Mac OS X forum: Firefox vs Safari

I keep them both on my computers (Intel PowerBook & G5 Desktop). In checking the speed of both they are so close it does not make much difference. It seems Firefox has more goodies and updates more often. On a rare occasion I will find a site that will not work with one browser but will with another. Unless you are short on space why not keep them both. It is easy enough to sync the bookmarks. Actually I have Omniweb also. They are all free. What ever makes you the most happy.

I like the look and feel of Safari better, and it seems to load faster, but I still use Firefox almost exclusively now. Mainly because a few of the sites I need don't work with Safari, like Outlook Web Access for work email and Gmail (yes I know Gmail now supports Safari, but only with the OS 10.3 version, and I'm still on 10.2.8).

Is there a way to import Safari bookmarks into Firefox? I only see IE bookmarks.

If not, does Camino allow importing from Safari?

Jim

I was a fan of the Safari browser. However my experience of the product has been somewhat soured after I installed the 10.3.7 update. Problem have occurred across my candy coloured DV iMac, G4 Cube and iBook G3 (800combo).

Problem seems to be that in a while (a very short one!) Safari loads the Apple pages (and some others) fine then for no apparent reason I find pages can no longer be loaded unless I do the following.

I have cleared the cache, reset safari, removed cookies, and cleared the Java caches.

Immediately after these remedies normal functionality is resored only to find later the fault reoccurs.

The problem is worse with my iMac which whilst only a 400Mhz G3 worked fine prior to the 10.3.7 update. Computer freezes also occur with Safari.

As for Firefox well it works but it is nowhere as fast as some claim it to be.

As a last resort I reinstalled my Netscape 7.1 and here are my results.

I access the BBC News wesite a lot and I notice that it always was loading slow on IE and Safari. However this is not the case with Netscape 7.1 (see tests below)

BBC News site load times test (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/ )

Safari 40 seconds

Netscape 7.1 6 seconds

Come on Apple you say Safari is the fastest browser - all I can say is "No Way"

A onetime "Safari" fan

Be interested in your settings.

Just retested it on my G4 800 Mhz (2Mb cache) and 1.5GB Cube and Safari is still slow - a lot slower than Netscape and certainly nowhere near the 3 sec mark (not if you wait for all the page images to load).

I use 10.3.7 and Safari 1.2.4 and I access the internet using 512 Broadband.

As you mentioned you visit this page all of the time. In order to get accurate comparisons you would need to clear your cache each time prior to testing.

Hmmm,just went to the BBC link for the first time using Firefox (with Google accelerator) running XP on a boot camped Intel Mac. Load time was so fast it was instantaneous. Connection made from west coast.

Can't load my banking page with either browser and have to revert to IE7 for for pages to display. Bank tells me their system is optimized for Windows users as that is predominant browser. What is really strange is that my favorite local radio station requires that I log on as a Mac user even though I'm running XP on a boot camped machine.
Firefox runs just as well in OS X, but without a printer driver for my Lexmark printer I gotta use XP to print monthly statement and make payments.

I have used Firefox for some time now and really loved it. Unfortunately, they did something to the way one can create and file bookmarks where you can't file them as you want any longer. I like the flexibility Safari has with bookmarks and have returned home.

I have a iMac 10OS and my safari browser has disappeared. How do I retreive it? My mac is a 10.4.2

I started using Firefox about two weeks ago, after Safari started repeatedly crashing on me. Firefox seems to load faster (G-4 desktop, OS 10.3.7), and no more crashing browser.

The only thing I DON'T like is that the scrollbar on the right has no arrows, and you have to guess where the up/down arrows are...I looked in preferences to try to fix that, but can't find a place to change it. Anybody else know of one?

I haven't heard of a crashing problem with Safari or the no scrolling arrows problem with Firefox and I subscribe to a list of power users.

I think you should repair permissions (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/select the volume that your browser is installed on) then reinstall Safari and Firefox.

Have you changed your Firefox theme? I did and when I did I lost my arrows. You might try resetting your Firefox browser theme back to the default theme and your arrows should come back. I think many of the themes were designed for Windows and don't quite jive with the MacOS. Good luck and happy browsing!

hmm main differences are that Safari uses Khtml for its backend html and firefox uses Gecko

Gecko is more developed than khtml at the moment but Safari is more intergrated into the MACOSX system

I use Firefox almost exclusively, although I do like Safari, and only use Safari when testing web pages. My reason for this is simple: I use both Mac's and Windows machines on a regular basis, and I like having the same browser regardless of which OS I'm currently using. I have the same extensions installed, as well.

Speaking of extensions, there's another reason I prefer the 'Fox. I can't live without the Web Developer Toolbar, GmailIT, TinyURL Creator, etc...