Battle of the Browsers

I think (as much as I hate to say it) IE is currently the best we have. Maybe in the future this will change. Chimera is nice, but needs some major work before I'll default to it.

My $0.02..
 
We also ran the browsers through Macworld Lab's Speedmark browser test to judge how each browser performed without the unpredictable overhead of the Internet.
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i found this quite interesting as my favorite (icab), which i have always claimed is fastest (i know it is on my imac), whomped all competitors with a 6 sec. time. the closest any other browser came was ie at 41 secs. (which surprised me a bit - ie is not as fast as omniweb for me). because without any unpredictable variables, icab has the capabilities to load and render the fastest.

i was also impressed that they had done some digging into the prefs of the browsers. i don't think any of them work their best as delivered from 1st download. i still believe that icab's biggest problem with consumers is that it has too many prefs. nobody but the developer knows what all of them do. but i can tell you that by playing with them a bit, it becomes fast and stable and renders a lot better. however i admit that pages like espn don't render correctly. however, i've gotten used to it and have actually found i like the weird rendering better than the mouse over menus. ln the end, there is less effort to read all the daily headlines that way. i know it's a quark that compulsively orderly types aren't going to appreciate, but it is livable for me for the few sites that behave this way. i can always get out omniweb and go to the site if i really need to for some reason.

now if only my financial institutions wouldn't tell me to bugger off if i don't use ie or netscape.
 
hey guys... :p
personally , i think IE is the worst thing weve got.

ive tried all of the browsers (apart from iCab) .. and from my personal experience i prefer Chimera. Chimera is probably one of the fastest (if not THE fastest). On the other hand, Opera 6.0b2 appears equally as fast. Im surprised that almost noone has ever mentioned Opera. Of course the disadvantage with this one is that its highly unstable (but obvisouly it will have a bright future if it continues beeing as fast).

As for Omniweb it might be quite slow for me but the image output on the screen is very smooth and clean (probably the greatest advantage it has over all othe browsers)

Ive stopped using Netscape because i find the other browsers more responsive and fit for the job.

(PS: Opera and Omniweb have great language support, after installing Jaguar a had a problem with Greek Language Support with all browsers apart from these 2 which were compatible) ...
 
Hmm... Features, features, features. And user interface. OW rocks.

OmniWeb for usability
Chimera for speed
iCab for the HTML tester
Internet Explorer for because it's installed by default ...

Opera? It's so BLOATED compared to its promise a few years ago. Its interface ... really, it s*cks. Even worse than IE.
 
What I like
Fast browsing
Flash & Java
Tabs
CSS & W3C
Bookmarks
What I dislike
Ads
Forgetting passwords
Useless features.

Thus, I use Chimera.
:)
 
I'm with Toast. I use Chimera mainly because it just seems like the perfect OSX browser, it's fast, it works on everything I need and it looks like the GUI. I only use IE when I have to for some secure sites and for sites with WMP files.

I don't understand why some of you use 3 browsers, that's just a bit much.
 
Why three? Explanation:

1. OW for Usability
2. IE for standards compliance
3. Chimera because its UI might grow up (checking in from time to time)

Hmm... Just noticed that I gave the answer (or a similar one) before you posted the question.
 
Hmmmm, Why is it i found IE (5.2.2) the fastest browser on my iBook?! :confused:

Ah well, thats what i use, but i prefer to browse on PC. (hehe, now thats what i call speed! :rolleyes: )

NeYo
 
Originally posted by fryke
Why three? Explanation:

1. OW for Usability
2. IE for standards compliance
3. Chimera because its UI might grow up (checking in from time to time)

Hmm... Just noticed that I gave the answer (or a similar one) before you posted the question.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes: Anyways...
 
I am currently using Netscape. I have been using it since i got my g4 way back when they 1st came out. Put it this way, its a G4 400!!!!

Anyway IE used to ALWAYS crash my Mac....Now its the default browser.....Sh*t is changin' i tell you....

Netscape seems faster than IE for me. Ie can veiw WMV's by default, Netscape want additional plugins.....
 
Mozilla all the way baby!

Why?

Features, customizability, email client, w3c compliant, includes Math font for mathematical-oriented webpages.

The prefs.js file is just a text file that you can edit in BBEdit to add features I frequently find on Slashdot. Commands that I've added prevent a website from seeing the previous website I visited via a link (handy for clicking on New York Times links on Slashdot to read articles).

Cookie Manager allows for selective blocking of cookies from specified websites. Cookies can be viewed and deleted at will. Cookies can have a user specified life time.

Forms Manager can remember data I fill into forms, like my address for online shopping.

Image Manager can selectively block images from specified websites/servers.

Password Manager for websites.

My current setup blocks all popup windows and prevents a webpage from moving or resizing windows. New windows open up only if I request them via a link. I finally removed Macromedia Flash player from Mac OS X "System" folder, thus preventing animated advertisements from ALL websites. Selective image blocking from any specified website/server. When the "Back" button is clicked Mozilla is set to read the cache rather than reload the website (handy again for preventing advertisements from loading in). Webpages are forbidden to auto-reload after a specified time, again preventing advertisements to load in.

When your internet connection is 26600 bps, you have to go to extreme measures to see content, i.e. text, in a reasonable amount of time.

I get to the information I want without having to read or wait for all the junk to load in.
 
chimera fits my needs and if it doesnt i load ie and if that doesnt i boot up the pc

chimera roX0rz
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
[B
now if only my financial institutions wouldn't tell me to bugger off if i don't use ie or netscape. [/B]
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Hey Ed, I can do my online banking just fine with Chimera 0.6. :D
 
hey genghis :)

you know, maybe i'm just being protected by the computer Gods or something, but i'm yet to get a build of Chimera that doesn't crash within 2 minutes of launching. and most crash while launching.

not exactly what i want for my secure stuff either. :p
 
Well Ed, up till now Chimera 0.6 seems a lot more stable than 0.5 . It chrashes rarely and WHEN it crashes its probably becase im loading more than 3 tabs at the same time!!! With chimera 0.5 it would crash all the time and specifically with some sites.

Im not sayin that u should ur secure stuff using chimera (use omniweb), but i wouldnt exactly say that it crashes 2 minutes upon launching. :)
 
Hmm... There's one thing I consider good about Chimera, and that's tabs and bookmarked tabs. It lets me load all of my daily websites at once. But yes, it often crashes when loading the 7 or 8 tabs at the same time.

I've switched to using my own script that uses wget to download my favourite sites and a local frameset that lets me access the sites fast in OW.
 
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