Safari or Firefox

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Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
As a long-time PC user, I've enjoyed my recent switch to the Mac OS platform.



I have used Firefox for sometime. Is there any advantage to using Safari over Firefox in the Mac OS platform?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 67
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    Safari being many time faster?



    And 10.5.2 should improve on stablity as well.
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  • Reply 2 of 67
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post


    ...



    I have used Firefox for sometime. Is there any advantage to using Safari over Firefox in the Mac OS platform?



    You don't have to make a choice. Try both. See which one you like better. Heck, install Firefox and keep it even it you prefer Safari.
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  • Reply 3 of 67
    Many times faster?
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  • Reply 4 of 67
    I prefer Firefox because of the "restore session" function and tab behavior.
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  • Reply 5 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Many times faster?





    I don't see a speed difference b/w the two browsers.
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  • Reply 6 of 67
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ksec View Post


    Safari being many time faster?



    And 10.5.2 should improve on stablity as well.



    Are there plug-ins available for Safari such as weather updates or bookmark synchronizers? I have used those in Firefox and have found them to be quite helpful.
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  • Reply 7 of 67
    Camino.
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  • Reply 8 of 67
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    Firefox
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  • Reply 9 of 67
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    Safari.
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  • Reply 10 of 67
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,585moderator
    I try Firefox but it's slow to launch and it's not faster at loading pages.



    Firefox plugins were always a bit flakey for me and I just never used them enough.



    Safari has a nice download manager with a good resume function, doesn't harass me about updates, puts a nice little animated progress bar on a download so I don't accidentally try to open it before it's finished - if I stop a download, I can double-click it and it will start right back up again downloading.



    Safari is not without flaws and it sometimes hangs for no reason but now that it has a restore function (history menu > reopen all windows from last session), this isn't an issue any more. Just force-quit and open all your tabs back up.



    The tab dragging feature is amazing. So many times I've wanted to be able to merge a window back to a tab and vice versa.
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  • Reply 11 of 67
    I use Camino and Safari - mainly Camino. Camino is garbage for Flash content, though. So use Safari for pages/sites with lots of Flash content/video etc. Try CaminIcon if you download Camino. Firefox is too slow.



    Camino



    http://caminobrowser.org/



    CaminIcon



    http://web.mac.com/reinholdpenner/So...CaminIcon.html
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  • Reply 12 of 67
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    I prefer Firefox because of the "restore session" function and tab behavior.



    Safari can restore the last window or windows closed even after you shut down the browser.
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  • Reply 13 of 67
    Does Safari have side-bar bookmarks? I remember this not being available awhile ago. To be honest, that's predominantly why I use Firefox. Perhaps if they do, I'll give Safari another shot...
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  • Reply 14 of 67
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Safari does not have a sidebar. It does, however, have a booksmarks bar immediately above its tabs bar. Quite frankly, I have always found sidebars in browsers to be a waste of screen real estate. When using browsers that have the feature, I hide the sidebar.
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  • Reply 15 of 67
    I use firefox.



    I have several machines with different OSes, and I like using the same browser on all of them.



    I also use quite a few firefox plugins.



    If you use firefox on OS X, you should probably get Bon Echo. It's an optimised build for OS X. Get it here.
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  • Reply 16 of 67
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    I use Safari for browsing, Firefox for web development and Camino sometimes. Camino has much better Applescript support than Firefox too, if that matters to anyone.
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  • Reply 17 of 67
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post


    Safari does not have a sidebar. It does, however, have a booksmarks bar immediately above its tabs bar. Quite frankly, I have always found sidebars in browsers to be a waste of screen real estate. When using browsers that have the feature, I hide the sidebar.



    I use both, but like Safari way more. Those things like drawers and sidebars stink of windows.
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  • Reply 18 of 67
    Firefox is dog slow, a memory hog, and all of the pages that don't seem to work in Safari also don't seem to work in Firefox.



    They are both free, so try them out. If you don't feel strongly about one or the other, though, you should use Safari.
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  • Reply 19 of 67
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Since most browsers now are free it's not an either or proposition.



    I use both camino and safari. Camino works better with financial sites I visit like schwab.com. For general use Safari is a bit faster, but camino is by no means 'slow'.
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  • Reply 20 of 67
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splinemodel View Post


    Firefox is dog slow, a memory hog, and all of the pages that don't seem to work in Safari also don't seem to work in Firefox.



    ...



    As a general proposition, this is not true. One each Mac that I have tried, all browsers are roughly equal in speed. If you see a dramatic speed difference in your setup, then it is an issue that is specific to your setup.
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