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Safari 4: Is It Time To Switch From Firefox?

makeuseof.com — Steve Jobs once said that Microsoft’s products lack “taste”. At the moment, it started a war between Windows and Mac fanboys. But to many people, that statement was justified – OS X was considerably ahead of Windows from a design and usability standpoint.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 27, 2009

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  • smartnerd666, on 06/26/2009, -7/+92Nothing can replace AdBlock Plus and NoScript on Firefox.

    Also, I have a firefox t-shirt so I can't really go around using other browsers.
  • chkdg8, on 06/26/2009, -3/+51Dugg for "Also, I have a firefox t-shirt so I can't really go around using other browsers."
  • bluestatic, on 06/26/2009, -5/+41It's all about the plug-ins. Until Safari has an active community developing high quality plug-ins for it, Firefox will be the choice. I haven't used Safari on my Mac in a long time and so no reason to change.
  • Misterberu, on 06/26/2009, -1/+23I, personally, have been using Firefox for a very long time, and intend to keep doing so. Safari is great, don't get me wrong, and is the second browser of my choice, but its lack of addons and other community developed features is a big loss. It is, on the other hand, much faster than Firefox, and if I may say so myself, much slicker.
    In the end, what it comes down to is the way you see each browser. In my eyes, Safari is a small, red, incredibly fast 2 seater convertible, whereas Firefox is a slightly larger, but much more reliable Sedan; which happens to have a 4 wheel drive and a GPS locator to boot.
    The point? They're both great. Firefox is still better (in my eyes) because of it's abundance of 3rd party customizations. If Safari was to have them, then I see no reason for not switching, but as it stands right now, it barely falls short of becoming the #1 browser out there.
  • Newsdude, on 06/27/2009, -5/+23No Thank you, Tried it, hated it. I'll stick with FF and some really great extensions/addons
  • inactive, on 06/26/2009, -4/+21I'm starting to think so, though I still think the Safari bookmarking facilities suck. It's quick, feels nice to use and I like the jazzed-up web inspector. I've not really used Firefox for day-to-day browsing for two weeks and personally feel a threshold has been crossed in terms of my own browser preference. That said, I'm always going to download and test with Firefox and I'm looking forward to seeing what 3.5 can do!!!

    It's a good thing Apple decided to make their browser a good Windows citizen. When in Rome and all that. That'll certainly make it appeal to Windows users, though the damned thing refuses to run under Windows Server 2003 for me.
  • Rassa, on 06/27/2009, -4/+17Is It Time To Switch From Firefox? No not even close.
  • jcronkhite, on 06/26/2009, -7/+19I've been using Safari on Windows since it was released and honestly it's hard to go back to Firefox. So I downloaded the Firefox RC and it is definitely improved over version 3, but Safari 4 seems still to outperform Firefox. The bookmark management took some time to get use to, but it's really not that bad. And I remember before using it being critical of the coverflow method for history as well. Now I'm eating my words. It is likely that I'll use both browsers. If I'm just surfing around going through my routine then Safari makes this experience better. If I'm doing any web development I'll be in Firefox.

    If you haven't given Safari 4 a chance yet, I think you will be very surprised.
  • klaarn, on 06/27/2009, -3/+13No.
  • jedisushi, on 06/27/2009, -3/+11Bottom line: WebKit is better, faster, and stronger. Go ahead, digg me down.
  • g00dbye, on 06/27/2009, -0/+8I have a pretty good system set up.

    For everyday web surfing: Firefox 3

    For all my porn-related needs: Safari 4 (Erasing history is just SO simple with Safari)
  • Frazzlet, on 06/27/2009, -1/+9Uhm. Does it?
  • Bloyru, on 06/27/2009, -4/+12Short answer: No.
  • colincornaby, on 06/26/2009, -8/+15If you read the article... they explain how you can install AdBlock in Safari.
  • heyimfromreddit, on 06/27/2009, -2/+9Shh... Nobody tell him what Webkit is. It would break his little heart.
  • Trax91, on 06/27/2009, -1/+7Safari sucks for not supporting Addons on the Windows platform. *****!
  • gdenne, on 06/27/2009, -3/+9Waiting for Chrome extensions system...
  • InorganicMatter, on 06/27/2009, -0/+5Meh, Firefox may not be the best, but it's on every platform I use, and I know it's quirks, settings, and shortcuts inside-and-out. No real reason to switch, except for the gimmicky Aero stuff.

    By the way, all you Chrome fans who keep saying "wait for Chrome to get a proper extension system" need to cool it. If you think Google's (an advertising company) is going to let you use their product to block ads, you're out of your mind.
  • djdigital, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5http://burgersoftware.com/en/safariadblock

    http://pimpmysafari.com/
  • Staggx, on 06/27/2009, -0/+4Safari needs the add-on support, then it'll be a more worthy opponent.
  • indochris609, on 06/27/2009, -3/+7Nope.
  • mrsteveman1, on 06/27/2009, -0/+4Which one would you rather screw, the fat chick who had "work done", or paris hilton? I can't actually answer that one :)
  • Wuss, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5Still can't do without All in One Gestures and Google Bookmarks.

    Currently experimenting with Xmarks and Safari Gestures (SIMBL plugin). Safari Gestures does about 90% of what I used All in One for, and xmarks seems to be working okay.

    FF 3 is feeling really slow lately. 3.5 definitely faster, but no all in one support. =(
  • heyimfromreddit, on 06/27/2009, -5/+9People (elitist nerds) will hate Safari just because its made by Apple and won't even give it a chance. Pretty pathetic to be honest.
    Safari 3 on Windows wasn't very good though.
  • trentshipp, on 06/27/2009, -6/+10Woah, woah... os x WAS ahead of Windows? Try again.
  • NetJunkie, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5I'm trying to get off FireFox to something else..but it's tough. Right now I'm using Safari 4 (on OSX). My problem with FireFox is CPU use. With the same 8 tabs open FireFox idles at 10% - 15% CPU use. Safari is doing 5% or less. That's a big deal when I'm trying to get the best battery life out of my system.
  • migatikon, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5Dugg for greasemonkey.
  • jugglingjon, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3For Safari to compete against Firefox to be my default browser, it would need a thriving extensions community, and to let me close tabs with middle click. But even then, they would just be getting to a level playing field.

    However, I am a prolific web user who uses a lot of extensions for work. Safari 4 would be a great option for casual web users changing from IE7-IE6; but then again, that is the demographic least likely to change to an alternative browser in the first place.

    Firefox won't lose any market share to this, it's too under featured for the types of users who use Firefox, or at least the ones who have been using Firefox for a while. It's better suited for IE users.
  • MattBD, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3Dugg. While the Unix permissions system means that in many ways OS X is more secure than Windows, Apple seem to take this for granted, in a way that suggests to me that one day they'll be hit hard when a vulnerability in OS X is really exploited. Take that Java vulnerability that took months to patch, for instance, long after every other OS had patched it.
    Put it this way, most Linux distros patch vulnerabilities like that in a few days, sometimes even hours, often without paid employees to do the work, and Linux also has the Unix permissions system. Most distros don't take security for granted the way Apple do (though, to be fair, many end users do).
    And every year in Pwn2Own, what computer is usually the first to fall? Yes, the Mac! In fact, I believe this year it was done in ten seconds flat. Now, is that secure?
  • Daveecee, on 06/27/2009, -1/+4Office 2007? Easy to use? Sorry buddy but you're definitely wrong there. I work in tech support and it amazes me how many questions I get about Office 2007. That MS Office button in the upper left is definitely not an intuitive solution for a menu bar.
  • Julian88888888, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3its true.
  • crimsonredmk, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3Edit: Nevermind.
  • mrsteveman1, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3You forgot harder.
  • getoffmybridge, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3"Microsoft Windows 7: That fat chick just suddenly got hot."

    lol
  • nunofgs, on 06/27/2009, -0/+3It's already been done. It was one of the very first extensions (adsweep.org)
  • heyimfromreddit, on 06/27/2009, -1/+4This article is about a browser, Cole.
  • FyberOptic, on 06/27/2009, -2/+4Sure, if security isn't a concern for you whatsoever, then feel free to use Apple products. Cause it's been proven time and time again that Apple's security practices are years behind Microsoft. I don't even keep Quicktime on my PC anymore, just because it's been used to hijack computers so many times in the past, regardless of the browser the person used.
  • Canadian0207, on 06/27/2009, -0/+2rofl!
  • inactive, on 06/27/2009, -5/+7the only thing Apple can learn from MS is how NOT to do things.
  • Smilodon, on 06/27/2009, -0/+2Firefox is open source, built by people who just want to make a decent browser. Safari is proprietary, built by a company that has its own goals and purposes. If I wanted a proprietary browser I'd still be using Internet Explorer.
  • fasda, on 06/27/2009, -1/+3it could learn that 8gb of ram doesn't cost 1100$.
  • footbag01, on 06/27/2009, -1/+3I wouldn't need a reason to lose IE, but I need a good reason to ditch Firefox.
  • srirock303, on 06/27/2009, -1/+3is it time to get bent?
  • kitsua, on 06/27/2009, -0/+2Exactly the same setup here. Firefox for everyday browsing, addons and all. Safari with Private Browsing for fap-time.

    Still, I do find Firefox to be slower and less responsive than Safari in general, what with all the additions I have to the former. Plus, there's an annoying habit on Digg whereby a page that's open for too long will give me a 'token appears invalid' error if I try to digg a story or comment. It happens 100% of the time now and it's most vexing.
  • wastern, on 06/28/2009, -0/+2If you were serious about RSS you'd be using a real RSS reader
  • darienphoenix, on 06/27/2009, -4/+6***** NoScript, seriously.
  • swimtwobirds, on 06/27/2009, -3/+5also greasemonkey. also live bookmarks for the rss feeds. safari 4 is noticeably faster alright, but, well, no.
  • getoffmybridge, on 06/27/2009, -1/+3Yep Vista 64 is great, Win 7 64 is even better
  • jordanlgta, on 06/27/2009, -1/+3No.
  • cfuse, on 06/28/2009, -0/+2Right about now I'm extra happy that I'm gay.
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