Posted 4 years, 2 months ago around lunchtime by oso

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1. 1Bobby from says:Tuesday, November 9th, 2004 at 12:54 pm
   

   Firefox rocks my world.

2. 2elenamary from says:Tuesday, November 9th, 2004 at 3:56 pm
   

   no wonder you don’t like tuna.

3. 3Derek from says:Tuesday, November 9th, 2004 at 4:51 pm
   

   Anyone use Firefox instead of Safari on their Macs? I use Firefox at work on Windows, but haven’t found a compelling reason to switch on my Mac at home…

4. 4karen from says:Tuesday, November 9th, 2004 at 5:17 pm
   

   Derek, I use it on my Powerbook G4. I was a huge Safari fan but it kept crashing on me (I tend to open a lot of tabs). Firefox has been a bit more stable (tho the 0.9 version was also crashing, we’ll see how 1.0 does.) my only complain is not being able to go “back” by pressing the “Delete” key but I’ve gotten used to the “enter-home” solution for now. the only other issue i had was the emacs keybindings but i figured a way to resolve that one.

5. 5oso from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 11:04 am
   

   Derek, I’ll admit that I use Safari on my Mac as well - I think it speaks to Apple’s credit that there isn’t such a compeling reason to use Firefox.

   With that said, I have been meaning to start using Firefox on my Mac because it has such a sophisticated plugin API and developer community. On Windows I use Firefox 1.0 with DOM Inspector, SAGE, Web Developer toolbar, Delicious sidebar, and Foxy Tunes interface for iTunes (or any other player). Also, unlike Safari’s brush metal, I can change Firefox’s theme. Currenly I’m using NOIA extreme which was a little too futuristic when I first started using it, but now I like it more than Safari’s look.

   I also have about 20 search engines installed in my search bar. Besides Google, which I use all the time, I also often use dictionary.com’s, ebay’s, Amazon.com’s, and several different language translators.

   The fact that there are probably 50 other useful plugins that I don’t even know about is yet another reason to make the switch. Firefox has won, no corporate browser will ever be able to stay as cutting edge.

6. 6raman from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 3:04 pm
   

   you guys are all ruining the Microsoft Monopoly — well, not you mac guys.

7. 7Elenita from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 3:50 pm
   

   Derek,

   I normally use Safari on my Powerbook G4, but I’m conducting an experiment for the next two weeks now that Firefox has gone gold–Safari’s off my dock, and my default browser has changed to Firefox.

   Why? Gecko’s Unsightly ass (at Drunken Blog) gives all the geeky details, but it has to do with the rendering engines that the browsers use. In a nutshell, Safari uses the KHTML engine behind the open-source Konqueror (part of the K Desktop Environment popular on Linux); Firefox uses the Gecko engine that is used in Internet Explorer (among other browsers, including Camino). As a result–most pages will render the same way in IE and Firefox, making it accessible to a majority of web developers. Safari and Konqueror will render the same way, but because the majority of web developers use Windows, they have access to neither of those two browsers. And considering how few people use Mac and Linux combined, there’s very little incentive for a Windows-based developer to check out how things look in either. And ergo, Safari users may find themselves locked out of more and more of a Gecko-dominated web.

   Granted, that hasn’t happened yet–and may never happen. But it’s something to keep in mind, and plan for. Besides, if you jump between platforms a lot (e.g., you use a Mac at home and a Windows box at work), there’ something to be said for a universal browser.

   And not to make this comment ungodly long or turn this into the “Safari vs. Firefox” post, but I think I’ll be returning to Safari when this fortnight ends. For all Gecko’s strengths, I find Firefox a little lacking. I really miss Snapback and keyboard-based tab navigation. And I desperately wish that the password manager would hook into Panther’s keychain; it makes no sense for my passwords to be stored twice–once in the secure system-wide database, and then separately for a single browser.

   (Retyping dozens of passwords have made me cranky–yes, indeed.)

   T

8. 8raman from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 7:09 pm
   

   much better that IE — fewer pop-up and less threat from viruses. ..although many pages do not run properly on it.

9. 9Elenita from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 11:12 pm
   

   Wait, wait–Osito, you used the present tense in your last comment abve. Does this mean you’ve bought a Powerbook?

   Add another mark in the Safari column: Firefox doesn’t use Panther’s system-wide spell checker. I’ve grown used to having it around when I type comments (especially long ones). I know I could install Spellbound to get that functionality, but it’s the principle of the thing. I refuse to install application-specific extensions when those features already exist system-wide. I already use too much disk space as it is.

   /geek

10. 10Elenita from says:Wednesday, November 10th, 2004 at 11:13 pm
    

    And… just to prove my pont, there’s a typo in my last comment. Ugh.

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