Do you like using non apple browsers on the Mac?

[MacDaddyPanda]

I exclusively use Brave on every single device. If there's a website that is broken or not coded well I'll switch to Edge, FF, Then Safari if the website sucks. Like for those of us in tech industry that suffered layoffs EDD in their infinite wisdom decided to change banks and are using Money Network. Their website feels like it was hobbled together by entry level web developer. I actually have to leave Brave shields on just to use the website. I tried using Safari for a few hours. Nope. I do not like the UI. And the lack of Ublock Origin support was also a deal breaker. I know that's not Apple's responsibility. But it is a criteria I want in a browser. The alternatives haven't been as good in my view.

 

[jwolf6589]

I exclusively use Brave on every single device. If there's a website that is broken or not coded well I'll switch to Edge, FF, Then Safari if the website sucks. Like for those of us in tech industry that suffered layoffs EDD in their infinite wisdom decided to change banks and are using Money Network. Their website feels like it was hobbled together by entry level web developer. I actually have to leave Brave shields on just to use the website. I tried using Safari for a few hours. Nope. I do not like the UI. And the lack of Ublock Origin support was also a deal breaker. I know that's not Apple's responsibility. But it is a criteria I want in a browser. The alternatives haven't been as good in my view.

FF is better than Chrome to me.

 

[MacBH928]

For browser, I prefer to stay with Safari too, largely because of privacy and confidentiality reasons. Whether that assumption is true or not, I don’t really know, but I feel like Apple generally has pretty good privacy and confidentiality practices.

Firefox and Brave is better for your privacy since they are open source. You never know what is apple collecting behind closed doors.

For anyone who really likes Safari but wishes it did a good job of supporting extensions, Orion Browser is a great alternative, and I'd probably use it more if I weren't so used to Firefox at this point.

whats special about Orion that Safari does not have?

I exclusively use Brave on every single device. If there's a website that is broken or not coded well I'll switch to Edge, FF, Then Safari if the website sucks. Like for those of us in tech industry that suffered layoffs EDD in their infinite wisdom decided to change banks and are using Money Network. Their website feels like it was hobbled together by entry level web developer. I actually have to leave Brave shields on just to use the website. I tried using Safari for a few hours. Nope. I do not like the UI. And the lack of Ublock Origin support was also a deal breaker. I know that's not Apple's responsibility. But it is a criteria I want in a browser. The alternatives haven't been as good in my view.

Brave is basically Chrome without Google trackers, Edge is also based on Chromium , so website rendering should be similar on all 3.

 

[JP_NEB]

I have been using Firefox since it was Firebird for a little bit more than 20 years. I think what made me stick with it was I was using both a wintel and mac system and it just worked well with regards to matching settings, bookmarks... on both machines. Safari on windows never connected with me. When I was able to move to solely a macos machine, I just seemed like a seamless move. Do I use FF on my ios/pados devices? Nope, there Safari just seems natural.

 

[bradman83]

Random tip for Firefox users, there's a modification you can install for the window's top chrome to make the background of the tab bar translucent with the macOS vibrancy effect. I find it really makes Firefox look instantly more Mac-like (although the most recent UI overhaul fits in much better with the Mac aesthetic post-Big Sur regardless).

Not sure if MacRumors policy allows me to post links but Google zvuc firefox macOS native tabbar and you can find the github page with the files you need to add to Firefox's profile folder.

 

[bzgnyc2]

whats special about Orion that Safari does not have?

There are a host of features that will be more or less important to different people:

-Orion runs on older platforms (back to Mojave) but includes the latest WebKit -- as many websites are breaking on the last Safari that came with Mojave (and perhaps soon Catalina), this means those systems can still access the web with a WebKit-based browser.

-Supports multiple profiles which Safari only offered with V.17 (which requires Monterey or later). Similarly for vertical tabs.

-0 telemetry

-Builtin content blocker

-Supports both 3rd-party Chrome and Firefox extensions (including uBlock Origin, etc in case you prefer that over the builtin content blocker)

-Nice touches like a menu item for 'Open Page in Internet Archive' and 'Allow Copy & Paste'


Further overview (though new features added since):

Orion browser features | Kagi Blog

Orion ( https://browser.kagi.com ) may be a newcomer to the market, but it comes loaded with features.

blog.kagi.com

New features in the Orion Browser | Kagi Blog

*Orion beta 0.99.124* has just landed ( https://browser.kagi.com/#download_sec ) and is bringing over 160 new features, improvements, and bug fixes, making this our most significant release ever.

blog.kagi.com

It's not all roses. It's been in beta for a long time. Between beta releases there are frequent release candidates (similar I think to Safari Technology Previews) which have issues.

Still the author seems to have a certain dedication to quality. I sense he won't make an official 1.0 release until it meets a quality/complete goal that seems more like other software's 3.1.1 releases. And he even seems careful in his beta not to go backwards. Such things that used to be tablestakes but these days it's kind of nice...

 

[Eric Best]

For security reasons, if I have any doubts, I've started using the DuckDuckGo browser. Any opinions on it?

 

[bzgnyc2]

For security reasons, if I have any doubts, I've started using the DuckDuckGo browser. Any opinions on it?

I like DuckDuckGo as a company. They seem open and transparent. I use their browser on my phone.

However, I recall trying an old pre-beta version of their browser on my Mac and it wasn't usable for me. I am sure better now but never tried again. I do notice two things 1) they only use the OS's web engine via WebView and 2) they only support Big Sur+.

1. One hand it doesn't seem necessary for every company to invest in or maintain their own web engine so I see the logic in this.

On the other hand, this also means that you're limited to the version and features of the web engine that last came with your OS. For example, it would seem that runnning DuckDuckGo on Big Sur would mean you're limited to a WebKit with known security risks that Apple will not be addressing. Later this year that will probably become true for those who want to remain on Monterey.

It also means that websites may differ between Windows (where it uses Blink) and Mac (where it uses WebKit).

Finally it appears they can't workaround all the limitations of some OS's web engine to implement all their privacy protections.


2. In the context of 1) this makes sense as the WebKit included in Mojave and Catalina are out-of-date and have known security risks that Apple won't be fixing. On the other hand, it's inconsistent to still support Big Sur by that logic.


In any case, while I don't relish switching browsers constantly, I also haven't found any one browser covers everything. Test driving Orion as my primary right now while Firefox is my backup.

Speaking of, Firefox's performance isn't bad these days. On my Intel MacBook Air, V.123 all extensions disabled has the fastest Speedometer 3.0 results of any browser so far. Then I believe the combination of NoScript and uBlock Origin provides good privacy though they also seem to slow it down pretty good (at least 1/3rd for me). I am sure the privacy/security protections of that combination still isn't perfect but overall it seems a reasonable compromise of the available options.

Brave looks to be another interesting option but trying to see if the Orion+Firefox combination covers me before bringing in a 3rd.


FYI, I was thinking about trying Edge but not after seeing this (note the original data and analysis sourced from Brave):

Respecting Privacy | Kagi's Docs

Kagi Search Help

help.kagi.com

 

[MacBH928]

Still the author seems to have a certain dedication to quality. I sense he won't make an official 1.0 release until it meets a quality/complete goal that seems more like other software's 3.1.1 releases. And he even seems careful in his beta not to go backwards. Such things that used to be tablestakes but these days it's kind of nice...

I know the developer, he actually build the browser for himself and hence why you notice the quality. They actually have a long term plan to make Kagi a "suite" with different services like search, email, browser..etc.

For security reasons, if I have any doubts, I've started using the DuckDuckGo browser. Any opinions on it?

No reason. Firefox and Brave are just as secure or better and FOSS. I dont think DDG is FOSS.

Speaking of, Firefox's performance isn't bad these days. On my Intel MacBook Air, V.123 all extensions disabled has the fastest Speedometer 3.0 results of any browser so far. Then I believe the combination of NoScript and uBlock Origin provides good privacy though they also seem to slow it down pretty good (at least 1/3rd for me). I am sure the privacy/security protections of that combination still isn't perfect but overall it seems a reasonable compromise of the available options.

i use firefox on Mac, I see zero difference between it, safari, and brave in terms of speed or web rendering. The difference lies in the features. FF/Brave are multiplatform , FOSS, has extensions. It also good to support the smaller guys to decentralize the internet instead of letting the tech corps rule the internet. The less users they see, the less they likely to continue their efforts.