~ryanlowe/blog: Browser Wars

Browser Wars

When Apple released Safari, they started a landslide of talk about browsers. It made me realise, I have 4 browsers on my iBook already! Dang, what do I need them all for?

Internet Explorer 5.5 came with the iBook and as far as I know it was the only browser pre-installed. I use it when all else fails.

Next, I installed Mozilla, my old stand-by. Regular Moz gets dumped on by Apple purists because it doesn't use a Mac standard UI. I liked the familiarity at first, but now I just find it a bit clunky in comparison to other browsers I've downloaded since.

Chimera caught my attention next. It's pretty much Mozilla with a OS X native GUI. It's only in version 0.6 and I'm expecting many good things from this project.

Safari, silly name and all, arrived on the Mac scene and literally stole the show. 300k downloads in the first day. I'm keeping up with it and applaud Apple for their contributions to the open source KHTML engine BUT until it has tabs, especially given how crowded my dock gets, it's not much good to me.

Posted at January 14, 2003 at 06:03 PM EST
Last updated January 14, 2003 at 06:03 PM EST

Comments

I still use IE for most things... but otherwise I use Phoenix (scalled down Mozilla; only a browser).

Mostly I am staying with IE 'cause I know all the shortcut keys. That, and the google toolbar. If they have a google toolbar for Phoenix, I think that I would switch for good.

» Posted by: Jimbo Jones at January 14, 2003 08:05 PM

I use phoenix 0.5. Not sure what version you use, but there is a Google bar where you can enter text and search!...not the kind you download from google though, that's ONLY for IE.

Now I understand the 'tab' problem in Browsing, I can't live without it! Why not try Opera for MAC ryan?

My browsers of choice are Phoenix, Mozilla, Opera, and IE, K-Meleon is very nice, but still not mature enough.

» Posted by: roy at January 14, 2003 08:20 PM

If you go into options you can select Google as the default search engine. Then when you want to use Google you ctrl-l into the location, type what you're searching for a press the down arrow a few times and then enter. The "Google Bar" is built right in.

» Posted by: ryan at January 14, 2003 08:25 PM

hee hee... but I don't usually use the google toolbar to search. ;-) The "killer feature" for me is the highlight and "jump to word" buttons. I just find it a lot faster when looking for things to find it by colours.

I know, sort of sad, but it's all about the UI for me.

» Posted by: Jimbo Jones at January 14, 2003 08:36 PM

Only just a Mac point of interest, you guys might want to check out:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030109.html

for an interesting read...

» Posted by: Jimbo Jones at January 14, 2003 08:37 PM

I've switched almost entirely to Phoenix myself. Occasionally I'll still fire up IE if I *need* something from a site that I'm not positive will work with Phoenix (eg WebCT) just because I don't most sites bother checking things in Phoenix.

» Posted by: Peter at January 14, 2003 08:46 PM

....and no, that sentence doesn't make any sense.

WRITE MY REPORT DAMMIT!!

» Posted by: Peter at January 14, 2003 08:47 PM