Comments on: Only 7 percent of active Firefox browsers running on Macs?

Even Mac users seem content to ignore their browser options, which means Mozilla has a tough slog to promote its Firefox browser.

[becton22]

I have firefox and opera browser's installed on my macs. I love my firefox add-ons but it runs noticeably slower on my systems. I rarely use opera, also because it runs slower. If both ran as fast as safari on my systems, I would use them more. I sometimes wonder if apple has purposely done something to degrade the performance of the other browsers.

[iamstubb]

Wait a minute..

Mac having a lock on their market with Safari is OK becaust it integrates well with i-life etc. But IE being the same on the PC is anticompetitive? Actually, these numbers will work in MS favor. To say that it is true because Safari is better is meaningless. If IE was better, would mozilla be satisfied? Of course ot.

If you asked an everyday user what they would like, it is integration. In a perfect (PC) world, the internet would be an extension of windows explorer. Just another very large folder to browse for information and seamless with the desktop. Why do you think all "the cloud" is such a desirable goal? Most people don't care about the issues that make one browser better than the other. Not too many people sit in from of their computer with a stopwatch timing page rendering. And I don't thnk that I have ever encountered a page that will render on one browser and not on another.
If people want to use another browser so they can sniff at the masses, that;s OK as long as MS, or Apple, or people controlling Linux distributions, don't hinder that process. It's on that point that any arguments about browser (or media player ) should be made. Otherwise it is just whining.

[seven7dust]

Apple is closed so it'll never have enough market-share to be considered a monopoly !
BTW safari is using a open source engine called Webkit,
So the standards Safari Supports aren't created by Apple but universal !
look at how MS is trying to promote ActiveX and Silverlight , now that's anti-competitive !
these examples r only the a fraction of all the stuff M@fiasoft does to remain a monopoly !
and get unlimited financial gain !

[kcotham]

@iamstubb
Here's a major difference for you, and a little homework too. Try removing Internet Explorer from your Windows computer. Now remove Safari from your Macintosh. See the difference now? The Windows machine will have a nervous breakdown and then refuse to even boot back up after it crashes (that is, if it will even let you delete IE). The Mac couldn't care less and will tick along fine.

Oh, and your post and my rebuttal where completely off topic, let's focus.

[pithenumber]

@kcotham
IE is part of the Windows OS, that's why you can't remove it.

[Rob Menke]

The thing I find most odd is that this blog is called "The Open Road," yet it really seems to be the Mozilla Fan Club. The most important part of Safari is the open source WebKit renderer (http://www.webkit.org), which is used in a lot more places than Apple products. Android, for one, uses it for the browser.

If you are really an open source booster, would you care which open source renderer "wins"? The thing to concern yourself about is how well each browser conforms to standards. Dave Hyatt and his team decided that it would be best to sacrifice the 5% of the malformed web sites out there that fail to render properly with anything but IE. This allowed them to create a lightweight, speedy engine. The Mozilla team went for greater compatibility, and ended up with something far heavier.

The fraction of MacOS X users that still use IE is practically insignificant: almost all use an open source browser in one form or another.

[kcotham]

@Rob Menke

What amazes me is that there are some sites out there that still want you to use IE. Some will try to lock you out by redirecting to an "unsupported browser" page if you aren't using Internet Explorer 6 or higher. Which I find hilarious because the latest version for Macintosh was 5.2. You can't even download it from Microsoft's website it's so old!

[pithenumber]

@kcotham
and that's why FireFox users invented IETab(windows only though)

I do agree that it sucks that some sites do that since I need to reboot from Mac OS X Hackntosh, Ubuntu or whatev Linux distro I happen to be using into Windows

[expatincebu]

While Firefox is clearly worlds better than IE, I find it has few advantages over Safari. I do use Firefox on my Macs because I like it, but I also use Safari. I never use IE. The main feature with Firefox are the addons. I especially like foxmarks and that alone keeps me on board. If foxmarks came out for Safari I might dump firefox.

[jasonaorr]

I'm not sure why anyone would expect more Mac users to install Firefox on their computers than do Windows users. IE is a terrible, terrible browser and provides a slew of reasons to choose to use another browser. Safari, if its benchmark performance isn't quite as high as Firefox's, is way better than IE. There is much less of a reason to go through the effort of installing an alternate browser when you own a Mac with Safari pre-installed.

[William Crow]

The more I use Safari the more important it becomes on the web and the more improvements are made to this already excellent browser. I'll keep my usage within the Apple family. I switched from a Windows platform 3 years ago. My experience has been a dream.

[MacSmiley]

I have 10+ browsers on my hard drive. And yet I deliberately CHOOSE to use Apple's Safari instead of Firefox because Mozilla's cross-platform browser has keyboard shortcuts that are not consistent with the rest of OS X's system. To use a cliché, Firefox lacks the look and feel of a Mac application.

PS. It's also a pain to keep updating extensions. I'd rather do without them.

[jynx510]

I switched back to Safari from Firefox just this week, after I found that equivalent plug-in functionality (Adblock plus, Foxxytunes, Torbutton, etc) were also available for Safari. It takes less time to launch, and the pages load faster. The fact that Foxmarks is now also available on Safari sealed the deal for me; at least until Chrome for OS X comes out.

[pithenumber]

it loads pages faster?
huh?
***?!?
FireFox with Tracemonkey enabled is faster

[ti99_forever]

I use Safari or Camino on my Mac, unless I need to access an ftp site - then I usually use Firefox.
Firefox is getting bloated, can't handle pdf files worth a lick (good thing Mac OS X handles pdfs seamlessly, but I've started even using Safari or, <shudder>, IE at work sometimes!).

Firefox is slowing down, slow to load, even slow to close! It still is my #1 choice at work on a PC, but at home Safari is my #1, Camino #2, Firefox hardly registers on my radar...

[kcotham]

@ti99_forever
Why use a web browser to access ftp? Why not use a ftp client? Or why not just use the Finder? I have been using the Finder to access FTP sites for years with no problems.

[djjackd]

When I was still using a PC, my displeasure with IE drove me to find alternatives. I installed Firefox and loved the results. It was faster and more reliable with fewer lock-ups and crashes.
After my switch to Mac 9 months ago, I never even thought about installing Firefox however. I've always heard Macs billed as an 'all in one' solution, where the software is designed specifically for the platform.
About a week ago, one of my friends saw me running Safari on my Mac and asked why I wasn't using Firefox. It honestly had not occurred to me to do so! I hadn't seen any -need- for Firefox as I'm very pleased with Safari.
Thinking about the issue now, there are some sites I use that return a 'not tested with Safari' message. Now I'm considering installing Firefox for those sites.

[kcotham]

@djjackd
Download Camino from mozilla.org. It's smaller, faster, has a cleaner interface, and will usually work when the site requires a mozilla browser.

[Nicholas Buenk]

Safari is a lot better than Internet Explorer.
This explains it.

[gigo1000]

I use both Safari and Firefox. My preference for Firefox is that it allows a little more control over what cookies are accepted. I also use Firefox as a "security" browser. Plugins like Flash are not activated. There is very little access provided to malware. If I find a video or something I want to run, I switch to Safari. I think they are both excellent and both useful.

[seven7dust]

you can do that on safari too,
just go to preferences and check the developer check box
it gives you complete control of the scripts running in a page
also with the activity menu you can do so much more than FF can
Safari is also customizable with third party plugins, head over to pimpmysafari.com

[gigo1000]

seven7dust, Thanks. I wasn't aware that option was available in Safari.

[seven7dust]

Without add-ons installed firefox basically sux
safari can do everything FF can and more
even with add-ons safari probably does 3/4th of wat FF does
and uses only a fraction of the memory,
but the those r things that most people can live without

Safari was built to be a bookmark browser
it handles bookmarks and address bar completions better than n e other browser
search is the only weakness but with inquisitor that too has been solved
it's just that
some Mac switchers like to use wat they have been using in Windows world{FF}
so they use FF instead, if they gave Safari or other Mac browsers a try{Camino,Shiira etc.}
even that minimum share of FF will be greatly reduced

I personally use safari even on my windows machines it's not as nice as the mac version
but still the implementation of bookmarks is eons ahead of IE and FF !

[kcotham]

Agreed, when testing Windows 7, I was utterly flaberghasted that IE was so incredibly BAD! Who in the world designed that steaming pile of code? IE is the most counter-intuitive piece of garbage I've ever seen. I used to actually like the version 5 of IE, but what is this garbage? I installed Firefox and Safari. And yes, I use Safari more in Windows. Why? In Windows 7, it seems faster than Firefox. And Safari is DEFINITELY faster than IE!

[Leo17434]

This is a .. duh. What percentage of all computers browsing the net are Macs?.

[kcotham]

Off topic!

[bonesbautista]

I've used FF on the Mac and Windows platforms, and the Windows version always was snappier, less buggy, and well, less ugly.

The Mac version's just looked and felt like a poor port of the Windows version until about version 3; to be fair, though, I've been using Camino for a few years and it's been my browser of choice. I'm using the FF 3.1 beta and it's a HUGE improvement over earlier versions, but it's still not as slick as Safari or Camino, so FF is still my third choice and tied with Opera - used when I encounter a non-compliant web site.

[logicbus]

I used to be primarily a PC user, and I switched to Firefox when it hit version 0.9. I switched to Mac about two years ago, and continue to use Firefox. Now, I use Firebug almost daily, and I can't live without extensions like AdBlock Plus and SearchOnTab. Firefox is the best browser when it comes to crafting your own web experience.

Most people aren't web developers, and most people aren't what the tech savvy would call 'tech savvy.' These are the reasons why Firefox continues to suffer a relatively low penetration rate.

[Sporlo]

wow there're a lot of comments for this one. I'm just making a stand alone statement that I actually switched (from Safari) to Firefox for many months, but then one day I decided to open Safari again, and I've been using Safari ever since. I just like Safari's simplicity for the most part. There's rarely site-displaying issues, and as for its internal workings and whether it's efficient or not, it doesn't affect me anyway because I only use it casually for browsing. Firefox is great, I simply just don't need it.

[seven7dust]

bingo! it's all about usability it's the where Apple's product excel
I use more than 10 different browsers just for the heck of it
and in the end Safari always comes out on top !
it's just like Ipod's vs the ipod killers debate !

[MPB]

It doesn't surprise me at all. I think it just comes down to personal choice and more Mac users are choosing Safari. I think that both are good browsers, it's just for me personally I love the look, feel and simplicity of Safari.

[baconstang]

My first computer (iMac) was pre-Safari. I used IE for a bit, then Safari came out. In about 2 months all I used was Safari ( except for non-compliant sites ). I've used FF (and Camino) on friend's Macs, but I saw no advantage, since I wasn't customizing. Safari is great, and integrates so well with everything Mac, it's not worth (for me) messing with multiple browsers.

[kcotham]

One clear advantage of Safari over Firefox, that I use ALL the time, is Safari's treatment of RSS News feeds. It's RSS implementation is worlds better than Firefox's. Why hasn't anyone else commented on this?