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50 Comments
- Kalluas, on 10/12/2007, -8/+38You can do what this guy said or you can just use camino.
http://www.caminobrowser.org/ - Nahor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+25Last time I checked Camino didn't support plugins which is the only selling point for firefox above Safari for me. Camino looks and fits in better, but without plugin suppor it's useless.
- Bhima, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I use Camino & Cami-Tools... with Cami-Tools you get add and flash blocking which is nearly as effective as what is available with firefox.
I just wish the project would move along a little faster... - velox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@MILE089:
Camino is more "Mac-like" because it uses Mac OS's Aqua UI instead of Firefox's XUL-based interface. It also uses the Keychain for password storage and Bonjour for finding bookmarks of other users on the network. It's a really great program. I suggest checking it out. It may not have the AdBlock plugin but CamiTools works decently at doing the same thing. - pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I'm pretty sure Camino doesn't support AdBlock + Filterset G
- the_snitch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5camino's a cocoa app whereas firefox is written in XUL so that the plugins work cross-platform. Noticed how ugly the buttons are, and how slow the window redrawing is in Firefox? Its all native and much better in Camino, but still uses the Mozilla engine to render sites.
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4No but if you have a PowerPC Mac mini then Camino is a god send. When I'm not developing I don't want to wait around for FF to open.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4For Firefox lovers who feel the browser is just not up to scratch on the mac, but can't live without plugins, check out the Safari plugin site:
http://pimpmysafari.com/ - cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Opera has way more problems than Firefox OR Safari when it comes to rendering pages. It's not faster than Camino, and it doesn't really give you any features above or beyond Camino. Opera isn't a BAD browser... but it really isn't that good. Opera fanboys are almost as bad as Apple fanboys (not all mac users, but 'Apple Fanboys') when it comes to claiming what they use is the best even when they have no idea how, why or if what they're saying is even true. Say you like it better, not that it renders better than Gecko. One of those statements I can prove wrong...
- vonnie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Opera isn't very mac like either, and what is worse, it isn't so easily fixed by a plugin. To give only one example: it doesn't use the default url-helpers defined in osx. So you can go ahead and configure Mail for your mail, Transmit for ftp, itms, x-yojimbo,... That could be bearable if opera 9 wasn't so damn buggy in this department.
I'd rather use Safari. If I would want more features, I would use OmniWeb. But I don't. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My top three grips with Firefox on OS X:
1. Download behavior: Firefox and Camino still add filetype and creator metadata to downloaded files. That's the old behavior from Classic Mac OS, which didn't use extensions to associate documents with applications. That wouldn't be much of a problem except that it gets the association wrong too much of the time; Zip files from Firefox always open Stuffit Expander instead of Finder, and too often DMG or other files will be associated with some mysterious Hex Editor application rather than their real applications. This problem would be solved if they would stop setting the filetype metadata altogether and rely on the file extension. This is what Safari does, apparently, and it's the way it is supposed to be done on OS X.
2. Smooth trackpad/MightyMouse scrolling: Firefox and Camino don't do smooth scrolling like other OS X applications. I've been following the bug about this and a fix is about to be checked-in, so with any luck Firefox 2.0 will have finally smooth scrolling support.
3. New windows always open partly underneath the Dock or the bottom of the screen.
Lots of little polish issues, too, but those are the major issues that keep me in Safari most of the time. Nonetheless, Firefox 2.0 is a great improvement over previous versions as far as performance is concerned; they modernized the GUI event handling (no more click-and-hold CPU ramping) which provides a noticeable improvement. Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 was just released (http://developer.mozilla.org/) and it's definitely worth checking out if you use Firefox 1.5 at all. - cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Kalluas, read the end of the article. It mentions Camino if Firefox still doesn't satisfy your Mac browser wants.
- Loonacy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4.....
If Opera "beats firefix[sic] hands down" then why aren't more people downloading it?
I'm not really against Opera, but your logic just makes no sense to me. - cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That's why GrApple has about 10 other styles to choose from.
- Visceral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Weird, says it would cause problems with Linux or windows, but I tried it out with Ubuntu and the themes look fine so far.
- cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Too bad the CamiTools project is dead now. That's the only thing which kept me with Camino.
http://www.nadamac.de/index.php - Septimus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I keep trying Camino and Firefox on OSX, but always go back to Safari. Not 100% sure why, but it feels faster and more secure.
That and Firefox takes an age to load on OSX in comparison to Camino/Safari. - mackoid101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Incredible! I love my browser now!
- kiddailey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ASP code runs on the server, not in your browser. If you're having problems with ASP pages in Safari, it's probably because the server is misconfigured or the code is written poorly.
- ninjakoala, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've tried to like Firefox, but it's not really the interface that has stopped me. Rather it's been the speed (it's slower than both Safari 2 and Opera 9 even in the cpu-specific builds) and I haven't been able to find a session handler that works as it should for Firefox (like how Opera's handler works).
I pretty much only fire up firefox if I need Rikaichan or if I feel like stumbling. The rest of the time Safari and Opera with select extensions (the latter from userjs.org) are what usually runs on my machine. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2FYI:
1) Don't set type/creator codes: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=236389
2) Handle smooth mousewheel: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=319078
3) New Window Cascade problem: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=340206 - bouncebounce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Safari has a bunch of holes in it when it comes to CSS and JavaScript although it is improving. It's all well and good boasting about how Safari handles Acid2 but it still can't render table captions properly. Fix the basics for real web desingers before going for the headlines to please the blog crowd.
- celopes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Do they teach how to fix the memory leaks that make firefox useless in the Mac? You know, the ones that make Firefox freeze for no reason and die with no warning, not to mention run slow as hell?
No?
OK, I'll stick to Camino. Even without the spell checking of forms... - SpookyET, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Linus is in the same boat. Every OS other than Windows is in the same boat. I'm wondering if anybody did the same stuff for ClearLooks (gnome theme).
- wild, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11.) I don't have that problem ever. It may be your Mac's default app settings?
2.) Yea, ok, this is true
3.) Again, that is probably your Mac or where you set your main browser window. I don't have the issue.
I have three different Macs I use daily (two dfferent towers and a 15 inch Powerbook), and none of them have the first and third issue you speak of. - ahmerhussain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11) Install Camino
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2because Opera bloated itself up and became a leetest browser with a high learning curve. i used to until version 6 or something when it got all heavy. i trashed it after that, it used too many resources
why they don't use it now is the radical interface design, it doesn't really "fit in" with anything. it takes a while to learn and always looks out of place - liveinabin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just downloaded the G5 build of Firefox (as linked above). It's perfect. I was trying to get my wife to stop using Firefox (as it was a huge memory hog and made the fans go mental when she had it open on her desktop) but this is fixed. It even has the nice shiny aqua buttons on Google.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't understand the whole "Firefox is so slow" argument. I use Firefox (non-optimized) on a G4 and it doesn't seem all that slow to me...
- cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Fivefox 2.0 will have that. The current beta already has spell checking working.
- rasterbator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I am currently using Firefox 2 beta (even though I miss my plug-ins) and Camino (with CamiTools), and rarely use Safari any more. If Firefox will become a Cocoa app, then I will stick with it from now on.
The problem I have with Safari is ASP pages don't work. They seem to work in Firefox, but sometime IE for Mac 4.5 is the only thing that renders the code properly (because the code for our internal system is written for PC users). - cavemonkey50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't see what you're talking about. I think that bug was fixed a long time ago.
- MILE089, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well, after my comment got buried by all you Camino fans I did try it out for a day, but I still couldn't get myself to like it...although I do admit that in some ways I now do prefer it over Firefox...! Which I never really got to like anyway...
But while checking out all the current browser options I stumbled over the newest version of Flock...and I must say it's really improved...!! I was quite surprised but I am actually considering making it my favourite browser...! There's still some work the devs have to do, but it's pretty good already and I like the 'look and feel' of it a lot, as well as the functionality it already has...! So do yourself a favour, guys -- and check it out if you haven't: http://www.flock.com/ -- you can thank me later! ;-) - Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Good tips! Really much more Mac-like & readable. Tab-X, no more menu to close a tab. AHhhh.
- Works4Jah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the only thing stopping me from using firefox over safari is the ability to turn on spell checking in text boxes within safari. if firefox had that option, id switch in a second. im a horrible speller, and safari corrects all that for me.
- maximusGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1X Tab wont work with anything older than 1.5
- starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i keep firefox around. i have been doing what he suggests for a long time. i get the PPC builds. it does make it better. i don't notice that its slower really -at least the speed isn't an issue with me. i think the problems are more basic. i think that non mac people have a difficult time understanding what the problem is. its not about looks. its abuot functionality.
its entire existance apple has been concerned with human factors and GUI. typically non mac people beleive that more options mean better UI. not true. many options are just not worth cluttering up the UI with because the choices are obvious so they are just better handled by the OS transparently behind the scenes.
there might be better examples but one example that seems to come up a lot is this window resizing deal. on a mac the bottom right is where you grab to resize the window. some would like to be able to grab right, grab left, grab... grab... what that does is add 3? 4? more UI elements to deal with. each of these places to grab has the potential sit close to another UI element. when that happens you can click to resize a window and have something else happen that you need to undo... apples solution is to make sizing windows more automatic and clearly defining one place to grab. more options doesn't equate to more useability. in fact most of the time its probably the opposite. if you maximize the number of UI elements across the entire OS it creates huge number of potential decisions that don't actually add to useability.
firefox needs to pay attention to apples UI guidlines. they are well thought out for the most part... and apple has been doing it for a lot of years.
as far as my preference of browser... the main one i use is shiira. it uses webkit and really feels like safari with a few more features. for safari i use nightshift to keep the webkit current. i've found that i like flock better than firefox. - vrtulobjeq, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Essentially two important features missing in Firefox
i. A text size increaser/decreaser icon/button
2. An archive space for bookmarks
Other than that a very quick tool. - NeoRicen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Just get Camino, it's basically Firefox for Mac but lacks the extensions, however some people need them, for others like me Camino is the way to go.
- jumpingjohn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't use Firefox cause it sucks up too much of the CPU.
Just open up activity monitor Firefox side by side. Click and hold the mouse inside of the browser and watch your CPU usage. It flat lines at 100%. Maybe that's just some weird bug, but Safari still runs faster. - c1t0d0s0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Shiira also is nice.
http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/en - mikev, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Too bad UNO has ugly corners...
- Eldoo77, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I completely agree. All Four of you Opera users really have the best browser in the world!
- succhi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0One thing that does bug me with Firefox on the mac is that it doesn't utilise the network locations settings in the system preferences. I move between different networks with different settings and proxies etc and love how the mac has one place for this in the network locations. But firefox doesn't look at it, instead you need to use a plug-in which isn't too bad but still requires that I remember when a page is not showing up that I hadn't switched inside Firefox as well.
- dloko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I would recommend getting Tab Mix Plus instead of Tab X, but for the rest this little how-to adds a nice touch to Firefox for Mac. I personally just love the extensions and the fact Firefox has a lot of support from websites these days, as opposed to Safari and Camino.
- hrmpw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This might be a little late to the game here but I just posted a workaround for the cascading window problem with Firefox on MozillaZine forums.
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=2554810
Some basic UserChrome.js code that will nullify the cascade of Firefox. Enjoy. - MILE089, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1And just what is it that would make Camino any kind of "Mac-like" anyway...?! The only real browser for the Mac is Safari and from my point of view it's still the best when you look at it from all sides...!! Unfortunately some sites I use contain WYSIWYG editing features that only FF seems to support in full range, so I'm stuck with it...even though I'd love to use Safari 24/7...! But since I don't like switching between browsers I kind of of got used to FF...but my heart still belongs to Safari...! ;-)
- the_snitch, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2durp durp de durp de durpedy dumb.
- Switch22, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Make your macintosh mac look more like most macintosh mac macs that look like macs look like macs.
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