My Safari vs. Firefox Results
I spent the last week trying to use Firefox as my primary browser, an experiment to see if I should have it replace Safari. The results? As of today, I’m back to Safari. Why?
- has inline spellchecking from an OS-wide dictionary.
- runs much faster, especially when loading up multiple tabs.
- has much better integration with Newsfire, my RSS reader.
- shares common shortcut keys that I’m used to with most mac applications.
- easily implements auto-linking for bookmark groups.
- creates tidier archives when I choose to save a page locally.
Firefox irritated me:
- every time it ran into a new downloadable format and I would have to specify the application that should open it. A pre-built set of assumptions that I can alter later would have been more helpful.
- when it downloaded something and had ignored the default action I previously had told it to remember for that file type.
- whenever I had to deal with it’s sometimes awkward bookmark manager.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Firefox and if I were on the Windows platform there’s no question it would be my browser of choice, but on the Mac, Safari delivers the better experience and equal if not better support for standards.
Firefox, of course, is not leaving my machine though. I need it for cross-browser testing as well as for the fantastic Web Developer plugin for Firefox. It’s a constant lifesaver.
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I agree that the overall user experience in Safari is a little bit nicer, but the thing that I always miss most about Firefox when I’m using Safari is the nifty inline Find utility. Also, a few plugins (like “download them all”)
Have you thought about Camino? It’s based on the firefox engine, but it’s all OSex’ed up. I’ve found most of the system wide shortcuts work, which is pretty nice. You can get a G4 optimized version at http://homepage.mac.com/krmathis/
I actually did give Camino a shot at one point, but I found the performance to still be somewhat lacking compared to Safari. Really, the only reason I wanted to switch to Fox was to have the web dev plug-in available at all times, but the trade-offs were just too much. If only apple would open up Safari to plug-ins.
So wait, am I to understand that Safari doesn’t do the annoying things that you mentioned Firefox doing? Because, see, I’m not up on geeky browser details, but you’re the one who sold me on Firefox in the first place and it’s definitely a step up - but I’m all about not having those annoying glitches. Thank you browser guru Christian!
P.S. Pancakes next Thursday?
Well, Safari is Mac only and I just sort of assumed you were on a windows machine. Then again, you’re more than welcome to come over to the mac fold.
I stopped using Safari because I hated the way it handled keyboard navigation and its use of text forms. I was having problems where it would drop the ‘0′ from my zip code automatically and would skim over drop down menus when I tabbed through fields. It was so frustrating I considered throwing things at it. Then I started using firefox, got used to it, learned the keyboard shortcuts, figured out how to modify the text field navigation, and I love it.
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Ah, I see - Safari IS just Mac. I had this idea that it could swing both ways. Alas, at least FireFox is an improvement, but when they update the plugin that lets you synchronize multiple sets of bookmarks, so that it works with the new version, I will be happier than a kid with a platefull of freshly baked cupcakes. Almost.
I found safari is the fastest browser ive used, and get no application errors
Ive used both for months and If I were to choose between the two Id go with Safari. If FireFox with be bundled with MacOSx then MAYBE Id go the FireFox way. But its not and I wont.
Well Safari is on Windows and Mac now. The only real marketing point is speed. It seems as though it will be pushed through the iTunes download. I’m somewhat amazed after the butchery of iTunes for windows that Safari could be fast at all, iTunes definately isn’t. Although fast isn’t everything, just ask Opera.
Lots of Windows Vista features with ‘apple’ type names in Leopard… who really cares what you use… browsers are free!
Damon: if you want the tab function to pick up all the toggles on text forms, go to system prefs -> keyboard and mouse -> keyboard shortcuts, and select “all controls” on the bottom of the windows next to “Full Keyboard Access”