Is Mac OS Safari becoming obsolete?

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Level 1

25 points

Is Mac OS Safari becoming obsolete?

When opening Facebook over over the last few months, the Facebook page often has been slow to load and then frozen, with no scroll, unresponsive links and buttons. This occurs maybe 1/3 of the time.

This occurs on pages of other Web sites, too, such as New York Times.

Using Safari 17.1 on Monterey 12.7.1 (Mac mini), but this also occurs on MacBook Air on Catalina OS.

In Messenger on the Facebook site (not standalone Messenger), there's a notice

The WhatsApp app will no longer run on Mac OS Catalina (but still runs on Monterey).

I see the same complaints with more recent versions of Safari and Mac OS.

Are Web sites simply not designing for compatibility with Safari any more? I feel like I'm being forced to use Chrome (Google harangues me all the time about this).

Mac mini, macOS 12.7

Posted on Dec 19, 2023 12:41 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

157,466 points

Dec 19, 2023 2:44 PM in response to crabpaws

This is an ongoing problem with websites that cling to an outdated, ill-conceived, and privacy-intrusive method of determining browser compatibility.

Read Update to the latest version of Safari - Apple Support:

"If a website says that Safari is out of date even though you're already using the latest version of macOS or the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, there could be an issue with the website. If you’re sure that you want to use the website, contact the website owner or developer."

You are using the latest version of Safari.

When you contact Meta (Facebook) direct their attention to this excerpt from Apple's Safari Developer Documentation (emphasis added):

Important

Use feature detection to enable or disable functionality instead of relying on the name or version of the browser in the User Agent string. Learn how to detect available features on MDN…

The passage regarding feature detection in that document uses even stronger language:

"... this is a terrible practice that should be discouraged at all costs."

Inform Facebook's developers of that terrible practice. It was never a good idea to begin with.

I feel like I'm being forced to use Chrome (Google harangues me all the time about this).

No one needs Chrome. If you don't mind reinforcing and supporting Meta's continued use of that terrible practice, use Brave:

https://brave.com/

Brave is Chrome without the Google.

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Answer 2

Dec 19, 2023 12:57 PM in response to crabpaws

The version of Safari in Catalina is getting outdated. However, I have the current version of Safari (17.2, if I recall correctly) and I have none of the problems you describe. Well, okay, I have no problems with NYT or any other sites I visit. I try to avoid FB and any of it's properties as it is a hot mess. Their apps are buggy so I'm not surprised their websites don't adhere to standards.

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Is Mac OS Safari becoming obsolete?

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