Apple introduced its Safari Web browser in 2003 in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, and it has been a fixture of the Mac experience ever since. However, Safari has long had significant competition from cross-platform browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and, more recently, a host of upstarts.
Although Safari is almost certainly the most popular browser among Mac users, I’m curious how other browsers fare among TidBITS readers. Please vote for those browsers that you use at least occasionally, and tell us why you use each one.
This poll grew out of a reader-generated discussion asking which Web browsers people use. If you already contributed to that discussion, please vote in the poll, but there’s no need to repost your reasons below.
As I mentioned in the prior thread, I primarily use Firefox. Mostly because I use Macs, Windows PCs and Linux PCs and it provides me the same interface, with the same skins and plugins on all three platforms.
I occasionally use Safari and Edge, but usually only if Firefox doesn’t work on a page. Safari because it’s an Apple standard. Edge because it’s also cross-platform, is based on Chromium, and is not from Google.
I suppose I should consider dropping Edge and instead get Chromium project builds, so I can get the engine without any corporate customizations. But I use it so rarely I don’t think it will matter much.
Previously Safari was primary with Brave secondary, and Vivaldi tertiary. Since I can’t go past MacOS 10.13.6 on my iMac, Safari is not working more & more, and it looks like Brave is about to follow suit so I’m trying out FireFox ESR. I didn’t check Tor in the poll because it is built into Brave for use with private windows. Oh, I still have the latest version of iCab that was released this year.
Safari, primarily, with Arc on one machine for possible wider adoption.
Firefox from time to time.
Edge, as my employer requires it for certain data access.
Changed back to Safari under Ventura after a year or two of using Firefox under Mojave. My main concern has been keeping up with security updates.
Once upon a time web pages simply presented text, images and hyperlinks to similar, simple webpages. They have gradually become more complicated with “features” to manipulate the browsing computer (I can understand why Steve Jobs dumped Javascript). Most recent browser security updates seem to be associated with Webkit - whatever that is.
I recently moved from Chrome to Safari. That’s working well. Every once in awhile I find a site not opening on Safari and then go to Chrome, but it is rare.
I primarily used Opera as my browser because I could block tracking. I was annoyed by the numerous ads for items of no personal interest. I used DuckDuckGo mostly as a search engine for similar reasons.
I had to use Safari occasionally because some websites had tight security that only recognized a few browsers including Safari.
In the recent past, I have started using Arc as my main browser. The ‘jury’ is still out but the trend is very promising. The targeted ads have not reappeared, thankfully.
Chrome is my main browser, but I keep Safari and Firefox around for checking websites (we build them) and for the rare cases that something doesn’t work in Chrome but works in something else.
On the iPhone, I mainly use Safari (not that you asked). I downloaded Chrome but rarely use it. I don’t care about syncing bookmarks between devices.
Firefox for stuff I consider “high risk” (CNN.com, LinkedIn). and Safari for everything else. (Both have DuckDuckGo as search engine, and pretty much all security features plus adblocker plugins. Asking which plugins people use might be an interesting ‘next question’.)
Safari is my primary browser. I use Brave as a secondary and Chrome if both primary and secondary choke on a site. Before I retired, the school district I worked for was optimized for Chrome, so I used it much more then.
I use Safari for almost all my browsing - but Chrome for some specific situations: (1) to to print to PDF when the source page has lots of images (Safari usually just leaves them blank); and (2) to purchase items from the Woot (Amazon discount) site because the checkout process in Safari doesn’t work (the pages are zoomed in so much they are not functional).
I almost always use Safari. It does what I need it ti do and I trust Apple for privacy and safety more than I do other companies. I use Firefox only when Safari won’t work for the website I am using. That hasn’t happened for a long time.