Safari vs Firefox... Which one is your favorite and why?

Here's an interesting one. I'm interested in how people find these browsers in OS X. I keep flip-flopping between the two. While Safari undoubtedly is a "smoother" browser (especially for scrolling) because of the quartz instructions Apple programmed into it, I'm finding Firefox to be a more useful browser in many ways. I like the way it downloads a LOT better than Safari (with the little timer in the bottom of the window) and many pages for some very odd reason just load much faster with Firefox (e.g. ebay.com and ESPECIALLY the IGN messageboards). Also, you can't actually list an item on eBay with HTML markup using Safari, whereas you can in Firefox...

So, which do you prefer, and why?

 

Yeah to add on to what you said about the downloading feature on Firefox. The way I see it is that once you click on "save file" it starts the download in the background to a temporary folder, so by the time you have browsed to where you want your file to be saved, it has already made substantial progress on the download. Now that's efficiency.

 

I mainly use Safari. I never really used any other browser because Safari did everything I needed it to do.

I will, however, get Firefox right now just to see how it compares, and will post my response in a bit.

 

i like Firefox better..
web sites show up better with Firefox
for example, the drop down menus on the title bar (User CP/FAQ/Members List/Image Gallery/Find Posts/Search/Quick Links/Log Out) on NBR here don't work in Safari, only on firefox, and some buttons/links don't even show up at all in Safari...
But i like the blue colored buttons in Safari a lot..

 

You know what, I just installed Firefox and it's pretty good. I'm going to use this from now on. Webpages actually load faster!

 

If you want smooth scrolling in Firefox try 'yet another smooth scrolling' addon.

On XP I always used Opera for minimal footprint and superior scrolling. Haven't tried it on OS X yet.

 

I use Firefox because of all the extensions. Also, simple things like being able to middle click to close a tab make it easier to use than Safari.

FF 3 has been really unstable for me though, and if anything makes me switch to Safari it would be this.

 

I use both but I'm not as good with all the shortcuts in Safari. I like both for different reasons; Safari is built for speed and Firefox is built for cross platform, customizability. Its very nice to be able to use the multi-touch gestures Apple incorporates into Safari and then the many extensions and add-ons of Firefox such as web developer tools, flash video recording/saving, and themes.

How do you switch between tabs in Safari with keyboard shortcuts like you do in other browsers(ctrl+tab/etc)? Also, is there an add-on in Safari to have new tabs open with the homepage?

 

firefox, but i use both. i like saving all my tabs in ff and coming back to them but if i dont want to search something involving them, ff has great extensions i'd recommend trying out cooliris on ff, but really they're practically all the same thing.

 

FF is the best out in the market currently. But i do use safari at times...

THe best thing about FF is that you can install number of widjets and make ur life a lot easier..

I have not seen a difference in terms of speed.
SOme widjets that are must for me are

1.SPeed dial ( like in opera)
2delicious ( book marks that stay online and i can access them from any computer )
3.some related to tabbed browsing.
4. etc....

Search option in a webpage is much better ( it begins to search as soon as i start typing a word.)

EDIT : one important thing is FF saves the pages i am browsing and even if i have to restart my mac , i have all the pages open up automatically the next time... this is a major plus point.
Gopa

 

I usually run both in separate desktops for certain pages, or tasks I am ding online depends on which browser I will use it on. All in all I prefer Safari honestly. I use it more with what I do, but firefox does have it's ups as oppose to safari.

 

For those of you that have newer macs with gestures(swiping) grabbing the util called MultiClutch solves that problem for FireFox.

 

FF add-ons are hard to pass up. Those combined with the Google toolbar (especially the Boomarks which I can access from any browser) make it pretty hard to go with Safari. I could live without some of my add-ons but giving up Google toolbar is asking too much. FF also seems faster for the sites I browse.

 

I don't like how firefox makes you download every file to your download folder even if you click "open only".

Is there any way to fix this?

 

Yeah you can map to another download directory.

Go to Tools -> Options, it is under the Main tab. I had it mapped to a network directory for awhile.

 

Multiclutch is great.

 

Agreed. Being able to save open tabs is awesome.

 

Safari does seem faster, but FF's add-ons makes up for being a bit slower.

 

When are Safari 4 and Firefox 3.1 supposed to hit? I just got a Mac, and I used to be a Firefox guy on Vista. Safari does do a lot of things faster than Firefox on Vista, when it comes to Javascript, but the supposed large improvements with Firefox 3.1 will probably have me switching back, unless Safari 4 meets or beats 3.1's features.

 

Yea I'm another one for firefox.

Originally, because it was what i was used to from switching from pc, but all the extensions. And the fact that Adblocker Plus, actually works compared to the safari version I tried, viewing the internet without ads is amazing. With ads it sucks, lol.

Also yea like other people said, saved tabs, and to switch between tabs its just ctrl+tab, not like safari's apple+shift+] , that key combo annoys me like crazy.

 

FIREFOX

REASON:
http://forevergeek.com/open_source/make_firefox_faster.php

faster, i think...

 

I'm currently using Firefox 3. For me, I don't use many add-ons and plugins, so that's not why I'm drawn to Firefox, instead, I prefer the UI of Firefox over the brushed metal of Safari 3 on Mac OS X Tiger (which I'm still on).

 

I prefer Firefox for a ton of reasons. But I find myself having to use Minefield to fix certain problems on the Mac side... (optimised Firefox builds for Mac).

Now if only we could get a Cocoa version of Firefox... I'd be more than happy.

 

I used IE exclusively up to about a month ago when I started to consider making the switch to MAC. I don’t recall where, but I learned of Fire Fox for the first time. (Ok so I guess I need to get out more ). Anyway I downloaded FF and never went back to IE.

Having never used Safari, I can’t comment on the OP’s question – other than to say that I plan to give Safari a really good eval when my MBP arrives, before bringing FF online.

 

There is actually Safari for Windows, but I will say its not as good as the Mac version of Safari.

 

It may not be exactly the same experience, but you can use safari on windows in the meantime, just to see if you like it. Probably not exactly the same (never used it myself), but yea, its an option.

 

Is it just me or does it appear that the dreaded IE has one up on both Safari and Firefox, in that it can open your homepage instead of just a blank page when you create a new tab?! It really saves me a lot of time, not having to type in the whole URL every time I need a new tab. But for the life of me I can't find this option anywhere on either Safari or Firefox.

 

I never cared for that idea, since I have it open a blank page every time. With the amount of time I save in a day not going to my "home page" (which I don't define) every time I open a new window, the small amount of time to enter a URL for whatever homepage I would have would be minimal. In most cases, it's type two or three letters, down key, enter, bam.

 

I use and like both. I use firefox for sites that need it, and safari for everything else.

 

Firefox can do that...just get the "tab mix plus"! One of the best FF add-ons!

 

Firefox is the best browser to "bridge" the gap between the PC world and Mac.

Several websites out there that are IE compatible will work on FF but not Safari.

I choose to use FF because it doesn't feel as locked down as Safari, FF has a lot more features and tons of customization.

And whenever an IE7 or Safari user tells me can "Firefox do that?" I tell them, "yes several versions ago, when your browser copied from Firefox."

 

I use FF, Safari and Opera.

I find the default adblocker in Opera to superior of ABP in FF. Why? because some Flash ads (like the ones here) do not show up as an ads in ABP. I'll need to figure out the code to add as a filter. In Opera it's a simple as a rightclick and a left click. Done.

Add to that the incredibly fast and light scrolling Opera is my favorite for forum like environments.

FF for it's addons and password manager.
I'm just getting used to Safari.

 

I prefer firefox. My only problem is that everytime I install firefox onto the MBP... it goes away when I perform a restart. Im a new mac user so is there a specific way to keep the mac application on the dock?

 

Hmmmmmmm.......so when my new MBP arrives, there are sites that Safari won't allow me to access??

 

Drag it from your "applications" folder to the dock and it will "stick".

I choose firefox 3 with noscript, flashblock and adblock. I have a few other addons but those 3 are the main reasons. One annoyance I have is that noscript seems to get updated more than once a day. I really don't want to bother with updating my addons more than once a month so I find myself clicking skip quite a bit. As for speed, nothing is quite as bad as the mal-administered windows box I use at work. When I used windows at home on a processor 1.5x slower than the one at work, it was still a LOT faster. Now that I'm on a Penryn Macbook, it's a LOT faster than anything windows can even dream about so I could care less if FF3 is slightly slower than Safari. It's simply not worth running safari without add-ons. There are a few things that simply won't work in firefox or in safari. For that reason, I end up using safari from time to time. One example is the quicktime ads put out by Apple. I enjoy watching the new ones in my browser. In FF, they simply won't play. In Safari, they play just fine. There a few things on the web that flat out won't work unless you are running IE. I don't need those things. Ever.

 

Safari for everyday use.

Firefox + Firebug for web development

 

Yeah...I just used Safari for the first time today, and I thought it was good. Really good. Then again I'm comparing the results to IE.

 

I like the idea behind Google's Chrome browser. Lightweight process for each tab, which effectively sandboxes each webpage. If the flash player decides to crash (and lets face it, who hasn't had that happen ) it doesn't bring down the whole browser.

I hope Safari 4 implements this kind of design.

 

Chrome is nice and light and all but I don't like the interface. It looks similar to IEs no? Or is that just me...

 

No, I agree with you about the interface. I was just talking about the underlying design of the browser (how the code is structured underneath), not the interface per se.

 

Changed my mind -- Firefox is the way I'll be going. I have both Safari and FF installed. Yesterday I was using Safari and was on boston.com. Clicked on a story and a prompt popped up explaining the dangers of malware and spyware, "Do you want to scan your computer now?" I said no, and WHAM, a program was suddenly scanning my computer. I closed out the window real quick.

I'm still very new to the Mac world. How (where) do I look to make sure no alien-like program made it's way onto my MBP?

 

I always used firefox, but lately I have been using safari. I find it faster, and offers all the same functionality as I got in firefox.

Of the two, I prefer safari.

 

Safari has been great for me. No hiccups what so ever. Compared to Firefox.

I've used to use Firefox, but now I only use Safari. Firefox was too buggy for me..