Accessing websites on a Mac?

rsteversteve
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Okay I'm still in the market for a Mac and I really want to switch but one thing that's really put me off - I use my computer 95% for web-surfing so that's the really important thing for me.



In a UK-based Mac magazine I bought though, on the help page someone wrote in to say he's finding websites are becoming increasingly inaccessible from Macs, regardless of the browser, even if you use IE for a Mac.



This is a major issue for me - I can't buy a computer which won't let me access certain websites.



Please be honest, is this a major problem on a Mac?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    hardeeharharhardeeharhar Posts: 4,841member
    No. You have available for use Safari, Firefox etc etc. One issue I do note (which I have with both PCs and Macs) is that for some reason my bank's website doesn't play well with anything but IE. But we have that too, although it sucks.
  • Reply 2 of 22
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Hey, my bank's website is like that too! It makes me veeeeeeery nervous.
  • Reply 3 of 22
    a j steva j stev Posts: 79member
    Doesn't seem to be a major problem...I'm using Safari for the past 18 months and I haven't been to a site that has kicked me out.



    Flash animations are slower than Windows browsers but thats not a problem for me.



    Sounds like some banks are better than others when it comes to their web support.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    geekdreamsgeekdreams Posts: 280member
    Unless you're trying to access http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, it's not a problem.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    as an ex-web-designer, i can tell you that 'web standards compliance', even for those bloody stupid bank sites, is increasing



    firefox is a great web standards compliant web browser



    i understand your concern, but armed with the following web browsers, you can explore what works best for you, and very unlikely that you'll have one critical website that doesn't work with any of them....



    safari for mac

    firefox for mac

    internet explorer for mac



    enjoy,

    -sunilraman
  • Reply 6 of 22
    fallenfromthetreefallenfromthetree Posts: 338member
    Frankly if your bank still insists that you use ONLY IE to access your accounts, I would think real hard about the security of your funds and your private information.



    Most of the Mac users I know drag IE to the trash can!



    Something that is still a big bad taboo on a P/C



    The only problems I've heard with accessing certain web pages

    in Safari or Firefox ended up being caused by user firewall settings rather than the browser.



    This happened most recently with the use of PeerVanguard

    and PeerGuardian where the updated block lists became a bit too restrictive.
  • Reply 7 of 22
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by FallenFromTheTree

    .....



    Most of the Mac users I know drag IE to the trash can!



    Something that is still a big bad taboo on a P/C



    ......



    although i am technically Switched for about 4 years, i still fantasise but can't bring my self to drag IE into the trash on my Mac, even though i just use safari most of the time nowadays, well, all the time (Safari 1.2.4 (v125.12))
  • Reply 8 of 22
    fallenfromthetreefallenfromthetree Posts: 338member
    IE is the superhighway of internet trash written by microsoft

    to tell everyone what you do, when you do it and where.



    good riddens
  • Reply 9 of 22
    mrsparklemrsparkle Posts: 120member
    I haven't come across a mac-unfriendly site in quite a while.



    I think the last one I went to was the Buy.com music download site, where they were intentionally turning mac users away (How's that going for them, anyway?).



    The only other thing I can think of is some online java games don't seem to work on the mac.
  • Reply 10 of 22
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    I just went over to buy.com's music pages and they worked fine. Although, I didn't try to actually buy a song. So I guess it didn't go very well for them as they appear to have changed that policy.
  • Reply 11 of 22
    telekontelekon Posts: 54member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by RSteve

    Okay I'm still in the market for a Mac and I really want to switch but one thing that's really put me off - I use my computer 95% for web-surfing so that's the really important thing for me.



    In a UK-based Mac magazine I bought though, on the help page someone wrote in to say he's finding websites are becoming increasingly inaccessible from Macs, regardless of the browser, even if you use IE for a Mac.



    This is a major issue for me - I can't buy a computer which won't let me access certain websites.



    Please be honest, is this a major problem on a Mac?



    As indicated above, the only problems you may come across are online banking (which is getting better all the time - even for the smaller services) and online shopping at supermarkets such as ASDA, who's website is not Mac friendly. Apart from these areas, I too have found very very little in the way of problems. Safari and Firefox may not be as "plug & play" as other browsers on a lot of sites but they still work perfecty well and are much less of a security risk.

    What type of websites do you wish to surf? This may help us determine if you may have a problem.
  • Reply 12 of 22
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by telekon

    As indicated above, the only problems you may come across are online banking (which is getting better all the time - even for the smaller services) and online shopping at supermarkets such as ASDA, who's website is not Mac friendly. Apart from these areas, I too have found very very little in the way of problems. Safari and Firefox may not be as "plug & play" as other browsers on a lot of sites but they still work perfecty well and are much less of a security risk.

    What type of websites do you wish to surf? This may help us determine if you may have a problem.



    yeah, besides p0rN what websites would concern you the most? online banking is important, we understand, what bank site would you be using? we can check it for you, if the bank site doesn't like Mac it usually warns a Mac user...



    so yeah let us know here and we'd be happy to investigate it for you... i too am curious if there are still any bloody anti-Mac websites out there, this whole web standards move IS quite strong and should alleviate a lot of cross-browser issues by now...



    security concerns and the like have also driven developers to embrace web standards instead of microsoft-biased web technology on the front end (eg vbscript, activex)



    you are getting very sleepy... you want to switch.... you want a PowerBook 15" 1.67ghz with Superdrive 512mb RAM and 128 vram...



    *did my jedi mind trick work??*
  • Reply 13 of 22
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    not saying one way or another that anyone here actively surfs p0rN but I would put forward that



    using a mac is safer when browsing more risque websites...



    stay safe, people, have fun, but be safe. use a mac.
  • Reply 14 of 22
    beimacbeimac Posts: 26member
    Maybe it's just me, but I can't empty my Hotmail junkmail folder with Safari.... Works in IE and Firefox though
  • Reply 15 of 22
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hardeeharhar

    No. You have available for use Safari, Firefox etc etc. One issue I do note (which I have with both PCs and Macs) is that for some reason my bank's website doesn't play well with anything but IE. But we have that too, although it sucks.



    There is an extention for Firefox that tricks servers into thinking it is IE - thus it lets certin services work, although I dont know off the top of my head what it is called.



    Also, if your bank is IE only, call them, let them hear you, write to the president(s) and if it comes down to it, swithch banks...Bank One and most local banks around here play nice with FF/Mozilla
  • Reply 16 of 22
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BeiMac

    Maybe it's just me, but I can't empty my Hotmail junkmail folder with Safari.... Works in IE and Firefox though



    Which begs the question, why do you use a hotmail box to recieve mail that is important enough to ever check, all hotmail is good for is a spam catcher for utter crap like NY Times registrarion, but for stuff like that, I use Bugmenot.com and their Firefox plugin, Really, you should get a gmail account, if you need an invite, I think I could spare one.

    Yahoo! is also a great choice for free mail, but all of the good names there are long snatched up by now.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    thorzdadthorzdad Posts: 50member
    About the only problem I run across with any regularity are webpages created by folks using Microsoft Frontpage. And then it's usually that they just display like cr@p in anything other than IE/Win. Especially the tiny, tiny type that those people like using.
  • Reply 18 of 22
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    You can change Safari's user agent as well, using the Debug menu. I've forgotten how you make the menu visible.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    My bank isn't IE only... it's just SLOoooooooooooow in anything but IE. It does work in Safari though.
  • Reply 20 of 22
    wingnutwingnut Posts: 197member
    Bank of America works great on Firefox and Safari. I even filed my taxes online with Safari. I haven't used IE once, except to see how it performed (man, is it ugly).



    I think you don't need to worry. More and more people are abandoning IE for firefox, for both convenience and security, so web designers will soon have no choice but to bug check their code on non-IE browsers. It's not that hard, so hopefully more will keep doing it. Firefox keeps getting updated for OSX, just like the other ports, and I think it draws pages darn close to IE 99% of the time. The only error I can think of is the lack of emoticons in Yahoo mail.
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