Love of Firefox vs. Safari

TuckerdogAVL · #1 May 6th, 2007, 10:05 AM

Someone please explain to me what I'm missing?

I've loaded FIREFOX because of the RAVE reviews. Great security. More stable. ETC. I have used SAFARI since it came out. I read all these forums about how wonnerful FIREFOX is vs. SAFARI....so, I give it a shot.

Firefox launches....spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, for about 30-45 seconds. I type in a simple website, like www.macosx.com. Spin, spin, spin, spin, spin...this time about 45 seconds. Can't find it. Would you like to try again? So I do....spin, spin another 30 seconds. I give up. Go to Safari. 2 seconds. I'm on the site.

I empty caches, I remove cookies, I clean out everything to do another test so both Safari and Firefox start fresh.

I launch Safari....take a little longer because there's nothing saved, but goes where I need it to go in about 15 seconds. www.google. com. www.yahoo.com. Nytimes.com. Simple stuff.

I launch Firefox....spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, 50 seconds - to a minute - later it's at the google.com site. I open a new tab. Type in yahoo.com to check some mail. Spin, spin, spin, spin. I read the mail. Click on Logout, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin, spin. Give up. Close it. Type in www. macosx.com. Spin, spin, spin, Site must be down, or doesn't exist or you're having an out of body experience. I close. Launch Safari. Type this message.

So, what am I missing here?

MisterMe · #2 May 6th, 2007, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TuckerdogAVL

Someone please explain to me what I'm missing?

...

You have it about right. There are some websites which are explicitly designed for Firefox and cause trouble in Safari. However, there is no browser which is more standards-compliant than Safari. Firefox is designed to solve two problems. The first is Internet Explorer on Windows. The second is the perceived bloat of Mozilla (now Seamonkey). Like Mozilla/Seamonkey, Firefox is not native code. It uses a small runtime interpreter to execute XUL. This is why it is slow on some machines. To a cutdown version of Mozilla was added an Extensions architecture to the existing Mozilla/Netscape plug-in architecture. Extensions allow Firefox to go beyond web browsing. Firefox fans swear by them. But if you use your web browser exclusively for browsing the web, then you cannot beat Safari.

Mikuro · #3 May 6th, 2007, 12:32 PM

I agree with what MisterMe said, except I don't think it explains the ridiculous delays you're getting. That's just not normal. Firefox's network code should be just as fast as any app's, and its rendering engine is also quite fast (I personally don't find it noticeably faster than Safari, but I wouldn't say it's slower, either). The interface is clunky and non-native, but that doesn't seem to be your problem.

Do you by any chance have a proxy set up in System Preferences? Most Mac apps, like Safari, will automatically use this proxy, but I think you need to specifically tell Firefox to use a proxy in its preferences (in the Advanced section, under Network).

nixgeek · #4 May 6th, 2007, 12:35 PM

What Mac do you have and how much RAM and remaining hard drive space does it have? If it's an older Mac, Firefox does tend to be very sluggish. However, on a machine like my iMac G5 with just 512 MB RAM it's pretty snappy.

Also, make sure that you've copied the Firefox application icon from the disk image to your Applications folder on your Macintosh's hard drive.

DeltaMac · #5 May 6th, 2007, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterMe

Like Mozilla/Seamonkey, Firefox is not native code.

Just a small correction - both Firefox and Seamonkey are universal code, which means either will run natively on PPC or Intel Macs. And, I agree, the very slow loading on your install of Firefox is not normal at all.

riccbhard · #6 May 6th, 2007, 01:32 PM

I don't use either. I prefer Camino, my favorite browser

DeltaMac · #7 May 6th, 2007, 02:33 PM

I have been using Shiira recently.

MisterMe · #8 May 6th, 2007, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeltaMac

... both Firefox and Seamonkey are universal code, which means either will run natively on PPC or Intel Macs. ...

What's Universal Binary is the runtime interpeter. The bulk of the actual browser code is XUL. If you want a Gecko-based browser on MacOS X which runs native code, then your only choice is Camino.