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bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,866
2,056
Lard
I only use Safari for Hulu, because its tracking protection and privacy is very loose. Firefox and Chrome cause Hulu to fail.

Safari was always the first to fall in pwn2own and that's not good. I'd rather have a secure browser.
 

Ericdjensen

macrumors 6502
Nov 6, 2019
321
390
Springfield,VA
I use Firefox for school and safari for personal. Safari uses like 1/3 the amount of ram with a similar amount of tabs. I know there’s more to it than that but still impressive imo
 

MacDaddyPanda

macrumors 6502a
Dec 28, 2018
951
1,111
Murica
I exclusively use Brave Browser on all my device platforms. Mac, WIndows, Iphone, ipad. I really dislike Safari's UI. Lack of certain extensions that are only available on every other 3rd party Browser. And like OP Mentioned it's not compatible with every website vs Chromium based browser. Until the UI/UX is 100% parity or better Safari is just not for me.
 
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XboxEvolved

macrumors 6502a
Aug 22, 2004
808
1,003
I am with you on Safari, I have been using it since I got my first Mac and OS X Panther and when it came out I thought it was incredible and compared to every other browser out at the time it was. I still think it’s fantastic, fast, and much less power hungry than other browsers, not to mention how it works across all my devices. I mean after all, it is the grandfather of every single browser other than Firefox that is in use today.

Mail, while I don’t have anything against it, I started using Spark Mail about 5 years ago and it had better features than Apple Mail at the time. It also is a very Apple like program, so I have just stuck with it on all my devices.
 

tomekwsrod

macrumors member
Apr 16, 2018
99
103
I used Safari for a couple of years, but for two years now I have only used Firefox (sometimes) and MS Edge (main).
 

dumastudetto

macrumors 603
Aug 28, 2013
5,134
7,437
Los Angeles, USA
As long as you do not care about a 3-4 year old exploit:

A little more on the exploit:

Apple has many of the very best security minds working for them. That particular threat has been assessed as non-trivial to exploit, and pretty much impossible to accomplish at scale. The few people who might be successfully attacked using this vector should not be auto-filling any kind of data in their browser in the first place.
 

kinga

macrumors newbie
Jun 29, 2021
26
2
USA
The best pick for each person is different and relies on their wants and tastes. Safari and Apple Mail should be enough if you only use your Mac occasionally to check email and browse the web. But if you need more advanced features or ensure it works with certain websites or web apps, you might want to look at options Apple doesn't make.
 

polyphenol

macrumors 68000
Sep 9, 2020
1,905
2,279
Wales
I use Firefox as my default browser on macOS - and on Windows.

While I don't use Windows much at all now, I have only relatively recently jumped to macOS.

Many years ago, the old Internet Explorer was absolutely appalling - and I found Firefox usable then and ever since. Ignoring the siren calls to switch to Opera, did use Safari for Windows when still available, had to use Chrome. Forced to use the reinvented Internet Explorer and lost count of the number of times I ended up utterly unable to do basic things. (I know it has changed a lot but it wasn't even viable for alpha testing when released.) Throughout, despite some wobbles, Firefox has remained my choice.

Retaining the familiarity of Firefox has always been a significant advantage.

I'm not averse to Safari and there are some things I use it for - primarily things that don't work readily with Firefox using my standard settings which block a lot.

On IOS and iPadOS, I simply use Safari as installed.
 
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960design

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2012
3,703
1,571
Destin, FL
Apple has many of the very best security minds working for them. That particular threat has been assessed as non-trivial to exploit, and pretty much impossible to accomplish at scale. The few people who might be successfully attacked using this vector should not be auto-filling any kind of data in their browser in the first place.
Please share the non-trival exploit assessment you have ( I'm at Georgia Tech and would enjoy sharing it ).
I would agree that the MacBook exploit requires significant effort, but the Safari browser, while not "script-kiddie" friendly is quite simple to employ.
 

vkd

macrumors 6502a
Sep 10, 2012
970
345
Don't like Safari at all. My main browser is Brave, followed by Opera then Chrome then finally Safari in that order, when I have to test something. But mainly just Brave, which is Chrome without the phone-home. No spy-like code in it.
 

MacMan988

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2012
838
120
Is there any place we can find information about the security strength of different browsers? Such as currently open security holes, time taken to patch and so on?
 

Donoban

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2013
1,218
440
As long as you do not care about a 3-4 year old exploit:

A little more on the exploit:
Oh, that old thing. Nothing to see here.

Lolz.
 
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MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,351
3,734
Is there any place we can find information about the security strength of different browsers? Such as currently open security holes, time taken to patch and so on?

honestly I keep hearing about "security issues" with browsers, but it must be like at least a decade and a half since last time I heard someone got attacked from his browser.

Last I remember 13 years ago a guy visited a shady website and his computer got virus that immediately shut down. I am not sure if he was using archaic browser or downloaded a dangerous .exe file and executed it as he is not computer literate.
 

polyphenol

macrumors 68000
Sep 9, 2020
1,905
2,279
Wales
honestly I keep hearing about "security issues" with browsers, but it must be like at least a decade and a half since last time I heard someone got attacked from his browser.

Last I remember 13 years ago a guy visited a shady website and his computer got virus that immediately shut down. I am not sure if he was using archaic browser or downloaded a dangerous .exe file and executed it as he is not computer literate.
An awful lot depends on how you define "attack".

Extracting data you wouldn't want others to have?

Faking a site?

It isn't only viruses or that general type of malware. And we wouldn't see the biggest of the big boys rushing updates out if there were no attacks through browsers.
 

galad

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2022
471
363
Security got a bit better in the last 13 years, so nowadays the worst security issues that allow remote execution are usually used only by state actors to target specific people.

It's much easier to ask the users to manually download and run a malware or ransomware, because many will just do.
 
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cubbie5150

macrumors 6502a
Mar 4, 2007
706
217
I switched to Macs for personal use in 2006, and a remnant of my windows days, using Firefox, has stuck with me ever since. I use Firefox for everything except for some sites that work better on Safari. I occasionally use Brave as well, which is my only concession in my desire to avoid Google/Chrome to the extent that I can.
 
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scorpio vega

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2023
1,258
1,560
Raleigh, NC
Anyone here use Edge on Mac?
If so how is it.

I am buying a macbook for Christmas and I already use Edge on my windows but i need to know if i want to move full time to Safari or stay with Edge.
 

Bill_D

macrumors newbie
Nov 21, 2022
9
9
I like Firefox for a number of reasons. It syncs to my 2006 MacBook running Linux Mint Cinnamon as well as various virtual machines I like to play with. In the bookmarks sidebar, the last link clicked on stays highlighted, so it's easy to pick up where I left off in my daily web travels. And, it recognizes a middle click on my ancient TrackMan Marble FX trackball to open a link from the sidebar in a new tab. The glued-together TrackMan is so old it has a PS/2 connector.
 

genexx

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2022
170
83
I use also:

Firefox (2 Separate Firefox)
Chrome
Opera
DuckDuckGo
Brave
Safari Technology Preview (Testing only)
Edge (Testing only)

The first 3 Browser and Safari always open parallel.

1702389272007.png
 

MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,351
3,734
Anyone here use Edge on Mac?
If so how is it.

I am buying a macbook for Christmas and I already use Edge on my windows but i need to know if i want to move full time to Safari or stay with Edge.

Should work OK. I use BRAVE myself.

I use also:

Firefox (2 Separate Firefox)
Chrome
Opera
DuckDuckGo
Brave
Safari Technology Preview (Testing only)
Edge (Testing only)

The first 3 Browser and Safari always open parallel.

View attachment 2324082

how can you run 2 instances of FireFox?

I like Firefox for a number of reasons. It syncs to my 2006 MacBook running Linux Mint Cinnamon as well as various virtual machines I like to play with. In the bookmarks sidebar, the last link clicked on stays highlighted, so it's easy to pick up where I left off in my daily web travels. And, it recognizes a middle click on my ancient TrackMan Marble FX trackball to open a link from the sidebar in a new tab. The glued-together TrackMan is so old it has a PS/2 connector.

Modern Firefox can run on a 2006 macbook? I would imagine the hardware is no longer supported?
 

genexx

macrumors regular
Nov 11, 2022
170
83
@MacBH928

how can you run 2 instances of FireFox?

Installing multiple versions on Mac OS X is basically dragging the Firefox application out of the DMG file to the desktop and rename the folder. You can drag the renamed Firefox application folder to the Applications folder like you would normally install Firefox.
 
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