Skimming through this list of Macintosh web browsers for fun, I was shocked by two points.
First, I guess when I clicked on the link to go read the page, I wasn’t really thinking, but 83 different web browsers is a hell of a lot of software, a hell of a lot of options for people to do basically the same thing. And it’s a hell of a lot of alternatives to the most popular browser in history, which also happens to be the shittiest, at least for the modern Mac user. Despite the recent popularity of alternative browsers, the vast vast vast majority of computer users still browse with Internet Explorer, so this means that some of these lesser-known Mac browsers probably have about six users on a good day. I mean, SplitBrowser? Amaya? SurfDude? Some of these have to be made up.
Second, I was pretty surprised at how many of these browsers I actually have on my computer, and of them, how many I actually use on a regular or semi-regular basis. To wit:
- Safari. Safari, Apple’s own browser, remains my go-to browser for several reasons. First, it’s reasonably fast. Second, it’s reasonably well-featured. Third, it has a feature I really depend on, excellent RSS integration: when I’m at a page with an RSS feed, a blue RSS box will appear in the URL window, and when I click on the box, the feed will be added directly to my feed aggregator – can any other browser do that? Unfortunately, Safari is a bit unstable and has nowhere near all the features of certain other browsers. In particular, when I quit Safari and restart it, I’d love to have it reload exactly the pages I was viewing before I closed it.
- Camino. Camino, the Mac build of Firefox, is a fine browser, but it’s not remotely near as fast on my computer as it’s supposed to be. Plus, I actually like Safari’s metallic interface. Also, because Camino is written directly for the Mac, most Firefox plugins are unavailable. I usually use Camino whenever a site won’t load properly in Safari because of crappy web design, cursing all the time that the designers should be fired.
- Firefox. Firefox, an all-around wonderful browser for its stability and customization, is the “real-world” build of Camino, and I really feel it to be the great-grandson of Netscape Navigator that it is (I mean that as a compliment). I have Firefox on my computer but never use it because Camino does all its jobs. Despite the lack of Mac-optimization, I would already have switched to Firefox if I had found an RSS-enabling plugin that lets it do with Safari does. I’m waiting…
- OmniWeb. While I was using Panther and Safari 1.x, I was having real trouble for a while with Safari. It kept crashing like mad and I wanted to try using Camino. But in order to switch my system’s default browser, I had to be inside the Safari preferences. Nice Catch-22, Apple! So I initially downloaded OmniWeb, by OmniGroup, because it also gave me the option to switch my default browser. I haven’t used OmniWeb that much but it seems like a clean and quite fast browsing experience. I don’t know it to have any dramatically good features, however, that could woo me to it from Safari or Camino/Firefox. Though I do have a licensed version of OmniWeb, why would I switch to a browser that’s only being worked on by one small group of people when I could have the open-source goodness of Firefox/Camino or the close-to-home comfort of Safari?
- Opera. The free version of Opera Browser used to have integrated advertisements, which I will not tolerate, and I only downloaded it after they released a free no-ad version. I actually really like Opera because it’s so fast (probably the fastest browser on my computer) and because, when I open it, it displays exactly what I was looking at when it quit. Opera is quickly replacing Camino as my backup browser, though I doubt it ever will overcome Firefox/Camino completely for me and challenge Safari.
- Shiira. I originally downloaded Shiira Browser, not knowing what it is, when I was experiencing the aforementioned difficulty with Safari. Shiira is a Japanese browser built using the Safari webkit. It’s tied in first place, with Opera, for fastest browser. Shiira has some fantastic features, such as a terrific sidebar and the option to open all links in new tabs instead of new windows. So what’s the problem with Shiira? It doesn’t have RSS integration. WTF is up with that?
- Internet Explorer. Stop giggling, I actually do have Internet Explorer on my computer, though the only time I’ve opened it in the past six months was to note that it displays my website, which is more or less standards-compliant, completely wrong. And I mean wrong, as in, totally different colors than I intended. But hey, what should I have expected from Microsoft? For those who don’t know, Microsoft abandoned further development of Internet Explorer for Mac several years ago, which means using this browser doesn’t only make your browsing experience suck – it’s also full of security holes and universally not recommended. Despite that, I’m sporadically shocked to learn that there are actually Mac users still browsing with Internet Explorer. Why? Have they not heard the news? Even worse, Microsoft products for Macintosh don’t support Hebrew, and every once in a while I’ll actually have to tell an Israeli to stop using it. So why do I even keep Internet Explorer on my computer? There are a few websites that are only accessible in Internet Explorer – their programmers should be fired and rot in hell – and even though it’s unwise to transfer information on these sites because of security gaps, I keep Internet Explorer in case I one day need it.
- NetNewsWire. NetNewsWire isn’t a browser, but it has a browser built-in so that, if I’m scanning RSS feeds, I can click on a link and it will open in a tab in the same window. That’s a pretty hot feature that I tried and enjoyed, but I decided not to use it because I like using one program for browsing so I can keep track of the experience. Suppose I were to open a blog post in NNW, then follow one link to another and suddenly have 15 tabs open. If I want to add one as a bookmark, I’d still have to open it by hand in Safari. Oh well. One other thing I find great about NNW is that links that open in Safari can be set to open in the background, so my RSS-scanning is not even disrupted.
- RealPlayer. Apparently RealPlayer has a built in browser, sort of the same idea as NetNewsWire. I haven’t used it, though, and don’t plan on using it because I hate RealPlayer.
So there you have it – a full nine internet browsers on my own computer, five of which are in my Dock, getting used on a regular or occasional basis. Not bad.
Tweet