4 ms·

Daring Fireball: Firefox 3 vs. Safari 3

27 points by sant0sk1 19y ago

wanorris 19y ago
I'll admit that I couldn't care less about tight Mac OS integration (the only time I use Safari is in a VirtualBox window from an XP installation under Ubuntu), but for me, the killer Firefox features are recently closed tabs, auto-restoring the tabs from my last session, and the ability to customize it with extensions.
- tlrobinson 19y ago
  "recently closed tabs, auto-restoring the tabs from my last session" Safari 3 has those features as well. Really the only thing Safari lacks is a good extension system. WebKit is a top-notch browser engine. Even after all these supposedly amazing improvements in the Mozilla engine WebKit is still faster.
  - shawndrost 19y ago
    Extensions are useful to me personally, but they also speed the rate of browser evolution, which is why I hope Firefox stays on top.
cturner 19y ago
"Location Field — The new Firefox 3 location field, the so-called “AwesomeBar”, is too clever. When I click the mouse in the middle of a URL, I just want to place the insertion point. I don’t want to select the entire URL. If I wanted to select the entire URL, I’d double-click. Click to place, double-click to select — just like any other text field." Hahah. Be warned that it takes between four and five years to get sensible fixes to location bar problems resolved: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190615 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190615
streblo 19y ago
I never knew Control-Command-D would define a word you're hovering over. Something small like that is enough to make me consider switching back to Safari.
- aflag 19y ago
  I remember seeing extensions for Firefox that do just that. Maybe you should investigate about it. About the article itself, when I clicked I thought it would compare general stuff about firefox and safari, but it's mostly about mac OS integration. Since I don't use it the article ended up being pretty useless for me :(.
- tokipin 19y ago
  try the answers.com firefox addon. it's my unlivewithoutable addon. alt-clicking on a word will show the results in a small window within the page. because it's answers.com, it has access to wikipedia, a dictionary, and whatever else answers.com has one nice thing about it is that the text matching is greedy. so when you alt click on a name ("bill gates"), idiom/saying ("jumping the shark"), etc, you get the results you expect http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answersaddon.png http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answ... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answersaddon2.png http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answ...
Prrometheus 19y ago
>Auto-completion in Firefox requires the use of the Down Arrow key to select something from the list of suggestions. In Safari you can just use Return to accept the first suggestion. I HATE when return picks the first item from a match-list. How the hell do I just type what I want to type?
- dreish 19y ago
  You have to backspace the autocompleted text, but it doesn't appear immediately, so you have to either: - Type what you want to type and race to hit return, or - Wait a moment for the text to appear so you can hit backspace. The whole experience is really frustrating, and easily one of my least-favorite features of Safari. It probably contributes to my tendency to Google sites rather than just entering URLs I already know by heart.
  - aston 19y ago
    Escape generally helps.
    - dreish 19y ago
      Escape seems to revert to the text that was in the input field before anything was typed. How does that help?
henning 19y ago
I tried Safari and switched back to Firefox because I couldn't live without all the Greasemonkey scripts I rely upon to make the web suck less. De gustibus non est disputandum.
- antiismist 19y ago
  Safari also doesn't have firebug, the killer app for web developers
  - johns 19y ago
    Their Web Inspector is pretty good though http://webkit.org/blog/108/yet-another-one-more-thing-a-new-web-inspector/ http://webkit.org/blog/108/yet-another-one-more-thing-a-new-...
  - henning 19y ago
    Yes, people like DHH have mentioned using Firefox for development but Safari for casual surfing outside of work. I can't get comfortable with it for casual surfing, either, though.
    - boucher 19y ago
      I use Safari to develop, to browse for fun, for everything. I use Firefox/Firebug only when its necessary, which turns out to be not very often.
andreyf 19y ago
Bah, it's all a matter of habit. Firefox's "/"+term for find, as well as C-k and C-l to select search and URL fields respectively will always be second nature to me.

27 points by sant0sk1 19y ago

I'll admit that I couldn't care less about tight Mac OS integration (the only time I use Safari is in a VirtualBox window from an XP installation under Ubuntu), but for me, the killer Firefox features are recently closed tabs, auto-restoring the tabs from my last session, and the ability to customize it with extensions.

tlrobinson 19y ago
"recently closed tabs, auto-restoring the tabs from my last session" Safari 3 has those features as well. Really the only thing Safari lacks is a good extension system. WebKit is a top-notch browser engine. Even after all these supposedly amazing improvements in the Mozilla engine WebKit is still faster.
- shawndrost 19y ago
  Extensions are useful to me personally, but they also speed the rate of browser evolution, which is why I hope Firefox stays on top.

cturner 19y ago

"Location Field — The new Firefox 3 location field, the so-called “AwesomeBar”, is too clever. When I click the mouse in the middle of a URL, I just want to place the insertion point. I don’t want to select the entire URL. If I wanted to select the entire URL, I’d double-click. Click to place, double-click to select — just like any other text field." Hahah. Be warned that it takes between four and five years to get sensible fixes to location bar problems resolved: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190615 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190615

streblo 19y ago

I never knew Control-Command-D would define a word you're hovering over. Something small like that is enough to make me consider switching back to Safari.

aflag 19y ago
I remember seeing extensions for Firefox that do just that. Maybe you should investigate about it. About the article itself, when I clicked I thought it would compare general stuff about firefox and safari, but it's mostly about mac OS integration. Since I don't use it the article ended up being pretty useless for me :(.
tokipin 19y ago
try the answers.com firefox addon. it's my unlivewithoutable addon. alt-clicking on a word will show the results in a small window within the page. because it's answers.com, it has access to wikipedia, a dictionary, and whatever else answers.com has one nice thing about it is that the text matching is greedy. so when you alt click on a name ("bill gates"), idiom/saying ("jumping the shark"), etc, you get the results you expect http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answersaddon.png http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answ... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answersaddon2.png http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk63/temporaryupload/answ...

Prrometheus 19y ago

>Auto-completion in Firefox requires the use of the Down Arrow key to select something from the list of suggestions. In Safari you can just use Return to accept the first suggestion. I HATE when return picks the first item from a match-list. How the hell do I just type what I want to type?

dreish 19y ago
You have to backspace the autocompleted text, but it doesn't appear immediately, so you have to either: - Type what you want to type and race to hit return, or - Wait a moment for the text to appear so you can hit backspace. The whole experience is really frustrating, and easily one of my least-favorite features of Safari. It probably contributes to my tendency to Google sites rather than just entering URLs I already know by heart.
- aston 19y ago
  Escape generally helps.
  - dreish 19y ago
    Escape seems to revert to the text that was in the input field before anything was typed. How does that help?

henning 19y ago

I tried Safari and switched back to Firefox because I couldn't live without all the Greasemonkey scripts I rely upon to make the web suck less. De gustibus non est disputandum.

antiismist 19y ago
Safari also doesn't have firebug, the killer app for web developers
- johns 19y ago
  Their Web Inspector is pretty good though http://webkit.org/blog/108/yet-another-one-more-thing-a-new-web-inspector/ http://webkit.org/blog/108/yet-another-one-more-thing-a-new-...
- henning 19y ago
  Yes, people like DHH have mentioned using Firefox for development but Safari for casual surfing outside of work. I can't get comfortable with it for casual surfing, either, though.
  - boucher 19y ago
    I use Safari to develop, to browse for fun, for everything. I use Firefox/Firebug only when its necessary, which turns out to be not very often.

andreyf 19y ago

Bah, it's all a matter of habit. Firefox's "/"+term for find, as well as C-k and C-l to select search and URL fields respectively will always be second nature to me.