Top 10 reasons I'm still using Firefox instead of Safari

With Apple's recent release of the Safari 3 beta, I decided to spend a week with Safari and see if I could make the switch. As much as I love Firefox, there some great, elegant touches in Safari that I miss from time to time. Plus, you can easily sync your Safari bookmarks with the iPhone, another nice incentive.

The result? Safari 3 is a really good browser. It is super-fast in my experience and a pleasure to use. There are definitely some bugs that cause a few sites to crash the browser, but I assume the final version released in October with Leopard will address those. Nevertheless, after a week, I'm back to Firefox. Here's why:

10. After all these years, simple web features such as the TypePad HTML toolbar still don't work in Safari due to JavaScript issues.

9. Safari only allows you to pick software on your hard drive to manage RSS feeds, whereas Firefox allows you to choose Google Reader and other web-based tools.

8. Google Docs doesn't officially support Safari and it shows.

7. In Firefox's preferences, you can turn on the ability to start searching the page as soon as you start typing (and you're not in a form field). It not only saves a keystroke, but it's really fast and gets you want you want immediately. Safari's new Find is a big improvement, but still not as dead simple.

6. Firefox offers easy bookmark syncing between different computers through Foxmarks or Google Browser Sync. Apple wants you to subscribe to .Mac for the same ability.

5. You can block nearly every ad in the world with Adblock and the Filterset.G Update (thanks, Brad!). By default, Safari blocks no ads on pages and doesn't even consistently block all pop-ups. Sites that were usable in Firefox are nothing more than living, moving billboards in Safari.

4. The del.icio.us Firefox extension that allows you to add bookmarks directly to del.icio.us from the browser is sweet.

3. The outstanding Google chat option in Gmail isn't available in Safari. It would nice if Google would make that clear as it can take a long time to figure out why you don't have the "Standard with Chat" option in Gmail on Safari.

2. Firefox has great session restore, so if the browser does crash or get closed suddenly, you can often get right back to where you were.

1. If you work with the web for a living, there are many Firefox extensions that are essential, especially Web Developer and Firebug. Other favorites include MeasureIt, ColorZilla and QuickProxy.

There are hundreds more terrific extensions that can make Firefox do just about anything you want and nearly all work on both Macs and PC's. If your primary browser is still Safari or IE7, Firefox is worth a try.

Comments

[Rick]

No question, Brian, Firefox is leaving everybody else in the dust right now. And mostly for the reasons you mentioned. Also, I use the Google Notebook for quick access from my browser. I end up using that a LOT more than I ever thought I would. Too much good stuff to mention here.

[Diabolic Preacher]

some comparisons are majorly based on convenience here like points 9 and 4 in the article. most sites provide bookmarklets for the bookmark toolbar and once if the place gets filled up, you can save on space by creating folders within which you store the bookmarklets on the toolbar. extensions i feel make the browser bloated and slow...so its preferable to use bookmarklets.
i don't understand how foxmarks or google browser sync becomes easier or more advantageous to use than a .mac subscription. is the latter not free or something? or is apple evil?
3. what about the flash version of google talk? the googletalk gadget. see http://pintooo15.livejournal.com/87353.html
1. is safari or for that matter almost any of apple products ever for developers or the geeks amongst us?

btw you need to mention the session restore comes by default only from firefox 2 onwards.

[Brian Bailey]

Rick: I still haven't used Google Notebook, for some strange reason. I'll try it shortly.

Preacher: Lots of good points. I assumed that many of these tasks could be accomplished by other means. Thanks for passing them along.

Yes, the browser/bookmark sync options for Firefox are free - I love Apple and give them way more money than I should :)

Google Talk is a good alternative, but I love chat directly within Gmail.

You're right, I am a web geek. These were my reasons, but the typical user could be very happy with Safari (and I use it often). On the other hand, sites like TypePad are actually harder to use in Safari.

My experiment was to see if Safari could be my full-time browser, which is what I'd prefer.

[Diabolic Preacher]

i am trying my hands on k-meleon, these days. its a kind of barebones gecko based browser. experimenting with it to see how many extensions i actually just can't live without.

btw have you tried firebug with yslow?

let's just keep off sufferi.

p.s. you got an iPhone, or did you just mention that advantage off the safari website? :D

[Diabolic Preacher]

oops...found out you did get a iPhone.

[Neil Anderson]

Even though I'm quite happy with Safari, you give valid reasons for your browser choice.

[AstroMacMan]

I've abandoned Firefox... it just became sluggish... even with the Network Tweaks.

Safari 3 is a winner-- much faster, more responsive, can move tabs all around, and has the automatic find function now, too.

The only thing I miss is the tab icon, to automatically open a tab with one quick click. But I can live without it!

[Tom]

Great article. I published a review of Safari 3.0 on XP, and the comparisons I make are to Firefox. I agree with your analysis.

There are a lot of "goods" about Safari but, sadly, the "bads" I listed are still there as well. Apple's three updates so far have focused on security issues, not adding features or addressing shortcomings. It's been nearly two months now and I think it's time Apple looked into other issues beyond security.

You may see my review of Safari 3.0 beta on Windows XP if you click my URL link (my name). Unfortunately, this site does not allow URLs in comments.

[Marcos]

Alas, Firefox on a Mac is no different than Firefox on Windows or Linux - it lacks both the Mac look (buttons, forms, pop-up menus) and Mac integration (Address book, system wide spell checker, etc.)

If they could just make it a proper Mac citizen, rather than a cross-platform app, I'd give it a try. For now, it's Safari or Camino for me - no question. Your reasons are fine, but for me none of those things are issues.

[Danny]

Item 3: Google Talk does work in Safari:

http://www.google.com/talk/

On the negative side, gmail in Safari doesn't have Rich Text formatting when composing mail. That and BrowserSync and Google Notebook are the killer apps for me. I suppose the various Google features that don't work in Safari eventually will, given that they're supposedly such buddy companies now.

[Vince]

two words
about:config

[Mike Sessler]

I tend to agree with you. When Safari 3 came out in Beta, I did the same thing. Tried if for a week or two. It is really snappy, and I live the OS integration. But the reality is that I've become addicted to Extensions. FireFTP, CoolIris Previews, FoxyTunes, ForcastFox and Foxmarks. That and the fact that Safari still doesn't fully support Wordpress' editor.

I do like the fact that I can easily view PDFs in Safari, something I haven't gotten the Mac version of Firefox to do well (though it works in XP). Safari launches quicker, draws quicker and feels more responsive. I keep it in the dock, but I'm using Firefox to type this now...

[John Ferguson]

The Firefox skin on Mac is better than Windows, but I have no idea how they made the form widgets so ugly.

The one true browser (except for the odd bit of javascript functionality, like Google Calendars) is Opera. I love Opera whether I'm using mouse gestures or not and I prefer having an address bar per tab rather than one address bar for all tabs. It has some things like Speed Dial and fastforward you don't think are useful until you use another browser that doesn't have them. For example, searching is super easy: CTRL+T for a new tab, type g then your search terms and press enter. How easy is that? Super easy. You can then get rid of the search bar.

Get Opera and get the Carthago skin. You won't regret it. (And it passes Acid2!)

It even has a built in email client which means you don't have to see your distant relatives' annoying animated gifs, although I find Mail.app to be more useful overall.

To be honest though, while I am an Opera fanboy, I am not averse to using other browsers. Get as many as you can and use them all as you need them.