What do you use for browser?

There are tons of broswers out there on the market today, and many have OS X versions.

I'm wondering what the majority of you use, and why you use what you use. This is a multichoice poll, for those who might have to use more than one browser for compatibilty issues. Please post why you choose what you did, and if you choosed more than one, which one is your main browser of choice.

Safari
Firefox
Camino
OmniWeb
Internet Explorer
Other.

Personally, I use OmniWeb, yes it does cost money (I got ten bucks off using education discount) but I simply love the features it has, its extremely customizable. If you are interested they do have 30 day trial versions.

Saved Sessions, their implementation of tab browsing is awesome, setting options for individual websites, such as what page is allowed to do what, etc etc. Firefox does have some of the same features, however most are needed to be implemented using plugins. Very fast browsing, even know it was built partly ontop of Safari for compatibilty.

Last but not least, check out this Browser test. Kinda makes paying for a browser worth it in my opinion.

 

Mainly Firefox. Though the thing eats memory like no other program I've seen.
Not a fan of safari. I only use it to test web apps I make.
I've used pretty much every other browser out there, and haven't been too impressed with any other ones.

 

That was mostly the reason why I started looking elsewhere, the whole memory issue, and the fact that I like to leave my browser window open for days, usually it takes just a few days before the slows down the entire system. Firefox does indeed need better memory management, hopefully 2.0 will address the issue better.

 

Camino here. Because as a rule I don't use web browsers that are supplied with OS's, and Firefox doesn't conform to the OSX UI (well maybe the 3.0 alpha's do but it is unstable at the moment)

 

I've tried Safari before I installed Firefox. safari is way quicker to launch, but it has some annoying quirks (I can't open some pages in tabs no matter how I try) and I really miss adblock. So I am using both of them now. I have tried both Shiira and Camino, and whle they are nice and Shiira is very goo looking, I've found I'll be better off with more mainstream browsers now.

 

Safari here. And love it. I tried IE, Opera and Firfox, and none really worked for me.

 

hmm.. i checked the omniweb webite and it has prety cool features..
But look at the name.. "omniweb"!!! oh my god.. theres a van in my country called omni..those guys have a dumb sense of humour..

 

same here firefox

 

I am currently using FireFox, but I plan on trying Opera again and this OmniWeb that I have never heard of.

 

Yes, at first glance looking at OmniWeb you think "Looks like every other browser out there" and I pretty much thought the same thing for OmniOutliner that comes bundled with OS X, before I knew it I was using OmniOutliner everyday, even after the first time I loading the application and thought I wouldn't have any use for it.

Anyways, getting back on track, definitely take a look at both browsers, especially OmniWeb during its 30 day trial everyday I discover more and more features I wish other browsers had, but due to the fact that most don't and I really like the features I was willing to pay for the software license.

So far my favorite features are.

- Just start typing something like for example 'next' and the browser quickly brings you to the first link that has 'next', it's a bit more effienct than using the find feature which requires an extra step because you have to hit some key shortcut. Since I'm talking about a find related feature here, even the actual find feature is more advanced than firefox.

- Saved Sessions, it's built right in, no need for some plugins like other browsers. Unlike some other saved sessions in multiple other browsers that support it either integrated or via plugin, it actually saves the exact point of the page as well.

- Site Preferences, wow I can't stress this one enough, I'M the one that controls how sites are displayed, and I customize what can and can't be seen, I can also setup how the popup blocker is used, I can set ColorSync on a certain page to ensure that the image colors I see is the way the author intended it.
Heck I could even force the webpage to show a different background color if I so choose, of course this is dependant on the coding if it can be done or not, but we all been to those sites where it has horrible background that renders the text near impossible to read, and we end up highlighting all the text to help.

- The space the application use as a whole is real estate oriented. I have to admit, I like their navigation bar and bookmark bar implementation better than all the rest.

- The source editor is more advanced and has more features.

- Tons more, I could list them but I don't remember from the top of my head right now, as my MacBook was just sent out today to Apple.

Pretty much as OmniWeb is stated as by the OmniGroup is that OmniWeb is EXTREMELY customizable, and it's probably one of the geekiest browsers out there in terms of what you can do with it.

Plus it uses WebKit to render webpages, which in my opinion is superior to the gecko engine that firefox/mozilla uses. The link I provided in the first post of this thread shows a speed comparision test as well as rendering tests, OmniWeb (which is built on top of WebKit, was tweaked like hell by OmniGroup) to get the speed and performance it shows on that link.

I don't know about most of all of you guys, but I welcome any speed improvements I can get.

 

Don't get it, AFAIK both firefox and safari do the same, or are you talking about something else?

 

You must be thinking of something else, because I just tested what I was talking about in firefox (haven't tried it in safari because my mac is getting fixed) and it didn't do it.

Now, in firefox it can basically do the same thing but you need to bring up the 'find' display dialog and choose certain settings (depending on what you searched before) and then search through everything, however this method will look through both normal text and links in firefox.

Now in OmniWeb, you just type in your keyboard right away and it changes to the spot on your page you're currently on that has a match.

Now granted most people probably could care less for such a feature, but not having to open a find dialog or something like moving the mouse cuts a few seconds off on time, as well as it makes me much more productive on forums especially. OmniWebs 'find' feature has a few more options, probably most people will never really use the settings and features I like, and if so should just stick with a free browser.

Anyways, if you're nerdy like me or in the computer industry such as Computer Science or Information Technology like I am, this browser is definitely something worth checking out.

Couple more features I've just found,

-bookmarks that let you know if the site that the bookmark refers to has been updated.

- More indepth information on saved sessions as it also even saves text that you typed in, such as maybe you were going to leave a comment but never submitted it yet.

- Sharing your bookmarks on a network

- The RSS reader implementation seems better as well.

- Continuing on site preference I also found that you can choose different download folders for each site as well.

- This one is AWESOME, I can choose any search bar and make it a search shortcut, so no more needing to visit a site to get a plugin or some updated list for it.

- I can send my saved sessions to other people.

 

I use Firefox almost exclusively, but some things I do still use Safari for. Very few things though, so I voted Firefox only.

 

It's pretty interesting the amount of people who use firefox, considering it doesn't conform to the OS X UI standards, for me personally I keep thinking that I'm running windows whenever I load it up.

I do think that Firefox team needs to have an 'ACTUAL' FireFox Mac team, this team would totally redesign the interface to conform with Aqua and such, as well as to make it designed to work with OS X sophisicated memory management system better. Firefox runs and loads slow on my Maxed out MacBook, even considering the FireFox I have is a universal binary.

I do have Firefox as a backup for those very rare few sites that don't work.

 

Well, I have not looked, but I am sure you can find an OS X theme for FireFox. Plus, half of the APPLE apps don't conform to the OS X UI anymore. Most agree the UI in OS X is not very consistant. I have been trying the Omni prodict. It is nice and seems a little faster. I do like the preferences for each page a lot, but nothing yet that makes me feel like spending $30.

 

when I type in firefox, it also automatically searches. Just like omniweb does.

 

Yeah, not sure why FF doesnt' do that for you bandaid. Whenever i search, it immediatly brings me to the item i searched for. I don't need to scroll to find the highlighted part.

Most of the features that you listed for omni are okay i guess. Totally useless for me though.

I really don't like the idea of saved sessions. If a session is suposed to time out, tryign to override that may not be a good thing. In fact, it could be quite detrimental depending on the type of web app you may be using.

And how do you mean it doesn't conform to OS X graphic standard? It looks just like every other os x app i have.

 

I understand where your coming from on that price tag, 30 dollars for it is quite a bit. I bought it with my student discount which knocked 10 dollars off, but I figured I get it anyways because its a nice application and has what I needed, plus what really tipped me towards it was the upgrade fee they charge was cheap. Personally when it gets that cheap I see it as no difference between a donation or paying it.

In my eyes donation/paying is the same thing. imo, I think the software at most is worth 20, however 10-15 is ideal.

As for everyone else, I'm still trying to do what you guys said works for you, so far I tried it on three different machines and it doesn't work, you all must be misunderstanding what I'm saying or I'm just not being clear enough or maybe you lot are running the beta versions? I only run final versions.

 

I use Firefox primarily, and Safari occasionally.

I use FF as my general all purpose browser. Sometimes if something doesn't load correctly, I'll try it in Safari.

I tried Safari when I first got my MBP and it wouldn't load a lot of web pages. Plus, I knew FF from my PC, so I downloaded the OSX version and was on my way.

I use Safari occasionally when I want to turn on private browsing.

 

For the OS X UI comments, what I mean is that it doesn't conform with all of the other OS X applications, for example open up any or all of the iLife programs, iTunes, iWorks, Finder? Safari

You'll see all edges are curved, brushed look or the newer look we see these days, it also doesn't exactly use 'File Edit View Go Bookmarks Tools Help' across the top like the rest of the applications do. I have seen many other OS X applications that are not from Apple themselves, that conforms to the OS X UI.

Nothing wrong with those other programs at all, but personally when I see something that resembles Windows I start having nightmares coming back. It's bad enough I have to use my PC machine while my MacBook is getting fixed, but my PC machine runs great with no problems considering I spend hours properly setting it up, however when I go on someone elses, it about drives me nuts and I wanna bang my head into a wall for an hour.

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/search.p...&date=null&sort=newest&perpage=10&app=firefox

These are some nice OS X themes for firefox.

 

Just wanted to give everyone heads up that Omnigroup is currently having OmniWeb on sale for $9.99 from the original price of 29.99. Save some big bucks, and use the browser that has many firsts.

 

i use Opera for my web browser. good stuff!

 

Top 10 browsers for mxm-upgrade:

1 Firefox 43.59%
2 Internet Explorer 6.x 33.27%
3 Internet Explorer 7.x 12.95%
4 Opera 4.91%
5 Safari 1.29%
6 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible 0.72%
7 Internet Explorer 5.x 0.55%
8 Mozilla 0.30%
9 Konqueror 0.26%
10 Netscape 7.x 0.22%

 

I believe firefox is the best one out for mac but thats my opinion.

 

Firefox. I just got my new macbook and I'm completely new to apple OS. But I got firefox as I've always used it on Windows and I'm naturally comfy with it. I think it's also better than safari.

 

I use shiira now. It starts up quickly and the tab expose thing is pretty cool. One of the downsides is that it doesn't have a built-in password manager.

 

I say firefox is ok because of the compatability of web pages, but it's still a little buggy for mac. Sometimes it won't close and I have to forcequit. I also find it slower than the other browsers I have.

 

I am an Omniweb ser. I also use Safari and Opera occasionaly. I just cannot get into Firefox. I use Opera on both of my Windows laptops.

 

I use Firefox. Going to try out the other browsers once I get the Macbook.

TLCC: You have the BlackJack?? How is that?

 

I use Safari primarily and Firefox when pages won't open or plugins won't work in Safari. I've found Safari to be the fastest browser I've used(FF, Opera, IE) but it has problems with some web pages so I use FF in those situations.

 

People should really try Shiira. I believe it loads webpages faster than any browser and starts up faster as well. The only problem is that sometimes memory leak gets bad (200-300 mb)

 

Well this thread got me thinkig about Firefox more. I am actually going to probably drop it. Camino uses half the amount of memory of Firefox, is faster, and has the same rendering engine, so it will display the same number sites in the same way. I see no reason for any Mac user to choose Firefox over Camino.

 

Thanks cashmonee, I'll keep that in mind.

 

i'm a safari fan.

but one thing that bugs me about safari is that i can't just click on any image i like and set it as wallpaper (i can do that in firefox).

anyone know why?