Jan 28 2006
Mac browsers: bye-bye Firefox
I have been using Firefox since the time it was called Phoenix. I think that the first build I used was 0.3, released in October 2002. So when I got a Mac a few months back, I naturally installed Firefox right away, with all my extensions, ad-blocking filters, etc.
But I have to face it: Firefox on the Mac is painfully slow. And it’s not just me: comparison charts and other users reach the same conclusion as me. Maybe MacBook Pro users won’t suffer from this, but Firefox on a PowerBook is far from ideal.
So I decided to give other browsers a try, which is tough as I can’t live without extensions like Adblock or Tab Mix Plus. However, responsivity of an application like a Web browser comes before features.
And it turns out that the Mac has quite a number of browsers available for it, ranging from free open-source ones (e.g. Shiira) to commercial closed-source (e.g. OmniWeb).
After giving them all a short try, I found two candidates that suit my needs and which I found very responsive:
- Safari, with SafariStand and SafariBlock installed. There actually are a number of extensions for Safari.
- Opera, used with no-ads.pac. Other solutions are available too.
Because SafariBlock is much easier to use than no-ads.pac (e.g. you can block Flash ads with one click), I settled on Safari as my main browser, but hacking a little GUI for no-ads.pac could be cool, especially this solution is cross-browser.
