Now if only it didn't crash so much.

It was this (for me, at least, unfrequent) crashing, as well as the increasing wait for spinning beach balls in our family that prompted me to consier OmniWeb when it went on extreme discount a week or so ago ($9.99 for the single user version). I played with it for about 15 minutes before I was on their site, typing in my CC info! My wife has been happy with the speed gains and the ability to restore sessions, and I'm happy with all the geeky tools that are also simple to use, and clearly arranged. I love being able to drag and drop "tabs" around, both within a window and between windows. I love the extreme ability to tailor-fit display of popups, ads, etc. for each site, as well as globally. There's a lot to like with Omni! It's a shame they don't offer it for free, but to be honest, I think it's the best $15 I've spent on software in a _long_ time! And I have no regrets! And my kids, after seeing me play in Omni are bugging me to getting around to installing it on their Mac! (bought the 5 pack for families) If you want a serious browser that is simple like Safari, but customizable like Opera, then take a look at Omni, especially now, while it's still on sale.

-Jon

Which browser is "best" depends very much on one's criteria. Safari has a lot of "features," but, not everyone needs those features. Firefox is very customizable through extensions, but not everyone wants to use extensions and the "Windows-like" appearance (pop-up menus, radio buttons, etc.) can be off-putting. Some, like Jon, like the way OmniWeb can be tailored on a site-by-site basis; others may not want to spend the time that requires. Camino is smaller and faster than either Firefox or Safari, but it has problems rendering some pages with embedded movies. iCab is highly customizable, small (under 20 MB), and one of the few browsers still being updated for OS 9, but it has not been "optimized for speed," as the developer puts it. Opera is idiosyncratic for those who want to be "really different," but it's so different that some users will be uncomfortable with it. Sea Monkey is around for those who like a suite--browser, email/newsgroup reader, and web page editor--like the original Netscape and Mozilla. There are others, like Shiira, that some might like.

Reviews are nice, but ratings and rankings are pretty much useless and, often, are misleading.

Since this is where most of Safari's security problems come from - e.g. malicious disk images, etc..

Another large set of security problems for Safari (and other Mac browsers) has come from bugs in image format decoders (e.g. JPG, PNG, TIFF, even PICT images!)

Clearly Safari should not have the ability to erase, create or modify any file in your home directory.... but it currently does.

I would also recommending sandboxing any tainted data decoding, so that (for example) malicious images (or web pages) don't result in buffer/heap overflows, remote code execution, etc..

Then there are problems like the QuickTime javascript exploit... it doesn't seem like there's an obvious way to fix this in Safari proper... certainly plug-ins shouldn't have access to the DOM.... and Apple should think about ways to mitigate the effects of malicious javascript and cross-site-scripting attempts...

Why does open safe files need to be off by default? Is that in case I am too stupid to comprehend the "THIS FILE CONTAINS EXECUTABLE ARE YOU SURE?!?!" dialog that pops up whenever a safe file containing an executable is going to be opened?

gslusher, I wish I knew what these features were that you say Safari has. It seems to be missing very important ones. Like warn when closing more than one tab?? Session restore would be nice given the fact that it crashes constantly. Oh well. I keep using it, so I should quit whining.

Quote

Biff wrote:
gslusher, I wish I knew what these features were that you say Safari has. It seems to be missing very important ones. Like warn when closing more than one tab?? Session restore would be nice given the fact that it crashes constantly. Oh well. I keep using it, so I should quit whining.

Safari has a lot of features (e.g., RSS reader) that some other browsers don't, but I didn't say that it was perfect. If you want session restore, use Firefox 2, for example.

Does Safari crash "constantly"? Every 0.001 second? Once an hour? Once a day? Once a week? "Constantly" means as little as "seldom." Have you compared it to other browsers? Does it crash on particular sites/pages? (The original version of Safari would crash with some jpeg images.)

Maybe I am lucky. But I can't remember Safari ever crashing on me. I like it better than Firefox and Camino because it just looks nicer. Maybe I am just used to it. Maybe I am also used to its speed because I don't find it that much slower than the other browsers. Anyway, that's my mileage.

It isn't the "best" browser imo, but it's the one I always come back to.

Maybe because it has the right mix of features, doesn't get in the way and feels solid. Or maybe that's just me trying to find a logical explanation for a curious phenomenom...

It goes like this:
I've switched a couple of times for very good reasons бnd was happy about my new browser (opera, firefox, ...).Then Safari'd get an update, I'd look at it again and be suitably underwhelmed... but still, somehow it would once again become my main browser.
So now I always have the latest versions of about 5 browsers installed - just in case - and still use safari. Why? Who knows? I don't.

Very hard to break free from Apple software.

Quote

Biff wrote:
gslusher, I wish I knew what these features were that you say Safari has. It seems to be missing very important ones. Like warn when closing more than one tab?? Session restore would be nice given the fact that it crashes constantly. Oh well. I keep using it, so I should quit whining.

There are extensions/ addons you can download for Safari. One of them is the ability to warn you if you attempt to close a window or quit Safari if you have more than one tab open. Another allows you to add search engines to Safari's search bar. Still others offer more flexibility with tabs. There are a bunch. Try VersionTracker and search for Safari. That should turn up tons. Or even Google© for Safari add ons. There used to be a site devoted to these things--and Mail IIRC. You can have lots of fun with Safari! I love Safari--I just think I like Omni a tiny bit more. BTW, Omni now sports the look of Apple's Mail, so there is some consistency in the interface with Apple.
-Jon

As others have mentioned, what constitutes the "best" browser is dependent on your needs. Also, I hardly think it a complete review or a valid conclusion that they don't include OmniWeb in their review.

I use OmniWeb instead of Safari because of the extra features it has compared to Safari; it does all that Safari does and more.

I don't use Firefox because it doesn't interoperate with Address Book, iCal, it looks like crap, and I don't want to have to spend a year and a day configuring it.

For my needs and preferences, OmniWeb is the "best" browser. I like it so much I even paid for it... 3 years ago when it was still only at v.4 and cost $29. (Yeah, go ahead and flame me for it, like I care...)

I have been using brousers since the late 1980,s, even before Al Gore invented the internet, and have used them all, and Safari is without a doubt the easiest, safest, and has never crashed in the three years I have been using it. "Way to Go Apple"

I wrote about this very same thing, zpok. I know there's better browsers out there, but i really like Safari for some reason. I feel like the browser wars are pretty much passing me by as I'm comfy/cozy with Safari.


The one thing i really do hate is that I'm forced to quit Safari after it's been open a couple of days with multiple tabs otherwise it gets unbearably slow; Like today, I accidentally quit Safari from the shift-tab launcher bar now I've lost some of the earlier sites as they've long cleared my history. It's really my fault, though, as I forgot to re-install Taboo after I got my MacBookPro.

I wrote about this very same thing, zpok, at my blog, MacinKlotz.com

Not "Safari's problems". A malicious disk image would be causing a problem for whatever it targets not for Safari. Safari is only the delivery mechanism here. Any other browser that is set to open "safe" files on download presents the same hazard to the system.

I want to like safari, I really do, being a mac user of 17 yrs...

but it crashes a bit too much, and I keep running into web pages that it dont like.

And... I think that camino is faster....

I'm leaning towards camino or firefox now

apple needs to update safari more often also, without making me buy a new OS to get updates.

i like safari, but apple needs to update it more often.