What browser are you using on your Mac? (2 Viewers)

[Ronald Epstein]

Wondering what browser my fellow Mac owners are using on a daily basis?

For years now, I have been using Safari. It seemed the logical choice being in the Apple ecosystem. I loved the fact it offered enhanced privacy options and if working between devices, you could open a webpage on your Mac and continue on your iPhone or iPad.

The thing I have noticed is that Safari can be awfully sluggish. For instance, updating the Blu-ray price drops it can take nearly a minute for that page to open due to the fact it's content-heavy. If I open the same page on Chrome, the page loads instantly.

I also think Chrome has a far better selection of extensions.

I really did some research before switching to Chrome today and importing all my Safari bookmarks. On a lot of forums, people are trashing Safari in favor of Chrome and other browsers. Those in favor of Safari felt that it offered better security and was more optimized for the M-series Macs.

I am going to keep Chrome for the next month or so and see if things are greener on the other side of the fence. I was happy to find a Chrome extension that allows you to use iCloud Keychain so that you don't have to hunt down any passwords from your favorite secured Safari sites.

 

[DaveF]

Safari on all my Apple personal devices. The tab groups and tab syncing are key features for me. (Edge on my Windows HTPC because Edge works fine and there’s no Safari on Windows otherwise I’d use it there too for tab syncing.)

I use Chrome on the Mac maybe twice a year when I absolutely have to because some site on Safari doesn’t seem to work.

 

[JohnRice]

I started using Firefox on my Macs probably 20 years ago, because at that time it seemed like the best browser, but I expect that has changed. So I probably should reconsider, but not sure what to change it to.

 

[Sam Posten]

Safari is sluggish with how many tabs?

 

[Clinton McClure]

I only use Safari on my Mac. Never had any issues with it.

 

[Robert Saccone]

I only use Safari because I haven’t had any issues with it and I think because it is Apple’s they will do the best job with respect to power usage.

However I noticed that Vivaldi isn’t in the poll list. Seems interesting and comparable to Brave perhaps. https://www.techradar.com/reviews/vivaldi

 

[midvalleyguy]

I use an ancient 15 inch MacBook Pro (the last with a DVD drive) running Mountain Lion OS (mainly because of legacy software).

I've almost always use Firefox Legacy. If an issue occurs, I use Waterfox Classic.

I've never liked Safari.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Switched to Chrome almost two weeks ago and I am very much enjoying the experience more than Safari.

First and foremost, it's significantly faster. At first, I thought perhaps Safari's Private Relay was slowing the browser down, but I *think* it's disabled. I have been getting popups telling me it's disabled and I thought maybe it's due to the fact I am using a mesh system in my home. However, that's just an initial thought.

Anyhow, I love the array of plug-ins that Chrome offers. One significant plug-in is iCloud Password AutoFill which allows Chrome to use all my Apple keychain passwords for all the websites I visit. It does require verification with your Apple devices at least once a day when used. I also have a plug-in that enables all the live tabs that Safari featured, allowing me to easily keep my most visited websites open.

I also noticed that Safari wasn't playing nice with Xenforo, which HTF is based on. When writing posts like this one, it would start displaying text issues when I had to backspace and make corrections. None of that is happening in Chrome.

 

[Rodney]

I moved to Brave and haven't looked back. I found it to be faster than Chrome, uses less memory, and is strong on privacy protection.

Oh, and you can use most Chrome plug-ins if you want.

 

[DaveF]

I also noticed that Safari wasn't playing nice with Xenforo, which HTF is based on. When writing posts like this one, it would start displaying text issues when I had to backspace and make corrections. None of that is happening in Chrome.

Glad to know it’s not just me.

I wish web developers would write websites that work with all major browsers. Antagonizing users of the top or second top mobile browser seems bad business.

 

[BobO'Link]

I only use a Mac at work, and then as sparingly as possible (I really dislike the platform). I've worked with Macs in IT for over 20 years and have never liked Safari as it's never really worked as well as other browsers (even IE was better). I use Firefox as I can use the same CSS customization files on the mac as I use on my Windows machines so it looks, acts, and feels the same on both. One negative is if there's an update it will often just stall out until I've installed the update (I can go for weeks on Windows and completely ignore updates with no ill effects).

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Glad to know it’s not just me.

I wish web developers would write websites that work with all major browsers. Antagonizing users of the top or second top mobile browser seems bad business.

Glad to know it's not just me, either. Was not sure if I had something installed on my end that was causing the issue. So, it is a Safari/Xenforo problem.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I only use a Mac at work, and then as sparingly as possible (I really dislike the platform). I've worked with Macs in IT for over 20 years and have never liked Safari as it's never really worked as well as other browsers (even IE was better). I use Firefox as I can use the same CSS customization files on the mac as I use on my Windows machines so it looks, acts, and feels the same on both. One negative is if there's an update it will often just stall out until I've installed the update (I can go for weeks on Windows and completely ignore updates with no ill effects).

It's wild that Apple can't make a superior web browser. Perhaps their hands are just in too many things at once. Kind of like a jack of all trades, master of none.

I would consider Firefox -- as there are a lot of people who love that browser -- but I haven't yet explored how diverse their plug-in network is.

 

[Paul Bosquet]

Safari has been my go to for all my Apple devices. I don’t find it sluggish especially on the Mac mini. I also use Brave as my browser that I completely delete history, cookies, etc for certain sites.

 

[BobO'Link]

Glad to know it’s not just me.

I wish web developers would write websites that work with all major browsers. Antagonizing users of the top or second top mobile browser seems bad business.

From my observations, most website developers run with the same kind of blinders browser developers tend to use. They all think the way *they* want things to work is how *everyone* should think. On websites many seem to think *everyone* uses the exact same browser as they use with all the same plugins.

Working in educational IT (K-12) we see lots of plain poor programming choices and methods. The main "troubleshooting" thing we're given when a site doesn't work properly is "Clear the cache and cookies." That's something that shouldn't have to be done with a properly coded site.

And Chrome on Apple products, especially iPads, is nothing but a kludge. So many sites don't work properly with Chrome that we've had to block it and force use of Safari only (on iPads) - in spite of being a "Google for Education" district (and we *have* to use the Google Apps for that access so *it* works properly as Safari doesn't play nice with portions of the ecosystem).

 

[Robert Saccone]

I have worked on some commercial projects that have a web front end to them. One thing to keep in mind is the test matrix. It can be daunting. You have a set of tests to perform across not only each browser type but also on different platforms because the same browsers on things like phones and iPads often behaves differently then the same browser on the PC / Mac.