Comments on: Safari vs. Firefox

By: Vnend

Vnend — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:54:50 +0000

Lazy Safari user here. I have Firefox installed and use it in two cases; the rare times when a page refuses to load under Safari and if I want to use Tor. I don’t use Tor all the time because of its speed (or lack thereof, if I wanted to surf at dial-up speed I could just dial-up…)

Since I have gone to using the laptop 99% of the time synchronization isn’t an issue. I seldom boot into windows, so Firefox’s superiority over IE isn’t a big issue either. And since both Ellen and Ben use Safari on their machines I can better support them if they have a problem.

That said, there are things about Safari that I wish were done differently, but isn’t that the case with everything on computers that you didn’t write yourself?

Good luck deciding.

By: Timojhen

Timojhen — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:07:38 +0000

Diehard Firefox user. Actively dislike Safari (which may improve if I used it more).

Loves : Plug-In architecture : couldn’t imagine going without : google browser sync. Yslow, Web Developer Toolbar, Firebug, Download Statusbar, Downthemall!

Dislikes : can’t leave it up forever, since it tends to become a black hole and consume everything around it (memory, cpu etc).

Minor dislike (I just don’t leave it running for weeks, a la Java) so haven’t tried much else.

Will be interesting to see if this rings true, since it might encourage me to explore Safari again…

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/09/the-new-safari-is-amazingly-quick-firefox-watch-out/

..Tm

By: Scott Nolan

Scott Nolan — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:43:24 +0000

I use four browsers regularly, each for specific tasks.
I have OmniWeb with Java/Scripts/Cookies and Popups all blocked/off – I use that for checking suspicious websites.
I have Camino for reading text blogs, it’s text rendering is very fast.
I use Safari a lot for surfing photo sites and forums.
I use Firefox for work, finances, trusted stuff.

Firefox configurability is fun, but Safari’s interface is smoother and Firefox requires a LOT of cache/disk I/O… so if you do Firefox, you want very low latency hard drive or even a ram disk to use it from. There are many sites that seem to only work in Firefox though.

I sync my bookmarks with korn shell scripts, though I am playing with .Mac synchronization (not happy, yet).

By: mike

mike — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:33:47 +0000

I use the Google Bookmarks plugin instead of Foxmarks. It works in Firefox, MSIE, and Safari, so whatever browser I end up on, I have my bookmarks…

By: Nate J.

Nate J. — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:44:08 +0000

The killer app for me is bookmark synchrnization to a cloud or some kind of server storage. I have several desktops at home and work as well as my laptop, and keeping all those bookmarks available has always been an issue for me. I just don't think I can convince my wife to shell out for .Mac, and that wouldn't necessarily help me on my windows or linux hosts. The Foxmarks plugin (http://www.foxmarks.com/) gets the job done perfectly, and works flawlessly in my experience. Until Safari (or Camino) get that kind of functionality, I am Firefox-only.

By: Alan K

Alan K — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:09:50 +0000

I prefer Firefox. I prefer the look and feel. I also work on several machines and use Google Browser Sync to keep the same browser environment in all. It doesn’t support Safari.

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:28:23 +0000

I probably don’t count as a full-fledged Mac person yet, but you know that. :) I mostly use Firefox, only hitting Safari occasionally. A big reason is comfort-zone – I know Firefox. Another big one is Foxmarks, the add-on that lets me automatically sync my bookmarks with any other Firefox machine I use (in this case, my desktop PC).