Safari vs. Firefox: Are The Browser Wars Over?
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Posted: 04 April 2008 01:32 PM   [ Ignore ]  
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Remember megahertz and gigahertz? For well over a decade speed was what differentiated computers, Mac or Windows. For the most part, CPU speed doesn’t matter much anymore. How about web browsers? Does being the fastest browser really matter?

Apple claims the new Safari, version 3.1, is the fastest browser available, Mac or Windows PC. Mozilla’s Firefox 3, still in beta, was released this week and some folks at ZDnet proclaimed it faster than Safari.

Faster at what? We use a browser to view web pages. The browser renders the code from the web page, whether HTML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, or whatever, and displays it, so there are a number of variables from one end to the other in the browsing experience.

In my own non-scientific tests, the latest version of Safari, Mac or Windows seems faster at displaying web pags than Firefox, Mac or Windows, and certainly much faster than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Various benchmarks I’ve seen on the web indicate that Safari renders Javascript faster, and renders web pages faster. Fine. Does it matter? After all, most web pages are rendered and displayed in seconds anyway, so does shaving a couple of seconds here and there mean much?

It means about as much as gigahertz on the average Mac or PC. What’s important is probably how good the pages looks, how quickly it renders, and how stable the browsing experience is. Firefox users may argue that it’s all about extensions, but that’s not the case for the average browser user.

To compare Apples to apples, I downloaded the latest Firefox beta, version 5, to give it a try. I’d used the first three betas but found them to be sluggish and buggy. I skipped beta 4 entirely, though I admit that beta 5 works well (what’s with the huge Back button?).

Thanks to an alert Mac360 reader, always ready with a good link, I was able to download one of the nightly builds of Safari, also known as WebKit. Consider it the latest Safari beta.

What’s the difference between the two? Not much. Both rendered pages very fast, and the pages looked good. I like Safari’s look on the Mac better than Firefox. It’s a font thing. Firefox 3 has improved font rendering. On Windows, Safari looks good, but it’s arguable as to which renders fonts better, Safari, Firefox, or MSIE.

Firefox 3 on Mac looks more like a Mac application. Many of the old extensions I’d used on previous Firefox versions didn’t work with Firefox 3, but that’s to be expected. It’s a beta.

Both Macworld and ArsTechnica ran Firefox and Safari through benchmarks and the winner was always Safari. In general, that’s been my experience, too.

I have noticed that Safari plays better with web sites with heavy Javascript, when in past logins, Safari would choke. That’s an improvement that cuts two ways. Compatibility and speed. Safari has the edge on both.

The question is, does it matter? Latency, bandwidth, and browser speed improvements have converged to provide a very pleasant web browsing experience these days. Web sites are being constructed with a better balance of HTML/XHTML and CSS and adhere closer to the validated standards of each, further improving the browser experience.

What do we really want from a browser, and can we get it with today’s crop of very good browsers? For me, it’s accurate and attractive page rendering, compatibility with sites, page rendering speed, stability, security, and extra features, and in that order.

Like gigahertz on the average notebook or desktop, page rendering speed is becoming less important these days. I use Firefox for part of my work because of the variety of extensions. My day to day browser use has settled on Safari for Mac and Windows, sometimes Firefox, Mac and Windows, with a look at Internet Explorer, just to maintain compatibility.

Apple seems to be setting up a cross platform usability and experience differentiation with Safari on Mac, Windows, iPhone, and iPod touch. Frankly, the experience is pleasant, especially when added to QuickTime and iTunes, Mac and Windows.

Speed? It’s not much of an issue these days for anything. No one talks much about the speed differences between Macs and PCs. For the average user, there really isn’t any. Users of web browsers live in a golden age of browsers.

What’s your experience with browsers? Which is best and why?

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Posted: 04 April 2008 02:17 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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I took your advice and downloaded the Firefox beta, and the WebKit version of Safari.

BOTH are very fast. I can’t tell that the WebKit version is any faster than the latest Safari release, but I can say that the new Firefox is better looking and much faster than the previous version. I had some trouble with a few of my extensions that wouldn’t work on Firefox. I also found that Safari will now let me login and use my account at my bank’s web site, which it would not do before. I also have a WordPress blog and had to use Firefox or Camino to edit pages. Safari now edits pages in WordPress, which it would not do before.

Good job, Apple.

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Posted: 04 April 2008 02:43 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
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I like the new FF but its not likely to replace Safari for me...I just like the feel of Safari.  Given that most browsers are close to each other on speed, it comes down to look and feel, and IMHO Safari wins hands down, if they would just implement extensions…

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Posted: 04 April 2008 05:44 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]  
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Webit baby! It’s the ONLY PUBLIC browser to pass the Acid 3 test. Try that with FireFox or FireFox beta.

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Posted: 04 April 2008 06:00 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]  
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BunsenHoneydew - 04 April 2008 02:43 PM

I like the new FF but its not likely to replace Safari for me...I just like the feel of Safari.  Given that most browsers are close to each other on speed, it comes down to look and feel, and IMHO Safari wins hands down, if they would just implement extensions…

Agreed.  Safari is nice, but the Firefox extensions definitely can enhance the usability of the browser.  As a recent switcher to mac, I’ve been using Safari, but find myself missing the extensibility of Firefox.  The speed issue - not much in it.  Ease of us is what matters for me if you are going to be using it day in and day out.

Cheers,

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Posted: 05 April 2008 12:12 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]  
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I got to go with Safari, I do have firefox but I rarely use it. I think firefox is more eye candy than anything and just about everything I have found I can ad an extension to firefox to, Safari already has something similar that in most cases works better. Like “Mac To Mac” says Safari lets me use 1-password to log into everything (including my bank and credit cards), I just click the url in 1-password and sit back and watch it all log in, of course 1-password works on firefox also.

I prefer to stay with Safari mainly because I am starting to get scared of third party software (My Intego gives me hell allot but I always figure it out). And I refuse to use beta software. My little theory is starting to become this because of a lot of bad luck with stuff, “Mac made everything we need and that software is most likely to work the best from my experience”.

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Posted: 05 April 2008 07:54 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]  
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I use OmniWeb, SeaMonkey, Safari 3.1, WebKit, and iCab… Liking WebKit and OmniWeb better than the rest, but with Safari/WebKit - Why will they not keep themselves as the identified browser under the Develop menu, User Agent....

Safari keeps defaulting back to Mac IE 5.xx!!

Try it: open Safari/WebKit, open some sites, keep trying to get Safari to stay on “Safari 3.1”, or any other browser other than IE 5! I haven’t been able to get any information on how to make Safari keep itself as the default browser under the Develop menu, User Agent; I’m not referring to Default browser under Preferences - that works fine, but it will not identify as Safari to sites!

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Posted: 05 April 2008 08:15 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]  
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GuyGene - 05 April 2008 07:54 PM

I use OmniWeb, SeaMonkey, Safari 3.1, WebKit, and iCab… Liking WebKit and OmniWeb better than the rest, but with Safari/WebKit - Why will they not keep themselves as the identified browser under the Develop menu, User Agent....

Safari keeps defaulting back to Mac IE 5.xx!!

Try it: open Safari/WebKit, open some sites, keep trying to get Safari to stay on “Safari 3.1”, or any other browser other than IE 5! I haven’t been able to get any information on how to make Safari keep itself as the default browser under the Develop menu, User Agent; I’m not referring to Default browser under Preferences - that works fine, but it will not identify as Safari to sites!

Hang in there, Apple will most likely find the bug (if it is a bug) and fix it fast. Apple has a good reputation for finding there goofs and putting out updates

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Posted: 06 April 2008 08:33 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 8 ]  
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The biggest problem with Safari is that the user has very little control over cookies.  Firefox gives the user much more control over cookies than Safari does.  Until Apple fixes this Safari will be a second-class browser for me.  The rest of Safari, however, is spectacular.  My subjective experience is that it is faster than anything else that I have tried.  It is nicely integrated with Leopard, and the look and feel is very smooth.  If the cookie problem ever gets fixed Safari will be the best browser out there.  Until then I recommend Camino or Firefox.  Flock is nice too.

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Posted: 07 April 2008 03:42 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 9 ]  
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Didn’t want to do it, but I had to satisfy my curiosity.  Firefox 3beta5 vs. Safari 3.1 on a Windows XPPro PC.  (I’m using my work PC right now, I’ll post the Mac platform results later)

Performance:  Speed difference was not noticeable.  If there is a difference, I can’t tell.  If you can tell a difference and it bothers you, God help you.  I pointed both browsers to an internal timesheet page that’s exclusively java based.  Firefox 2 could never handle it.  Firefox 3 crashed as well, but when restore session was activated it handled it okay.  Safari crashed and keeps crashing.  IE7 works good.  Flash video feeds, Shockwave games, and other sites worked fine on both no real difference in performance.

Look and feel:  I run at a pretty high resolution and to me Safari’s fonts look a little fuzzy.  Firefox seems a bit more crisp and clear.  I’m familiar with the key strokes on Firefox.  Not so much on Safari.  I haven’t found them all yet.  The absence of a bookmark sidebar in Safari is also really frustrating. In Firefox, I like to drag links from a page into my bookmarks by using the Bookmarks sidebar. In order to do the same thing with Safari, one needs to use two separate windows, which is really inconvenient.  Also, I use RSS feeds quite a bit and Safari’s built-in RSS support is… well different from what I’m used to. When a web page’s header specifies multiple RSS feeds, Safari will automatically show the first one by default when the blue RSS icon is clicked in the URL bar. Safari doesn’t provide any easy way to access the other feeds. Firefox handles this better, displaying a menu of available feeds when I click the icon in Firefox’s URL bar.

I’ve been using Firefox for a long time now and become used to it.  Safari doesn’t give me enough of an advantage to make me want to change.  They both do the same thing in their own way.

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Posted: 08 April 2008 09:46 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 10 ]  
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Same evaluation for OS X Leopard: Firefox 3b5 vs Safari 3.1 using Mac Mini and MacBook.  Didn’t run into any crashes this time.  Both seem to handle java just fine.  I was looking for a speed difference and I found Safari to be a bit faster on the page load, but only by a fraction of a second.  If I weren’t looking for it, I probably wouldn’t notice.  The font fuzziness I observed with Safari for Windows isn’t there on Mac.  I loaded a news page with a lot of text on both and compared the two side by side.  I really couldn’t see a difference in clarity, shape or size.

So again, it comes down to operation. I still have the same issues with RSS feeds and bookmark management.  I could get used to it if I had to.  But that’s the nice thing about multiple browsers.  I don’t have to get used to it.  I’m left with the same conclusion that Safari doesn’t offer any significant advantages over Firefox to warrant a switch.  JMO.

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