What's the best browser for OS X [Archive]

:-)

01-09-2002, 06:06 PM

In OS 9.2 I'm using netscape com 4.78, due to problems with both netscape 6 and IE 5. How does these work in OS X? Are there any better choices out there (in your opinions)? And lastly, what about mail/news-programs?

Logan Cale

01-09-2002, 06:21 PM

Use Mail.app for email, and OmniWeb 4.1b1 for web browsing.

Scott_H

01-09-2002, 06:21 PM

There's only one. OmniWeb. Best thing about OS X.

Bogie

01-09-2002, 06:25 PM

Personally I use OmniWeb the most, but I also have iCab, Opera, IE 5.1, Netscape 6.2, and Mozilla all installed.

They all run native.

sizzle chest

01-09-2002, 06:37 PM

I like to "think different" so I switched and now I'm using Mail.App as my web browser and Internet Explorer as my email program. Doesn't work very well though.

torifile

01-09-2002, 06:37 PM

I use Omniweb all the time. It's great. I only fire up IE when I need to do some stuff that OW can't handle, like javascript popup menus. The PB of 4.1 is nice and fast and easy to configure. No more popup windows for me :) Ads are gone too.

Lately, I've been having problems with OW crashing on me. Randomly, too. This has only been with the PB. The sneaky peeks were better in the stability :confused: I just wish they'd make it final already...

[edit: as for Netscape, I can't tell. I hate AOL worse than I hate MS. Won't download it. Wouldn't give it the time of day if I didn't have to test my webpages in it...jeez, does 4.7 suck...]

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: torifile ]

bradbower

01-09-2002, 06:55 PM

About every other day I switch back and forth between IE and OmniWeb.

OmniWeb has the looks, but IE has the speed and compatibility.

I just can't decide. :)

Brad

01-09-2002, 11:45 PM

I'm with bradbower on this one. OmniWeb definitely beats IE and Mozilla for looks, but that's all. Speed is doing much better in the 4.1 sneakypeeks, but compatability is still shot to hell with a lot of websites.

I keep both OW and IE in my dock. Mozilla hasn't proven itself to be stable enough to earn a permanent spot in my dock, but it does render most sites very quickly and very accurately. When the Cocoa front end to Mozilla is complete, it's gonna be one sweet browser.

iCab is a joke. :p

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: Bradster ]

Odinn5

01-10-2002, 12:10 AM

Myself I use Mozilla Mach-O most of the time.
It is by far the fastest of the browsers out there and much more stable than the regular version of Mozilla (Haven't had it crash in 2 months of continous use.) The biggest drawback is that the downloads don't work.

iCab when I need Flash, Quicktime or a download.

OmniWeb when I am in in a funky mood and am tired of the way the other browsers look. It looks goregous.

Opera I barley use anymore although I did use it as my primary browser before I found Mozilla
Mach-O.

IE.....not unless someone hacks my Mac erases ll my other browsers and I have no other way to the web. Even then I am not so sure.

Rick1138

01-10-2002, 02:45 AM

I use Omniweb and IE about equally,but when Omniweb is finished it will be Omniweb only.

By the way,IE has just as many problems rendering sites as OmniWeb,just on different sites.I think at this part IE is a little faster than OW,but I don't agree with the attitude a lot of people who think that Omniweb is beautiful but technically inferior.Many of the problems with websites are caused by the facts that numerous hacks are necessary to get them to display in IE,which makes it difficult for other browsers to properly display said sites.[/LIST]

[ 01-10-2002: Message edited by: Rick1138 ]

EmAn

01-10-2002, 06:44 AM

I usually use IE, but OminiWeb is great.

:-)

01-10-2002, 11:37 AM

I think there's only one thing to say: opinions vary...
I guess I'm going to check Omniweb along with IE and mozilla, but rigth now I just can't wait for my Powerbook :)

NDPTAL85

01-10-2002, 03:55 PM

If you have a lot of RAM then USE it. I have 5 browsers open at all times.

1. OmniWeb. I do most of my surfing with this.
2. Opera. 2nd in command.
3. iCab. Always ready.
4. Internet Explorer. It ain't that bad you know.
5. Mozilla. When you absolutely positively need 50 windows open in a browser, this one has the tabs to do it with! :)

EmAn

01-10-2002, 04:06 PM

NDPTAL85 , what's the point of having them all open at the same time?

Whyatt Thrash

01-11-2002, 04:11 AM

I need my sh!t to work, so IE's my poison of choice. Occasional crashing is fine by me, as long as browsing the sites work without any fuss. Just hate that Flash is so slow and that some Aqua-elements look messed up. Like the menus aren't truly customized, even if they are set to a color & font by the page it's still a regular Aqua menu with Lucida sans when you open them, and that checkboxes and radiobuttons aren't properly masked on some layouts or background colours.

Other than that, it works just fine for me.

Power Apple

01-11-2002, 09:14 AM

There are no good browsers for Mac OS X.

Omniweb is, by far, the best looking, but it's slow and incompatible and the latests builds are extremely buggy (sp 25 & 26 are very very bad, makes Explorer look like a refined piece of software - that bad!!)

Internet explorer 5.1. is a total piece of crap, but it can display some pages Omniweb can't.

Browsing sucks on Mac OS X. I sure hope it improves soon!

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: Power Apple ]

Sinewave

01-11-2002, 12:13 PM

Going from Omniweb to IE is like dating Cindy Crawford and dumping her for Rosie.

kim kap sol

01-11-2002, 01:53 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Power Apple:
There are no good browsers for Mac OS X.

Omniweb is, by far, the best looking, but it's slow and incompatible and the latests builds are extremely buggy (sp 25 & 26 are very very bad, makes Explorer look like a refined piece of software - that bad!!)

Internet explorer 5.1. is a total piece of crap, but it can display some pages Omniweb can't.

Browsing sucks on Mac OS X. I sure hope it improves soon!

[ 01-11-2002: Message edited by: Power Apple ]<hr></blockquote>

Shut up before you remove all doubts that you are stupid.

sizzle chest

01-11-2002, 02:01 PM

Kim Kap Sol, you are mean! Please tell us something about the plastics used in the new iMac.

Power Apple

01-14-2002, 04:25 AM

[quote]Originally posted by kim kap sol:


Shut up before you remove all doubts that you are stupid.<hr></blockquote>

A good browser should be:

fast, stable, with very few bugs (no application will ever be 100% bug-free), compatible with most web pages (including java, java-script, css etc. etc.) and have a good looking and intuitive UI.

Tell me,honestly, if there is any browser available today on Mac OS X that lives up to these standards? I don't think there is!

So, kim, take your unintelligent knee-jerk comments elsewhere. Unless it makes you feel good being an idiot...

[ 01-14-2002: Message edited by: Power Apple ]

kim kap sol

01-14-2002, 03:50 PM

[quote]Originally posted by sizzle chest:
Kim Kap Sol, you are mean! Please tell us something about the plastics used in the new iMac.<hr></blockquote>

i'm building plastics now.

Logan Cale

01-14-2002, 03:56 PM

So am I. I'm building a 5' thick plastic box around you.

machiavel

01-17-2002, 05:16 AM

To my surprise, IE has proved the best browser on X. It's fast, stable, and has most of the features I like, especially autofill. I liked icab on OS 9, because you could save entire pages, images and all, without all the downloading crap you get in IE. But the icab for X is just too feature impoverished to stand up to IE. Omniweb appears to be the web browser of choice for many Mac OS X users, especially those who detest Microsoft. But I have found Omni a bit on the slow side. Opera is about as fast as IE, but it keeps crashing on me, so I had to give it up (though there were many things I like about it). You don't want to ever use Netscape in X. It is unbelievably slow.

EmAn

01-17-2002, 06:44 AM

machiavel , when you tried OmniWb was it the 4.1 beta or was it 4.0.x? Because 4.1 is much faster and I think that it's a little faster than IE.

Whyatt Thrash

01-17-2002, 08:54 AM

I take back everything bad I've ever thought about omniweb. The 4.1 PB looks great, and even has a new cool icon... :D

I might use this as a first-choice browser even, will have to use it a while to look for any unbearable quirks but it looks much improved. :D http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/icons/icon14.gif

onlooker

01-17-2002, 10:10 AM

OS X BROWSERS]

I must be missing something about omniweb here. I installed it recently, and I keep filling out crash reports. I don't like it. + it's featureless.

I like IE because of the favorites, and history are easy to access, and I have @hyperlinks to the sites I visit most right at the top of my browser window. Toolbar customization is good too. I keep add as favorite in mine. It's handy, and I can drop it (a recently added favorite) into a custom folder that suits it in no time at all.
Personaly It's not my favorite, but I do use it the most for those reasons.

My favorite is an early OS X version of Opera Beta. It's by far the fastest browser, and I can use an alternate DownloadManager, but I don't like the seperate bookmark window, and it seems that if I were to customize it - it would take hours. But it is my favorite, and I'm thinking it over while I test a recently downloaded version of Netscape X, and it's starting to grow on me.

I like iCab, but it's slow compared to everything else accept for OmniWeb Which is the slowest.

Mozilla, well it's on hold until I decide if I like the new Netscape.

So for me it's Opera, and IE for right now.
:p

a holck

01-17-2002, 10:40 AM

OmniWeb SP28 is pretty good :D

onlooker

01-17-2002, 11:12 AM

Ooh my GOD! I am such an idiot for not checking out that browser sooner. I guess it was the crash reports that shook me off. I started thinking about looking it over after all the good reviews posted above, and I think I have a new default browser. The customization alone makes it worth it. I just imported all my favorites from IE, and loaded them into one folder in the browser window toolbar. I'm not sure, but I don't think you can do that in IE. Opera is still faster, but the download manager seems pretty quick so far. I only downloaded a few small app's from Caffeine software, and it seemed relatively quick. It's using the spell checker from my Mail app right now. How cool is that!

EDIT] JUST filled out another crash report though, I'm sure they are working on a newer version.

[ 01-17-2002: Message edited by: onlooker ]

NoahJ

01-17-2002, 02:13 PM

I use OMNIWEB SneakyPeek XX (the latest avaialable) for most everything. It only gets better. A few times the latest SP will revert to a new problem but it is usually quickly fixed by a new version a day or so later. It began crashing on sites where certain cookies were set, but in the latest version this has not happened. I love it. IE is my backup as the others are too slow to use or too feature incomplete. I used to use mozilla 0.94 but I got over it... :p

macsrock

01-17-2002, 10:39 PM

omniweb rocks(only the sneakypeak)
ie is my backup

i wont touch the the others <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

kim kap sol

01-17-2002, 10:42 PM

The latest OmniWeb sneaky peeks beat every other browsers hands down.

The latest OmniWeb is pretty fast...faster than IE, not as fast as the mach-o Mozilla builds. But the features far outweigh the small speed hit and compatibility issues. If Omni can get OW to render more pages correctly, there shouldn't be any contest between browsers anymore...and Apple would be stoopid not to bundle it with 10.2

macsrock

01-17-2002, 10:44 PM

omniweb rocks(only the sneakypeak)
netscape is my backup

i wont touch the the others <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />

i just deleted ie cause i hate M$

[ 01-26-2002: Message edited by: macsrock ]

sizzle chest

01-17-2002, 10:54 PM

How many of you are able (or unable) to access your online banking using OmniWeb? My Wells Fargo online banking tells me I need to use a "supported browser" when I try to log in using Omni Web. IE works fine.

EmAn

01-17-2002, 11:06 PM

No matter how great OmniWeb is getting I won't use it as my main browser until it works with all the sites IE does. The site I've had the most problems with in OmniWeb is my school's site.

Brad

01-18-2002, 01:20 AM

OmniWeb used to work fine with Wachovia, but the online account system has changed slightly and no longer works properly. I can log in just fine using 4.1sp28, but the pages are filled with javascript errors and undefined variables.

:(

richard788

01-18-2002, 06:26 AM

OmniWeb can't even make my cursor into a hand (you know what I mean) when hovering on a link. It sometimes takes seconds. This on a PBG4 667Mhz.

This slugishness prevents me from using it full time despite all the anti-aliasing in the world...

Now, where's IE6?

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: richard788 ]

EmAn

01-18-2002, 06:39 AM

[quote]Originally posted by richard788:

Now, where's IE6?

[ 01-18-2002: Message edited by: richard788 ]<hr></blockquote>

That's what I'd like to know.

Power Apple

01-22-2002, 06:43 AM

I hate to bash on Omniweb, because I really like the browser and see it's potential, but it still has a long way to go.

On a side note, am I the only one who gets a crash in sp28 when clicking on the "store" pane at <a href="http://www.apple.com" target="_blank">http://www.apple.com</a> ??