Comments on: Safari numbers still dwarfed by Firefox downloads

Apple is claiming 11 million downloads for Safari, as if this is a victory, but the truth is that Firefox is dominating Safari and IE8.

[saffroncapital]

Bugger.... can't get me flame thrower started..... dang it.... I'm off to bed....

[Allen750]

Safari sucks with file management and there aren't enough add-ons to interest me.

[jedco-online]

Hey Matt,

You may solve your problem accessing your Comcast bill by adding the IE add on to firefox.

Since I added it every site I go to works.

[qube99]

While counting downloads is fine and dandy I prefer to count what's actually being used to browse the web. Even then we see large discrepancies in the browser numbers depending on who is collecting the data and how the data is being aggregated with many reporting sites failing to define their methodology.

Most browser speed issues derive from the website and network, not the browser. By most I mean 98% or more. Not many website-networks can serve as fast as the browsers can parse, so in a real-world speed test Firefox and Safari (and all the others) would tie in a dead heat on the vast majority of websites. Those benchmark speed tests have no meaning for consumers.

I enjoyed the article realizing it's not an article about market share and consumer experience, the two things that matter the most.

[tektaktyks]

"..., but I thought web browser's main function was viewing webpages" -u summed up "mac users"right there,they dont expect things to do more...i did download safari for windows,played with it few times and uninstalled it.it just sucked.another apple program that i am FORCED to use is itunes.i have an iphone(so i am not an apple hater) and theres no alternative that would work in windows 7-yet.Itunes is the worst program i have to use,sooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooooooow and buggy.it is frustrating,to use it and i hate it.1 more thing,about those apple commercials,i can't remember when my pc froze,its been few years i think,but i took avid express classes few years ago,they had mac's there,guess what happened when i did my first splice...yup,it froze,had to restart.

[bl00dmetal93_]

chrome is better! most off the add-ons are pointless and for an adblocker just use privoxy it blocks adverts in any internet aplication e.g. messenger & browsers

[diptanshu]

Has anyone noticed:

Opera: 5.36MB download
Firefox: 7.17MB download
Google Chrome: unknown, but my research tells me the installer is about 10-15MB
Safari: 27MB download

I wonder why Safari is such a big download for what is basically, just a browser, without addons?

[diptanshu]

Chrome, without the privacy issues:

http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php

I've replaced Chrome with this already.

[johnny raindrop]

Most of my life I've had 2 cars: one for everyday use and an SUV or van or something. 2 different uses. I have 2 browsers also. Firefox, which I use for development and for sites that have DOM issues with Safari. I use safari mostly though because it's faster, and it keeps stuff in keychain. Lots of times I have both open. But Safari 4: WOW! Not only is it fast and the "favorites" screen is cool, but the new way of viewing history with coverflow is absolutely fabulous. It's already saved me hours trying to figure out which page out of my history I'm looking for. It's definitely my first choice now. Firefox is just for running development tools.

[trentZ2]

Just downloaded IE 8 and immediatly regretted it. ***?? Its slow and useless.

[exactlyy]

safari 4 just sucks , it looks ugly and as i said befor , maybe if it was released 10 years ago i'd have used it cuz it'd have fit perfectly on windows 95

[ibelieve01]

Reasons I could never give up Opera for Firefox, despite trying many times:
1) In my business, I answer tons of email each day, and Opera's email client makes this much faster than a web-based email service. And though I hate Hotmail, I'm forced to use it......Opera's email client works with Hotmail beautifully. Firefox has only that SIMPLE MAIL extension, which does not work with Hotmail, and is utterly featureless.
2) I'm a writer and use Opera's built-in NOTES to take a ton of notes daily. Firefox's extension limits me to 4 notes. Not nearly enough for me.
3) Opera's Wand works a lot better with more sites than Firefox's extension equivalent.
4) Firefox's Speed Dial extensions are clunky. When i open a new tab, it takes a second for the program to draw the Speed Dial screen. With Opera, it's jsut there, immediately.
5) Opera has the best sidebar of any browser, allowing lots more functionality. For instance, click the mail icon and it becomes part of my email client, listing all of inboxes, outboxes, etc. Also, Firefox's sidebar is again clunky. If I have it open, any time I click a tab, the whole sidebar flickers. Not so on Opera.
6) Opera makes it easier to make my browser look exactly like i want: it lets me set the icons to the exact size I want, lets me move any toolbar to top or bottom of the screen (and many of them to the size), lets me change the color of my skin, and makes it super-easy to change skins (without the need to go to a website, download it, log off and back on, as with Firefox.

[ibelieve01]

Let me reply to my own comment to also point out one i mentioned. With Firefox, a s soon as there's the smallest upgrade, most of my extensions stop working. Yes, I tried Nightly Builder Tools, and it works for a while, but then, for no apparent reason, I'll log on and find all of my extensions "incompatible," and I have to go back and forcibly make them work again. I much prefer the features built in, as with Opera.

[Maarek Stele]

Chrome is at using Webkit than Safari. IMO Safari can stay with MACs, I bet more people would download IE if it was supported on the MAC OS.

[IanX211]

LOL.
Microsoft should do that. If Apple is able to release their default browser on Windows, Microsoft should release their default browser on OSX.

[papidonsky]

What happened to Netscape?

[ibelieve01]

It de-volved into Firefox.

[jaxstephens]

Techies like the author just don't get the average person who makes up the majority of computer users. The average person could not care less about the "rich" browsing experience provided by Firefox extensions. I'm an IT vet, and even I avoid extensions in my Firefox installation because they--for the most part--overly complicate and bog down the simple functionality of a web browser in order to provide fairly trivial and pointless functionality. The average person wants the basic functionality to "just work" and to do so intuitively with little to no intervention or hassle on their part. Witness the popularity of the iPhone over the convoluted mess that is Windows Mobile. Firefox extensions are primarily a (optional) tool for techies--nothing more.

[noahsaccountname]

I have four browsers on my laptop. I do not like IE7 (and did not want to upgrade to IE8 because I hate Microsoft), Chrome which is fantastic for light, fast surfing but lacks the extras of Firefox, Safari which is now essentially a clone of Firefox (with a similar UI) and Firefox, which I have found is the best choice web browser out there. The best feature of Firefox is its low crash rate, and the add ons, which, among other things allow me to view pages which are designed for IE8. Adblock and Flashblock are also useful tools and make web browsing a more enjoyable experience (without flashing banners and ads), and Speed Dial to quickly launch my most visited sites. From experience, it is clear to me that the other browsers can't hold a candle to Firefox!

[IanX211]

I agree on most of what you're saying. However, i wouldn't agree that other browsers can't hold a candle to Firefox.

Speed Dial is already built into Opera, Chrome, and Safari. The only 2 browsers that needs a plug-in to have it are IE and Firefox. Second, Firefox has all the add-ons but only a select few, like Adblock and Flashblock, are found on almost every FF browsers.

Firefox maybe the "king," but I believe the wheels are beginning to fall of due to little innovation. Unless they create something that hasn't been done in a browser, I see the amount of people downloading/using FF capped in a few years.

[jpap93]

@IanX211 check Tracemonkey; then talk about innovation.

[GangstaBoyC]

I prefer safari. even without the add-ons, it still is better

[klor5]

Let me start off by saying I've never used Chrome and 90% of the time I use a Mac.
Safari 4 for Mac in my opinion is an excellent browser,uncluttered,very stable,very fast and intuitive,adds Coverflow and Top Sites capabilities to it's wonderful handling of History and bookmarks.A big step up from Safari 3.x.x.
Compared to Firefox's "Fun for a while" customisation options and general lack of cohesion (though I'd still keep it as my secondary browser, without a doubt),Safari 4 is a dream.Why?

Two things (mainly).

One-I have not come across anything in any other browser that comes close to Safaris' killer feature.
The Activity Window and its' ability to integrate with download accelerators such as iGetter and Speed Download.This window allows you to see just about every file that is in your browsers, cache.
This is especially useful when you want to down load videos off the net with optimum speed,especially those videos that the sites' operators don't want you to have a copy of.

Two-This is all well and good,but compared to its potential in terms of speed,Safari 4 on its own doesn't really squash the opposition (apparently).Answer?
Safari 4 + " Webkit nightly build" = Use those Opera Exploring Chrome vulpes to clean your floors.
While to surf the net, install Safari 4 for its superior framework compared to Safari 3.x.x.Then go to webkit.org and download the latest "Nightly Build" (yes I know Safari 4 is built around the Webkit engine) ,"Webkit Nightly Build" just manages to stay closer to the cutting edge in terms of overall speed.

Now with safari 4 closed,install and launch Webkit Nightly Build.It's easy to tell the difference between the two applications' icons-Safari has a silver compass ring,while Webkit has a gold one.
Now control/right click on the Webkit icon in the dock and click on "Keep in Dock".
Now just click the compass with the gold ring in the dock whenever you want to go surfing.

Safari on steroids.Voila.