuff and for proxied traffic, etc.

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ajbatac
If you are just browsing, reading stuff, Safari rules. However, if you are
developing a website, use Firefox.

~~~
sc
I don't know. These days, Safari's Web Inspector is quite on-par with Firebug,
with some things I like even better.

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feverishaaron
Safari to surf, Firefox to develop because of Firebug.

So far though, I am very unimpressed with the interface choices they made with
Firefox.

~~~
boucher
Webkit nightlies have an enhanced Web Inspector that's nearly as good as
Firebug.

~~~
ps
For me, it is far behind Firebug. I really miss keyboard shortcuts (at least
for inspecting XHRs, please) and layout HTML/CSS inspection (not just
highlighting elements while browsing tree).

~~~
ionfish
It's certainly not there yet, but the Web Inspector in recent nightlies is a
lot closer to Firebug than the one in Safari 3.1. That, and the advances the
WebKit team are making elsewhere, gives me a lot of confidence that it's only
a matter of time before Safari has a built-in web development tool and
JavaScript debugger that matches or improves on Firebug in every area.

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knowncitizen
I am just totally enamored by Webkit. It's insanely fast. I usually run
nightlies and haven't hit a nasty bug yet.

~~~
cocoy
yep. me too. i got FF3 too but i'm sticking with WebKit as my number 1
browser!

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mojuba
For security reasons you need more than one browser anyway. One for webmail,
banking and all kinds of private password-protected stuff, and the second one
- for the rest. Which is which doesn't really matter, although personally I
chose Safari for important stuff and Firefox for the rest.

One of the reasons I do this, in case you are not aware, is the IFRAME flaw,
that allows a malicious web site to load, say, your bank's page into a hidden
IFRAME, check to see if you are logged in and then - you guessed it.

(I just thought actually, could be the other way around, because
vulnerabilities in Firefox are better known and more often exploited by not-
so-trustworthy sites. So maybe it'd be smarter to use Safari for "the rest"
and Firefox - for your banking, PayPal, eBay, webemail, etc.)

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anewaccountname
Why not just use different profiles and run multiple instances of Firefox?

~~~
mojuba
If I can run them simultaneously, then why not. Is it possible with FF?

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colinplamondon
Firefox 3- it's more stable, Del.icio.us integration is better on it, the
awesome bar is awesome, and Greasemonkey works with it.

A lot of Greasemonkey plugins are pretty useless, but GoogleAutoPager is
fantastic. It makes it so that Google searches are on an infinite page, as you
scroll down the plugin gets the next page of results and slots them in so you
never have to click next page

[http://lifehacker.com/software/google/download-of-the-day-
go...](http://lifehacker.com/software/google/download-of-the-day-google-
autopager-greasemonkey-252490.php)

Also, FF3 has Firebug. Game, set, and match.

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zzzmarcus
The main reason I stick with FF is for Firebug and the Del.icio.us plugins.

~~~
jimm
Those two and AdBlock---though I just discovered an ad blocker on
pimpmysafari.com. (For the record: I use Firefox.)

~~~
evgen
Check out safariadblock (safariadblock.sourceforge.net) for an adblocker that
is basically a port of adblockplus.

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silencio
I'm still sticking with Safari. Safari UX is just..nicer. To me, that is.

On the other hand, Firefox is definitely powerful and I love some of the
addons, so I'll use it for development purposes - a lot of Firebug etc., have
become moot with Safari's new and hot developer tools, but I still need to do
some Firefox-specific things. But I don't want to spend so much time
customizing how it looks/behaves.

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ynd
FF3. Apple developers succeeded in make Safari FEEL more solid but it crashes
too often. I also wish Safari was as configurable as FF.

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pierrefar
If you like your keyboard shortcuts that (mostly) work across all FF
installations across all platforms, go with FF. If you're a Mac-only person,
stick with Safari if you already know it well.

Also, FF has extensions which although there are good alternatives on Safari,
I sincerely doubt there are as many good quality ones for Safari as for FF.

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noelchurchill
I settled on Safari a while ago. I'll probably stick with Safari as my
default, but make more use of firefox and it's plugins.

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Maro
Safari seems buggy to me. For example, go to Google Docs, open a document and
tell me what key combination jumps to the beginning/end of the line. (The
answer seems to be none.) Same for Firefox. Opera is the only browser where
this simple "feature" works. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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hokey
FF3, here's why: 1) Add-ons. I can customize more than Safari and plugging
into the cloud today is more important than ever. 2) Safari is snappy but the
new release of FF puts it on par if not over the top. Safari is way better for
pr0n surfing, however :P

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makecheck
Neither, really...OmniWeb is better. Technically it is now using the Safari
engine, but the browser itself is superior to Safari.

It has very nice per-site preferences, really smart privacy options, plug-in
management, etc.

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cstef
I use Safari for general browsing because it is fast and familiar. I use
Firefox for web development because the add-ons and tools such as firebug and
web developer toolbar can not be beat.

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bayareaguy
Compartmentalizing helps prevent the possibility of total catastrophe, so for
me it's Firefox for work, Safari for personal business, Opera for browsing,
Camino for everything else.

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butterfi
I've like Safari's text-rendering better then FF in the past, but FF3 is
looking great, and I'm intrigued by the ability to tag bookmarks.

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bprater
I've switched back-and-forth a bit, but have settled in with Firefox. Not
having the extensions I like is a killer.

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fourlittlebees
FF 3. Just hope they get the bug fixed QUICK. Safari is a huge resource suck
and horks on a lot of sites I use.

~~~
noelchurchill
Safari is a resource suck? I always thought it was more efficient than FF.

~~~
fourlittlebees
It's fine on its own, but any time a site is using Flash or, heaven forbid, an
applet, it would jump right to the head of the line, even with 70 or 80 tabs
open in FF2.

~~~
dcurtis
Why would you have 70-80 tabs open in anything? When I have a lot of tabs
open, I feel dirty and cluttered.

~~~
fourlittlebees
That's the life of a technology writer. I'm usually working several different
stories at the same time. It's a mess, but it works better for me than trying
to retrieve bookmarks. I keep meaning to check out one of the new research
tools to manage it, but never seem to make the time.

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crux
vimperator means that as much as i love webkit, i'll never leave firefox's
insane quasi-native interface.

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tokyotribe28
I use both. Safari's still got a better look and feel, I think, so that's my
default.

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DougBTX
Still running Safari, no reason or need to switch.

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syalam
used to do safari. now im on firefox because of speed, and better extensions.
lets see if safari 4 can turn the tables

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sasvari
Firefox + Foxmarks ^ no chance for Safari

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dougfort
Camino

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whalesalad
Camino has to be one of the worst browsers I have ever used. I don't know what
they are up to. In my mind, Camino _should_ simply be Firefox with Webkit
replacing the gecko engine... but it's not even on par with Firefox.

One thing I hate about Mac in general is their hate for navigating solely with
the keyboard. A lot of third-party apps do a good job letting you navigate
using your kb only (such as cmd+1, cmd+2... to hit tabs in FF) but the last
time I used Camino they were seriously lacking in that department. Clicking
links with the mousewheel is also very important to me (to open in a new tab).

~~~
jacobolus
Why is it one of the worst? Why should it “be Firefox with Webkit”?

Who are these mysterious “they”?

In Camino, I use the keyboard to navigate, and my third mouse button opens
links in new tabs, with no problems.

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geuis
Firefox. Definitely Firefox. The UI on Safari isn't really that good.

