[yo-mike]

What's your favorite web browser for Mac and why? Pros and cons please.
Thanks!

[teflon]

Webkit with Saft.
Simply, its fast and very OSX. Its the latest build of Safari, and 99.9% of the time runs perfectly. with the Saft add-on, you get a lot more control over adverts, and the ability to launch the previously open tabs upon restarting from a quit or a crash.
Firefox isnt as fast, renders some things differently/badly, and the interface clashes with Aqua.
Whilst Camino gives you a nicer interface, I cant get past the pastel colours etc. etc. and its not as expandable as FF.
Shiira could have been good, and had lots of good ideas in v1, but killed itself going to v2, unfortunately.

and thats all Ive bothered to try/use.
Incidentally, WebKit just recently became the first browser to hit 100/100 on the acid3 test. Current release Safari hits 71/100. whilst FF3 hits 75/100 (or something along those lines). IE8 gets 21/100.

[Eric5h5]

teflon, on September 28th 2008, 01:48 PM, said:

with the Saft add-on, you get a lot more control over adverts, and the ability to launch the previously open tabs upon restarting from a quit or a crash.

Safari does that even without Saft.

--Eric

[teflon]

does it?
ive been using Saft for years, so that addition must have passed me by.
Is it only after a crash? or is it after quitting aswell?

[Eric5h5]

Yeah, both. History -> Reopen All Windows From Last Session. For "windows" read "tabs" as well. Not sure when they added that...3.0 maybe?

--Eric

[teflon]

oh right! I thought that was Saft, cos thats been saving and re-opening my windows forever.
You can, with saft, save a browser window to return to a train of browsing at a later time instead of having that window hanging around all the time. Useful for research.

[Tesseract]

OmniWeb. Pros: Has workspaces, nice ad blocking, bookmark change checking, per-site preferences (including cookies, JS and user-agent spoofing), thumbnail previews on tabs, customisable keyword shortcuts, and probably a bunch of other great stuff that I forget about until I try to use a different browser. Cons: costs money, not as extensible as FF.

Firefox is also pretty good these days with a carefully selected set of add-ons.

[Mr. Selvetarm]

I used to love opera, but have grown in love with FF3 after I became an alpha tester. I used Adblock Plus, Firgestures ( You make little drawings on the screen that perform functions, like- up then down = refresh) With the right set of addons FF3 can more then stand its ground against the likes of Safari and Chrome.

[yo-mike]

Mr. Selvetarm, on September 29th 2008, 08:26 PM, said:

I used to love opera, but have grown in love with FF3 after I became an alpha tester. I used Adblock Plus, Firgestures ( You make little drawings on the screen that perform functions, like- up then down = refresh) With the right set of addons FF3 can more then stand its ground against the likes of Safari and Chrome.

That's cool you became an alhpa tester for FF3! We need people like you, thank you!

What about SeaMonkey?
(I can't get away from liking it the best personally.) Also the new iCab is very surprisingly
fast! I've grown tired of the aluminum Safari layout. It's fast and pretty stable though.

Also, I've been setting up Thunderbird e-mail client - very fast!

[yo-mike]

Hey!
There's also pimped G4, G3, Intel optimized Mozilla Apps here!!!

[Buzz Bumble]

Since I'm still using Mac OS 9, I'm stuck with AWFUL Microsloth Internet Exploiter as the fastest browser and I use iCab for website layouts that Exploiter completely fails to render.

[yo-mike]

Buzz Bumble, on September 30th 2008, 01:35 AM, said:

Since I'm still using Mac OS 9, I'm stuck with AWFUL Microsloth Internet Exploiter as the fastest browser and I use iCab for website layouts that Exploiter completely fails to render.

****RETRO ALERT!***

Hi Buzz,

I think one of the best browsers Mac OS 9ers recommend is http://wamcom.org/latest-131/
Otherwise IE, iCab or Netscape. There might be some old Opera downloads out there too. Some still swear by the last IE for OS 9.

Good luck!
Mac OS 9 never died. It just locks up once in a while, or you need to tweek the Extensions Manager.

There's still a lot of support for Mac OS 9 users - Google Groups courtesy of lowendmac.com, OS 9 forever on Macsales.com website link, (paid membership) Apple discussions, and many sites online.

[Tetsuya]

i just recently started using FF3 over Safari; i'm not sure what the earlier comment of a "bad UI that clashes with Aqua" is about - other than the Bookmark Bar looking a little different and some minor stylistic stuff like an actual progress bar on the bottom bar, and the Forward/Back buttons being different sizes, it looks *identical* to Safari and loads pages on my connection *easily* twice as fast. Oh, and it cross-polinates bookmarks with Safari, so when i started FF3 for the first time all of my bookmarks were right where i expected them to be in the same folders on the Bookmark bar and in the Bookmark menu. And when i occasionally need to use Safari for something, any new bookmarks ive made are in Safari already. Good stuff.

I'm always open to other suggestions though.

Is Webkit a separate browser or just the most-up-to-date developer version of Safari?

[Tesseract]

Tetsuya, on October 1st 2008, 05:25 AM, said:

Is Webkit a separate browser or just the most-up-to-date developer version of Safari?

Neither. A WebKit nightly build is just the engine, it runs within your currently installed Safari app.

[Siriusfox]

Webkit + Inquisitor

Pros: VERY Fast, Full Acid3 support, very good CSS3 support, built in development tools.
Cons: Minimal plugin lists, somewhat high memory consumption if not relaunched every couple of hours.

For a while I ran with a Safari Tidy Validator plugin that worked like the one on Firefox, but it makes Webkit very unstable, so I stopped using it. Once the next Safari release comes out I'll probably stop using Webkit, but for now I'll stick with the Development.

[Buzz Bumble]

yo-mike, on September 30th 2008, 05:45 PM, said:

****RETRO ALERT!***

Hi Buzz,

I think one of the best browsers Mac OS 9ers recommend is http://wamcom.org/latest-131/
Otherwise IE, iCab or Netscape. There might be some old Opera downloads out there too. Some still swear by the last IE for OS 9.

Good luck! Mac OS 9 never died. It just locks up once in a while, or you need to tweek the Extensions Manager.

Thanks for the link. I'll take a look there at the weekend when I have more online time (I'm also still on a dial-up connection because so-called broadband here is too expensive, too slow, and has silly data limits).

When it isn't crashing or freezing, Exploiter is fast since it renders as it goes, meaning I can read the text while it's still downloading images. iCab on the other hand tends to download everything and then render it, makig it seem a lot slower. Netscape is a piece of garbage - it forgets my settings EVERY time and doesn't work properly on the rare occassions I managed to get it to even run.

I've never had much of a problem with Mac OS 9 or 8 or even 7. In fact almost all the problems I do have can be traced to hopeless Microsoft applications like Exploiter and Orriface. Microsoft simply don't know how to program, let alone program a Mac. This beige G3 PowerMac was bought brand new and has lasted me 10 years so far. The original Apple screen died and the scanner bulb is dead (and I'm not sure how many mice I've replaced), but the computer is fine and used every day for both leisure and running my own Mac IT / DTP business ... try running any version of InDesign on a 10 year old Windoze PC!

[yo-mike]

Buzz Bumble, on October 1st 2008, 02:02 AM, said:

When it isn't crashing or freezing, Exploiter is fast since it renders as it goes, meaning I can read the text while it's still downloading images. iCab on the other hand tends to download everything and then render it, makig it seem a lot slower. Netscape is a piece of garbage - it forgets my settings EVERY time and doesn't work properly on the rare occassions I managed to get it to even run.

IE explorer for OS 9 is quite dated, as you know. iCab on the other hand was just updated for Mac OS X only,
and it happens to be quite a well built browser, aside from the annoying 'but me now balloney pop up window' You might still be able to register it. E-mail the developer if you're interested for full featured iCab for OS 9. Try also increasing the memory allocation for your browsers to 3X's what is recommended. And disable Extensions in Extensions Manager you don't need on.

Quote

I've never had much of a problem with Mac OS 9 or 8 or even 7. In fact almost all the problems I do have can be traced to hopeless Microsoft applications like Exploiter and Orriface. Microsoft simply don't know how to program, let alone program a Mac. This beige G3 PowerMac was bought brand new and has lasted me 10 years so far. The original Apple screen died and the scanner bulb is dead (and I'm not sure how many mice I've replaced), but the computer is fine and used every day for both leisure and running my own Mac IT / DTP business ... try running any version of InDesign on a 10 year old Windoze PC!

The only other e-mail client for OS 9 I might recommend is Claris e-mailer.

I'm not being rude, but you may wany to reconsider Apple's relationship with Microsoft or whatever you may call them. They (Apple and Microsoft) actually have been working together for quite some time and Steve and Bill have been business partners since way back. You'd think most people would get this by now.

Consider Microsoft Office test drive is included with new Macs and AppleWorks discontinued.
What about IE for Mac discontinued and Safari for Windows?

Hmm, coinsidence or planned? There's no mistaking there's been a close alliance between Apple and
MicroSoft. iCon Steve Jobs PDF Direct Download sample.
You should also see Pirates of Silicon Valley
Cheers!

[Eric5h5]

yo-mike, on October 2nd 2008, 03:28 AM, said:

Consider Microsoft Office test drive is included with new Macs and AppleWorks discontinued.

Apple makes iWork now.

Quote

You should also see Pirates of Silicon Valley

That's a fictionalized account, made to be entertaining...it's not reality....

--Eric

[Janichsan]

yo-mike, on October 2nd 2008, 09:28 AM, said:

I'm not being rude, but you may wany to reconsider Apple's relationship with Microsoft or whatever you may call them. They (Apple and Microsoft) actually have been working together for quite some time and Steve and Bill have been business partners since way back. You'd think most people would get this by now.

Consider Microsoft Office test drive is included with new Macs and AppleWorks discontinued.
What about IE for Mac discontinued and Safari for Windows?

Hmm, coinsidence or planned? There's no mistaking there's been a close alliance between Apple and
MicroSoft. iCon Steve Jobs PDF Direct Download sample.
You should also see Pirates of Silicon Valley
Cheers!

This derails the thread a bit, but nevertheless, this has to be corrected: While it's certainly true that Microsoft has a long history of support for the Mac (Word and Excel were originally Mac programs), you can hardly say that their relation can be called "cordially" or even just "good". Funny that you mention Pirates of Silicon Valley on that regard, since it clearly depicts that. Apple's and Microsoft's cooperation announced in 1997 was a necessary evil to save Apple at this point. Apple needed money, Microsoft could provide it. Since then, Apple has done a lot to be a thorn in Microsoft's side. And that Microsoft sees Apple as a danger for its market share has only been proven recently by Steve Ballmer's attempt to play Apple's success down.

The IE for Mac didn't die because of Safari. Well, Safari was the last nail to its coffin, but it hadn't been updated before Safari's release for a long time. Safari for Windows is definitely no sign of a good relationship between MS and Apple - quite contrary. It's aimed to steal market share from Microsoft's IE.

And last but not least: while it's certainly true that a test version of MS Office is provided with every Mac, so is a test version of Apple's iWork suite. Regardless if you like it or not: MS Office is the standard for office applications and Apple has to show off that it's also available for Mac. However, at the same time they want to show that most consumers would be better off with iWork. Especially - and you can hardly deny that - since Office 2008 for Mac is steaming pile of utter crap: it's slow, unstable and bug-infested. So much for Microsoft's ability to develop good software for the Mac.

[J'nathus]

Buzz Bumble, on September 30th 2008, 01:35 AM, said:

Since I'm still using Mac OS 9, I'm stuck with AWFUL Microsloth Internet Exploiter as the fastest browser and I use iCab for website layouts that Exploiter completely fails to render.

Excuse me?

Exploiter?

Is that some kind of slam on Microsoft!?!?!?

Well, you're wrong.

It's "EXPLODER!" Get it right!