Why I do not use Safari
"Yes, I love technology; but not as much as you, you see. But I still love technology. Always and forever."
-Kipp Dynamite
It is true. I love technology. It is this love for technology for me to be a bit of both a mac and PC guy. Part of my mac-ness shows in that while I have tried to get into both Windows Media Player and iTunes, I am just a larger fan of iTunes. The interface makes more logical sense to me, and it is easier to play the music I want and listen to the radio stations if I wish. And while I would like to get a Zune 4 gig in the future, I now have an iPod which syncs very nicely with iTunes (duh).
This attitude of desiring to try different apps from different companies just because of my fascination with technology also extends into which web browser I use. I recall when I was a youngin using Netscape to browse the web exclusively. Netscape died recently, never having fully recovered from her defeat in the First Browser War (between Netscape and Internet Explorer). However, we are now in the Second Browser War... and there are many more players this time around.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is a great improvement over IE6, and is currently available as IE8 beta 2. I have not yet tried it out, but I will soon. I have been an avid Mozilla Firefox addict since I discovered it upon receiving my first computer in college. My dad was very much into Mozilla's suite browser-email, but I only got into the Mozilla scene with the use of Firefox 1.5 when it came out. And I fell in love instantly! I will go into some of my favorite features later... but since version 1.5, version 3 has come out (with 3.1 being released in a matter of months), and it has only gotten better!
However I have been knowing to try out other browsers. I used Opera for a time (9.x series)... and did try out Google Chrome the first few days of its release. I will perhaps go into these browsers at a later day, but I no longer use either (perhaps a future release of Google Chrome will change my mind though).
One browser that has much hype revolving around it is Apple Safari. Users boast of its speed and its ability to render pages quickly and efficiently (it passes the Acid 2 AND Acid 3 tests with a 100%... something none of the other two market leaders (IE7 and Fx3) can do as of yet). Furthermore, I am ever greatly impressed by not just what is under the hood, but the hood itself. It has one of the (next to the new Google Chrome) CLEANEST user-interfaces for a web browser around Not just the mac version, but also the one that runs on Windows. Very slick and clean. There is no status bar at the bottom of the screen, allowing viewers to view even the slightest bit more of the desired page on the screen. The brushed design of the browser too is very visually appealing. Simple and elegant.
And lastly (possibly one of my FAVORITE features about this browser)... it renders text differently for websites. What do I mean by different? I just mean different.
For instance... here is how our lovely Facebook is rendered in Firefox 3 (similarly it is also rendered in IE7):
Some of you (like our little-old-lady friend "WHERE'S THE BEEF?") may be asking "WHERE'S THE DIFFERENCE? The font. The font is rendered differently. Most noticeably in the status updated, which reads "What are you doing right now" as well as in the text for the link to the mail: "Inbox." It is in a different typeface... a different font. A font that is slightly rounder, but also more inviting to the eye. Fare more appealing I would say to look at.
So if I am so thrilled about this web browser, why would I not use it exclusively?
I encourage you to download both and give them a test drive. Which browser do YOU prefer?
These reasons for not using Safari may not seem that important to some of you. But these reasons all together ... especially considering Adblock Plus... mean I use Firefox 3 and not Safari.
-Kipp Dynamite
It is true. I love technology. It is this love for technology for me to be a bit of both a mac and PC guy. Part of my mac-ness shows in that while I have tried to get into both Windows Media Player and iTunes, I am just a larger fan of iTunes. The interface makes more logical sense to me, and it is easier to play the music I want and listen to the radio stations if I wish. And while I would like to get a Zune 4 gig in the future, I now have an iPod which syncs very nicely with iTunes (duh).
This attitude of desiring to try different apps from different companies just because of my fascination with technology also extends into which web browser I use. I recall when I was a youngin using Netscape to browse the web exclusively. Netscape died recently, never having fully recovered from her defeat in the First Browser War (between Netscape and Internet Explorer). However, we are now in the Second Browser War... and there are many more players this time around.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 is a great improvement over IE6, and is currently available as IE8 beta 2. I have not yet tried it out, but I will soon. I have been an avid Mozilla Firefox addict since I discovered it upon receiving my first computer in college. My dad was very much into Mozilla's suite browser-email, but I only got into the Mozilla scene with the use of Firefox 1.5 when it came out. And I fell in love instantly! I will go into some of my favorite features later... but since version 1.5, version 3 has come out (with 3.1 being released in a matter of months), and it has only gotten better!
However I have been knowing to try out other browsers. I used Opera for a time (9.x series)... and did try out Google Chrome the first few days of its release. I will perhaps go into these browsers at a later day, but I no longer use either (perhaps a future release of Google Chrome will change my mind though).
One browser that has much hype revolving around it is Apple Safari. Users boast of its speed and its ability to render pages quickly and efficiently (it passes the Acid 2 AND Acid 3 tests with a 100%... something none of the other two market leaders (IE7 and Fx3) can do as of yet). Furthermore, I am ever greatly impressed by not just what is under the hood, but the hood itself. It has one of the (next to the new Google Chrome) CLEANEST user-interfaces for a web browser around Not just the mac version, but also the one that runs on Windows. Very slick and clean. There is no status bar at the bottom of the screen, allowing viewers to view even the slightest bit more of the desired page on the screen. The brushed design of the browser too is very visually appealing. Simple and elegant.
And lastly (possibly one of my FAVORITE features about this browser)... it renders text differently for websites. What do I mean by different? I just mean different.
For instance... here is how our lovely Facebook is rendered in Firefox 3 (similarly it is also rendered in IE7):
And now... here is how it is loaded in Safari 3.1...
Some of you (like our little-old-lady friend "WHERE'S THE BEEF?") may be asking "WHERE'S THE DIFFERENCE? The font. The font is rendered differently. Most noticeably in the status updated, which reads "What are you doing right now" as well as in the text for the link to the mail: "Inbox." It is in a different typeface... a different font. A font that is slightly rounder, but also more inviting to the eye. Fare more appealing I would say to look at.
So if I am so thrilled about this web browser, why would I not use it exclusively?
- Compatibility with websites. Yes, Safari may win the highest score in the Acid 3 test. However, this does not mean the vast majority of sites are rendered properly as they should be. I have noticed numerous sites with scroll bars overlapping the area in which they belong. Can Mozilla Firefox 3 also have this problem? Yes. And it does from time-to-time. But how I get around THAT is I use IE Tab as an extension... which allows me to view a page using the IE rendering engine WITHIN a Firefox tab. SO I don't need multiple browsers open when I am visiting a site that is not rendered properly in any browser but IE. Which brings me to my #2 reason....
- Customization. Safari is very beautiful and functional by itself. However, it has zero customization ability. As I mentioned previously, IE Tab is one of my favorite extensions and the most useful, I would say, to any Firefox 3 user. In Fx3, one can customize the look and feel of the browser by applying different themes (it can be made to even look like IE or Safari!)... as well as given different functionality. I can add ANY search-bar feature on a website with the add-on "Add To Search Bar," even if Fx3 doesn't recognize it as a search bar from the page load. I can view HomestarRunner.com pages in full screen with Full Screen Runner (granted not the MOST USEFUL add-on, but certainly a FUN one!). I have added tab-preview functionality (which I first saw in AOL's AOL Explorer). I can add a "new tab" button similar in function and look to IE7's button, right on the tab bar. Other add-ons include a download accelerator, a download helper for getting YouTube videos loaded onto your computer... hundred of customization options. However one stands out...
- Adblock Plus. Yes, I know it is an extension, and the previous reason was about the various extensions/add-ons... but this is different. Adblock Plus is THE extension. I could not imagine a world with Firefox in it that did not include this glorious add-on. If you have spent any time surfing the web, you notice various ads on pages that are likely to lead you into an epileptic fit if you are not careful, with all the flashyness that drives you nuts. OR... especially if you frequent hit social networking sites MySpace and Facebook... various ads for Tru and other "singles dating" sites (which are basically just inappropriate pornographic ads to prey on people's lusts) are frequent. This is often annoying and even embarassing exposing yourself and those around you to such advertisement. This is where Adblock Plus and the EasyList (USA) subscription come in! This causes Firefox to block these ad's images. No longer are you subjegated to "dirty ads" ... or even any ads at all. Also helpful is the Adblock Plus Element Hiding Helper, which blocks not only many visual ads, but also the space on the page that the ad takes up, getting rid of blocked empty sections of the site. I would encourage caution though. This particular tool may screw up how you view web pages if you are not careful and do not know what you are doing. Thankfully, these hiccups are completely reversible :-) And alas, no such tool is used for Safari.
- This last one may not seem as big a deal as the previous few... but I think it is also worth mentioning. In IE7 (and 8) you may click the NEW TAB button to the right of the open tab in order to open a page. In Firefox you can open a new tab by either putting a NEW TAB button ONTO the Navigation Toolbar (near the Home button), OR (via extension) make it similar to IE7, as I mentioned earlier. Now it is true... in IE, Fx, and Safari, you can add a new tab by pressing Ctrl+t. However, in Safari, this is practically the ONLY way to open a new tab. Yes, you can double click on the empty space in the tab bar (as you can also do in Fx). But when the tab bar is FULL and there is no space to click, appart from going to File>New Tab, you must enter in the Ctrl+t key for a new tab to appear. There is no New Tab button for the Navigation Toolbar. I find this nearly unacceptable. Sure, the interface may look cleaner without it. However, there are times when you are in a "clicking mode" with the mouse, that it would be faster to click some sort of button than to remove fingers from the mouse and press Ctrl+t in order to open a new tab. Again, this issue is NOT huge... but I think it is a substantial problem considering my trends in browsing.
- Firefox 3 is VERY fast. While Safari 3.1 kicked Firefox 2 in speed... Firefox and Safari are just about equal in speed now. One may be faster depending one what system you are using, but over-all, Firefox's speed is another reason to use it over Safari 3.1 or IE7.
I encourage you to download both and give them a test drive. Which browser do YOU prefer?
These reasons for not using Safari may not seem that important to some of you. But these reasons all together ... especially considering Adblock Plus... mean I use Firefox 3 and not Safari.
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