safari or firefox?

Hi Luc Lux,

Personally I find Safari to be the most advanced and superior Internet browser that is exclusive to OS X, however it does have a couple of let downs:

1) It has a memory Leak meaning that it constantly takes up more of your RAM whenever you have it running. This can be annoying if you're using memory intensive software like GarageBand whilst browsing the Net at the same time.
(Apple really need to get this fixed)

2) Sometimes pages don't load which is strange because when I start my wireless router they load perfectly. I am not 100% sure what causes this but none the less, it is extremely annoying.

Firefox runs great and doesn't keep eating your memory however it doesn't look anywhere near as nice and it doesn't load pages as fast as Safari. If you are willing to give up a couple of seconds and maybe have a good look around for a Safari look alike theme for FireFox you may find it as an advantage to you over Safari.

Hope this helps
-Pos

Pos has given you an excellent list of points of both browsers. Why do try both of them? There are even more browsers available such as Camino, Opera, OmniWeb, iCab or Netscape. I have all but OmniWeb on my Mac as it's the only one that isn't free, though there is a trial. Sometimes there are some sites that just work better on one or the other. There is no reason you can't have more than one running at any time. Do a search on MacUpdate for each of these to download them.

EDIT: The "memory leak" in Safari has improved, but not been eliminated, with Tiger 10.4.4. I find that I can now let it run for 2-3 days before I have to restart as opposed to having to restart 2-3 times a day. If you clear the cache (Safari > Empty Cache) & history periodically, the performance will improved.

Peggy

Message was edited by: Peggy

My recommendation is both, with Safari as first choice.
Generally I find Safari better, but sometimes another browser is needed.
For example a few weeks ago I couldn't select flights when booking an airline.
Firefox saved me as it worked, although even it had a few format errors.

So Safari is my default browser, with FireFox and Camino next in that order.

Gerry

G4/1.25 MDD 1.5GB 400Gb Mac OS X (10.4.3) Several other Macs since 1984

I agree 100% with Gerry.

Hi Again,

I had just been browsing the Internet when I came across this
http://theminiblog.co.uk/archives/2005/12/01/firefox-bug-hogs-cpu-usage-in-mac-o s-x/

Hope this helps
-Pos

Safari is simply awesome. However, I dislike static cookies and safari doesn't allow you to easily have them deleted when you shut the browser down (I have had to change the permissions on the cookie file to accomplish what I like).

Firefox DOES have better control, and with the "Firefoxy" plug-in, looks more like Safari.

If you don't mind the cookie issue and like the eye candy, Safari is great. It also supports userContent.css, which if you like ad-blocking, is awesome (www.floppymoose.com).

If you like toying with your browser, Firefox can't be beat.

I'm firmly a Safari user, but I look longingly and hopefully at Firefox.

Firefox has some pretty interesting features, some I'd use, others not. It does seem faster (not loads faster, but faster).

I had to quit using firefox recently because it was allowing graphics to place themselves directly over text..not popup ads, but graphics supposed to be in one part of a page would draw OVER another where they weren't supposed to be.

I figure this will be addressed, and I'll keep checking

Firefox is the most customizable web-browser ever*, it's safer than any other, and you would have never thought a browser like this ever existed because it's so awesome.

* You can add extensions; which are like extra-usefull stand alone applications built right into Firefox, there are thousands of extensions available on the internet, some you couldn't live without.

You can also add themes, which allow you to change the appearence of Firefox to one of many different looks.


And!...there is Portable Firefox so you can take it with you using a USB drive and not have to worry about using someone elses unsecure web-browser when you are away from your Mac.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll hook you up with some pretty awesome Firefox stuff.

- Nick

Apple Mac mini (late 2005) Mac OS X (10.4.4) PowerMac10,2: 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, BT/AE...

What do you want?

There's Firefox, Portable Firefox, and the very many extensions and themes. I can recomend some extensions and/or themes if you want. If you want to download Portable Firfox, there are versions for both Windows and Mac. I recomend getting both Mac and Windows versions just in case you need to use Windows somewhere. But you need a USB flash drive to put it on (hence the name Portable Firefox).

The Windows version of Portable Firefox is at http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/browsers/portable_firefox

The Mac Version of Portable Firefox is at http://www.freesmug.org/portableapps/firefox

- Nick

Good themes that look like OS X are:

1. "Brushed Firefox Theme" (looks like Safari) available at https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=OS%2 0Integration&numpg=10&id=548

2. "iFox" available at https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=OS%2 0Integration&numpg=10&id=1106

3. "GrApple (Zaphod)" available at https://addons.mozilla.org/themes/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=OS%2 0Integration&numpg=10&id=931

- Nick

The Firefox "Brushed Metal" theme looks a bit strange as the titlebar doesn't share the brushed metal theme like the Safari and iTunes windows.

As an alternative to Safari or Firefox, have a look at Shiira.

To me, Safari is now slow and bloated in comparison to the way it looked and behaved when it was in an earlier incarnation, and Firefox just doesn't look or feel right. Shiira on the other hand is pretty much what an earlier version of Safari was designed to be - a fast, simple and widely compatible browser with little in the way of unnecessary frills. It has the advantage of being able to use existing Safari bookmarks too.

I tend to bounce between both. When one isn't working the other seems to be doing well and vice versa.

Safari has a bad habit of making some web pages wholly unusable as well as retaining Cookies in a manner that makes returning to web pages that require authentication to be impossible until you delete them (Gmail).

Firefox allows you to use icons for the Bookmarks bar...which is a nice touch stylistically.

I would suggest using whichever strikes your fancy.