Is there any real benefit to any other browser than Safari?

[Fabercon]

Try Brave... same engine and looks just like Chrome to most websites but doesn't have all of that tracking crap that Google adds.

And as a web developer I use all of the major browsers testing website and having "clean" un-cookied browsers is really important for the tasks I have to do. Most of my browsing is done in Private Browsing mode.

 

[jaze22]

Brave for me too, browse the internet largely without adverts and cookies tracking you.

 

[BeefCake 15]

I don't touch fly by night browsers.

https://decrypt.co/31522/crypto-brave-browser-redirect

Didn't see that, good info!

 

[ian87w]

I have read various reasons why people use Chrome and Firefox, etc.

I am not a fan of google snooping on everything I do. Firefox is good but not great.

I am asking if there is any specific benefit like better battery life, better 120hz display integration, better privacy, better speed, better resource handling, etc.

This is a serious thread and I am genuinely curious to people's feedback.

Unfortunately, due to the popularity of Chrome, it has become the new “Internet Explorer,” where majority of sites are tested for compatibility with Chrome instead of the HTML standard or other browsers.

The bright side, there are plenty of Chromium based browsers nowadays, including Brave and Microsoft Edge. So I can enjoy the “Chrome” browser without installing Google Chrome.

Another huge weakness of Safari is that Apple tied new versions of Safari with new versions of macOS. For example, Safari 15 is not available for macOS Mojave. This leaves people with older and maybe less secure version of the browser. Meanwhile, an alternate browser like Brave will be updated independently.

 

[fluxtransistor]

Here are the extensions I use for Safari:

• Wipr, an adblocker—costs about two bucks if I remember correctly—and it works pretty well. I think it even blocks most cookie banners etc. Whenever I use a different browser it always jumps at me how obtrusive these are.
• StopTheMadness, the most useful feature being the ability to temporarily vanquish obtrusive HTML elements with Command+Delete when hovering over them. Don't tell anyone, but I always remove those pesky "subscribe to read" paywall overlays.
• Cascadea, lets you do custom stylesheet modifications. I like putting Apple's SF system font everywhere sometimes.

All of these are in the Mac App Store for free or very very cheap. I like to splurge on testing various apps and whatnots—what's a couple dollars on a $1000 machine?

 

[fluxtransistor]

Unfortunately, due to the popularity of Chrome, it has become the new “Internet Explorer,” where majority of sites are tested for compatibility with Chrome instead of the HTML standard or other browsers.

The bright side, there are plenty of Chromium based browsers nowadays, including Brave and Microsoft Edge. So I can enjoy the “Chrome” browser without installing Google Chrome.

Another huge weakness of Safari is that Apple tied new versions of Safari with new versions of macOS. For example, Safari 15 is not available for macOS Mojave. This leaves people with older and maybe less secure version of the browser. Meanwhile, an alternate browser like Brave will be updated independently.

I think that if this really becomes a widespread problem, ie. (no pun intended) if Safari compatibility is broken on a lot of newly developed sites, then Apple might just begin to conform to the same compatibility standards too. And by that I mean, fingers crossed, no more --webkit- CSS things, just full parity for the sake of keeping a solid browser market share.

 

[mr_roboto]

Forgive my ignorance but on a security note does Mac OS integrated firewall work the same with Firefox or Safari? Does using a 3rd party browser add any security vulnerabilities that you know of?

The relationship to understand is:

THE INTERNET <---> Operating system networking driver stack <---> Apps (including web browsers)

The firewall is part of the OS driver stack in the middle. Its job is to filter traffic to and from the Internet regardless of what app is on the other side of the connection. Unless Apple's been carving out weird exceptions for Safari, the firewall will behave exactly the same for either.

 

[ian87w]

I think that if this really becomes a widespread problem, ie. (no pun intended) if Safari compatibility is broken on a lot of newly developed sites, then Apple might just begin to conform to the same compatibility standards too. And by that I mean, fingers crossed, no more --webkit- CSS things, just full parity for the sake of keeping a solid browser market share.

I hope not. What should happen is to adhere to the web HTML standard, not browser specific features. What Apple should do is make Safari for Android and Windows. Having your product on the majority platform will encourage developers to test support on your product. Chrome’s dominance need to be countered, not encouraged.

 

[ahurst]

I use Adguard on Safari and it is a little weird but still works, you have to wait a few seconds at the beginning of a video before you can skip the ad but once you do you don’t receive anymore.

For me, clicking on the video does nothing: the play button stays in the middle and I can’t even watch the ad to get to the video. Maybe my settings are wrong? I’m on Monterey, fully-updated.

Also, when you say “don’t receive any more”, do you mean for that one video, for that YouTube session, or forever?

 

[throAU]

I have read various reasons why people use Chrome and Firefox, etc.

I am not a fan of google snooping on everything I do. Firefox is good but not great.

I am asking if there is any specific benefit like better battery life, better 120hz display integration, better privacy, better speed, better resource handling, etc.

This is a serious thread and I am genuinely curious to people's feedback.

Firefox enables you to have different proxy settings and different security certificate settings to Safari.
You can also use different browsers for different sets of bookmarks/history/etc. for say work and home.

I also have problems with Safari dealing with authentication on some internal websites at work, which I use Firefox for.

 

[clevins]

I think that if this really becomes a widespread problem, ie. (no pun intended) if Safari compatibility is broken on a lot of newly developed sites, then Apple might just begin to conform to the same compatibility standards too. And by that I mean, fingers crossed, no more --webkit- CSS things, just full parity for the sake of keeping a solid browser market share.

Sigh. Apple DOES 'conform to the same compatibility standards'. Chrome... does not. Because of their market share, Chrome often puts things out before they're standards. I mean, if you have to prefix things with --webkit- that's kind of telling you that it's not a standard.

 

[LinkRS]

I try to use native browsers when possible (Edge on Windows, Safari on iOS and macOS, FireFox on most *NIX devices). However, I refuse to use Google Chrome. It is too much a memory and battery hog, when you can install the current version of Edge, and get all of the benefits of Chrome. The current version of Edge can (supposedly) run Chrome extensions, and can even sync settings/bookmarks across devices (just like Chrome). https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

Here is an article talking about it:

Microsoft Edge is the best browser for Mac users - Techish Kenya

While Safari is good with performance and battery life, I believe Microsoft Edge beats it by just being a better Google Chrome.

tech-ish.com

Another:

Microsoft Edge is a better browser than Chrome in macOS - NEXTOFWINDOWS.COM

Monopoly in the long run always hurts consumers, and when there is competition, especially healthy competitions, it benefits consumers. This is the case

www.nextofwindows.com

Don't take my word for it (or the above articles), do your own research . Good luck!

Rich S.

 

[throAU]

... until microsoft do something egregious and start spamming you with payment plans for online purchases (for a Windows-Edge based example)....

 

[falainber]

I hope not. What should happen is to adhere to the web HTML standard, not browser specific features. What Apple should do is make Safari for Android and Windows. Having your product on the majority platform will encourage developers to test support on your product. Chrome’s dominance need to be countered, not encouraged.

Nobody is going to bother using Safari on anything but Apple devices and Apple knows it. This would not add a single user for Safari and therefore would not influence any developers.

 

[ipsedixit]

I use Chrome because:

1. I'm a developer and I have to use Chrome because it has far better dev tools than Safari
2. I'm too used to the Chrome UI to change

Funny enough, I use Safari on my iPhone. It's not really ideal in terms of browsing syncing for me.

This is exactly what I do.

 

[sb in ak]

Recently switched back to Firefox for the container tabs and that it’s not Google or Apple software. Seems like they fixed speed issues that seemed to plague it before.

 

[the8thark]

For me the main reason is security.

Safari is far more secure than browsers like chrome and firefox. However other browsers like Brave and Tor are far more secure than Safari. Though an even more secure option would be booting the Tails Linux distro from a USB stick and the Tor browser. Not sure if that works on on ARM (or Apple Silicon) Macs though.

Brave/Tor/Tails is only really needed if you need absolute security. You do trade off a little performance though but that is fine because the point here is security, not absolute performance.

 

[ian87w]

Nobody is going to bother using Safari on anything but Apple devices and Apple knows it. This would not add a single user for Safari and therefore would not influence any developers.

Did you remember that Apple (under Jobs) did make Safari for Windows? I have always wondered why Apple didn't keep that going. If Apple didn't do anything, Chrome will become defacto standard, and even Apple users will end up using Chrome when they see more and more sites being broker in Safari.

Google Chrome had no problem replacing Internet Explorer despite it not pre-installed with Windows. Does Apple want the same with Safari?

 

[mykcalscottwalker]

I have read various reasons why people use Chrome and Firefox, etc.

I am not a fan of google snooping on everything I do. Firefox is good but not great.

I am asking if there is any specific benefit like better battery life, better 120hz display integration, better privacy, better speed, better resource handling, etc.

This is a serious thread and I am genuinely curious to people's feedback.

Firefox. Always. I've been an avid Apple fan and customer since literally their garage days. It's my home and office environment and I love their tech.

That said, monopolies rarely work. True innovation can ONLY stem from real competition so where I can I support ideals and companies like Mozilla, Readdle, etc.

That said, I've locked down Firefox so tightly with such an array of extensions that sometimes I just use Safari for a 10 minute browse on a site that just wont open on my Firefox setup.

 

[CooperBox]

Safari doesn’t allow for many extensions like uBlock Origin. Other Safari ad blockers aren’t open source like uBlock. Firefox is much better in that respect and a lot of people have switched since Safari 13.

I agree with these comments. On all my Macs I haven't used Safari for as long as I remember. I'm a great fan of FireFox and always have uBlock origin, Privacy Badger and HTPPS Everywhere extensions activated just for 'belt & braces' security/privacy.

 

[JPSaltzman]

I would use Safari more often if it wasn't tied to Apple's current OS releases. I have to stay on an older OS because of my too-expensive-to-upgrade software (and yes, I do use Parallels for some OSes) ; so, I go with Firefox. I wait a bit before downloading the latest release, but still ... most of my Safari-linked certificates are slowly expiring. And the Firefox-approved plug-ins and containers really help make YouTube a comfortable, ad-free, malware-free existence (for me, at least).

I have asked "Why" before, and I have received the standard-issue Apple replies from members here, but it's still not obvious to me why Firefox and Chrome et al can constantly upgrade and fix their browsers to block the latest security threats, whereas Apple ... well, just like how they never seem to get around to fixing blatant bugs in the previous OS -- "must release new, unfinished, flawed OS in September, regardless...!" -- so it seems to be with Safari.

 

[Significant1]

my cable-tv streaming service does not support safari, but firefox and chrome. I don't like how safari open new spaces for fullscreen video and not managed to find a way to deactivate that, so I only use Safari as my number 2 browser for Apple specific stuff, like apple-pay.

I Used to be Chrome user, but felt I had too many eggs in Google's basket and they where no longer as innocent as they started out. So I migrated to Firefox. Not an easy switch with all my extensions, but with time it is my default browser now. I never launch Chrome (and not logged in), except for 1 banking service that will only work in Chrome.

 

[telo123]

On my MBP I‘m using Firefox + uBlock for YouTube and Safari for everything else: Safari + Adguard somehow breaks YouTube completely, and so far I haven’t found a way around it.

Would love to use Safari full-time for the battery life benefits, but I may just switch to FireFox full time if I can’t get it sorted. Anyone here had better luck?

I've been using Adblock Pro for Safari as my adblocker since it came out. I have had no issues.

 

[thefourthpope]

I use Chrome for two specific work reasons:

1) InsertLearning only works on Chrome
2) Some Google Slide plugins are better on Chrome

Otherwise it’s Safari for me for everything.

 

[GP-SE]

Safari and Microsoft Edge with ublock origin.