Web experience on OSX

lonny

lonny

Fearless Thinker
This might seem like an old subject... but I feel like we are living in "dangerous" times.

Sad as it is, I am not completely satisfied wit hsurfing on OSX. Sure, we have a choice of browsers, and Safari looks lovely, Mozilla keeps on getting better, and Camino still rocks.

Still there are difficulties accessing some sites. And I'm not talking about fancy stuff like 3D chat rooms and the like...

Lycos webmail doesn't work properly.
My italian webmail system (www.email.it) works ok on Mozilla, but not on Safari.
My bank's site crashes Mozilla (and Camino).

Apple shoud make a BIG effort in order to improve compatibility with some big players, Lycos being an example.

Otherwise switching more people is going to be hard...
 
Well, the only web experience I have in OS X comes from the rare times I haul my iMac into the office and hook it up to the DSL modem, and I haven't done this but twice, and not recently. It still only has the v51 beta of Safari on it, and whatever version of Chimera was out then.

In Safari beta v51, my email site mislabelled the buttons, leading to an error in my emailing (I pushed Reply to All instead of just Reply). I agree, Apple needs to put the pressure on web designers to conform to standards, and they need to take the initiative themselves to realize that not everyone uses WinIE.
 
Getting Safari to work with every website is something Apple has set its sights on, but in reality, there are going to be some sites that just won't work with it due to no fault by Apple. There are moronic companies/web developers who, instead of using clearly defined standards, will opt for a Microsoft only hack, and then to add insult to injury, make the browser check that IE being used, and when it's not, it will simply lock you out.

Safari can spoof sometimes to get around these roadblocks, but sometimes even spoofing won't work.

If you find a site that doesn't work with Safari, use Safaris bug reporting feature (Apple really does read them), and also send an email to the site developer letting them know they are losing a potential customer/viewer/etc.

Overall, though, I'd say the web browsing experience on the Mac is the best that it's been since OS X debuted. It could definitely get better (Flash playback speed? Hello???), but the trend is upward not downward...
 
I agree. I started off using Macs way back in the days of System 6, but then set my sights on a PC due to the increasing amount of games, etc. available for them. My PC was my first Internet machine. I didn't get my iMac until Internet Explorer 6 was out. Coming from IE6 to the Mac's browser at this time (5.1?) I have to admit it was horrible. To this very date, my school uses Internet Explorer 5.2. I hate it but I have no other choice. Safari won't load our school emailing system. After entering your password it tries to download a file instead of going to the next page. Sure, we are only version 1.0 in Safari now, but it's increasingly irritating for me. I mean, Flash runs slow, Java is a complete and utter nightmare (painfully slow, text isn't smoothed,etc). That bug report thing in Safari, I've submitted at least 8, way back since v51 and nothing has happened. It can only get better but...
 
The thing is, Mircosoft's Mac software is way better than its Windows software. IE for Mac sucked an then 5 came out which although I didn't want to admit it, was way better than NEtscape 4.7 - more stable, better HTML rendering. Outlook Express 5 was the mail mail client I've used. But the OSX IE sucks compared to Sarfari. As was mentioned further up, the problem is (mostly) not Safari but lame developers not conforming to web standards. Safari is based on KHTML, a linux browser which makes it very compact and standards compliant. The problem is the rest of the world! I haven't used Camino etc much. I hear its very good but I stayed away from the Mozilla browsers because they're so big and slow. Hopefully the new slant Mozilla are taking will help when they ditch their current strategy of having a huge codebase. Haven't used the new Operas much, I liked version 5 for OS9.
 
The problem is the rest of the world!
Click to expand...

While I agree that the problem is caused by those who do not conform to standards, we are going to be cut out from (most of) the Internet if something doesn't happen soon!

I don't know what...

Implement an "Explorer emulation" mode?
Pressure on developers to follow standards?
Pressure on AOL to use Netscape (Mozilla) as their browser?

As it is now I have far too many problems with browsing. Most can be solved by using a combination of browsers (IE for banking, Netscape in classic for online supermaret, Mozilla for webmail and Safari for "normal" browsing)... but it's hardly convenient...
 
Should have made myself clear...

I didn't mean "emulation" as in identifying as Explorer.
I mean "emulation" as in supporting activeX commands, and all those quirky things that make some sites load unproperly on our machines...
 
Probably the only glaring bad experience in web browsing I've had in OSX is Macromedia's website. Even though I sign up and all that, it still won't let me download the trial versions of their products. I had to hop onto my PC to download the OSX trial version then put it in a shared folder and transfer it over to my iBook. Not all that bad but a bit annoying.

Please forgive me for playing Devil's advocate for a minute here:

I've browsed many sites that discuss Apple, and the Macintosh platform. Comments from people either for or against the Mac suggest that Apple needs to increase marketshare. The rebuttal from Mac users is that marketshare doesn't mean squat. Financially, Apple is doing well, there's plenty of developer interest to keep hardware gadgets and software apps coming.

This thread right here is a good example of where marketshare IS important: the WWW. I say WWW and not "Internet" because the Internet is generic layer of communication which OSX functions perfectly well. Compatibility on websites is what's the concern most people have and I strongly believe the problem is the perception from web developers that the Mac platform is small. The AOL web browser is #1 in the stats if you look at webstats or log files from a web server. #2 is Internet Explorer on various Windows OSes. So a web developer will focus on those 2 most popular platforms.

I half disagree that we should pressure web developers to conform to standards. Their business goal is to provide a useful website and that works for the larger body of their audience. Obviously they could implement whatever features they use in a more cross platform friendly technology, but everyone has their own reasons for choosing to do things however they do it.
 
I agree - I don't know how many times I cannot access some site's features, images, animations, movies... and it is really annoying. When this happens I write a letter to the site/company and tell them there is research that Mac owners have higher incomes than PC owners and that I was going to buy their products, but went elsewhere. I also tell them their competitors site works fine on my Mac and that is why I am shopping there. Who knows if this does anything, but it makes me feel better. Talk with your walet if you can and things may change. We may be a small group, but we are a sophisticated group who tends to spend more of our $. Tell them that and they may listen.

Safari is much better in this regard than IE, but you know what - I have really gotten used to IE scrapbook and history and use it ALL the time - I want something similar in Safari.
 
I'm waiting to upgrade to Panther cause I don't want to get Jag then Pan. But I run OS 10.1.5 and I can't get Safari on it. But it is SADLY a windows world and everything on the web works fine on windows. Damn MICROSOFT! But I tried every browser so far EXCEPT SAFARI and they all suck I think. Some better than others like Camino but I still want Safari. Anyone had bad experience with it?
 
With Safari? Before version 71 it crashed more, was slower and i had always trouble on one site.

Now .. lonny, _i_ can use tranquilly email.it webmail with safari. It works. :-/
 
Well sure it does, it's still a 1.0 product. You don't expect Apple to get it 100% perfect on the first try, do you?
 
But thinking of how sad a web experience the Mac was _before_ Camino & Safari, I must say that we've come a long, long way. I personally rarely find stuff that I can't use with Safari & OmniWeb (both use Apple's WebKit) and it's quite fast indeed.

About those sites of companies that just don't support anything but IE for Windows: Report those to Apple. Sure, if some users send the company E-Mail directly, it might help, but if someone like APPLE comes along and tells 'em to correct their site, the probability of success is much higher (though still below 60%, of course). ;-)
 
Originally posted by arden
Well sure it does, it's still a 1.0 product. You don't expect Apple to get it 100% perfect on the first try, do you?
Click to expand...
Hehehe, would you be surprised if some people did expect that of Apple? Or even go a step further and claim that they do.
 
There's been a rumour that version 1.0 has _been_ rushed out of the door. I personally think, Apple should have released 1.0 as another beta and call the Panther build 1.0 (instead of 1.1 as it seems it's gonna be). Then they'd have had more time. Guessing that Panther will arrive in the September to December time frame and seeing how Safari has developed, Safari will make much progress until then...
 
Giaguara,

Now .. lonny, _i_ can use tranquilly email.it webmail with safari. It works. :-/
Click to expand...

doesn't work for me... I can't empty the trashcan, for example. Sometimes replying to a message sends out a blank email.

Have you had such experiences?
 
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