Browsers on Mac

Firefox on mac is basically not as good as that on windows. I feel even Ubuntu version of firefox is better than mac version, but then I haven't used ubuntu for long enough. Mac firefox is slightly buggier and less stable. It crashes more often (though 'often' for firefox is still quite infrequent). It has some display glitches. A number of extensions breaks on mac firefox though they are supposed to work. Inconsistent look-and-feel is also a bit frustrating, widgets in web pages are not native look (firefox 3 is supposed to improve that a lot, which is already reflected in nightly builds of firefox 3). I guess number of mac firefox users is just not big enough to be seriously considered.

Safari is not popular enough to be taken in to consideration. Even doesn't officially claim Safari support for some of its services, which is a big red cross sign for me as a google fan. However Safari does has the most appealing look-and-feel for both interface and web rendering. It's a great experience to view apple.com with Safari, and basically that's most of my experience with Safari.

Another alternative is Camino -- gecko engine no compatibility issue, consistent interface, native look. However, I find it not so useful because its lack of extension support. I doubt if it will survive the hit of Firefox 3.

Opera is said to be great, but with its tiny market share, I didn't even try to install it, with no disrespect to opera developers. Internet is internet and web is web as they, a great product doesn't necessarily mean success.

IE, huh! I'm not even sure it's possible install the discontinued IE6 on mac. So under some very rare circumstances where I have to use IE, I just pop open my VMware fusion.

So there is no perfect browser on mac for now. My first choice is still firefox, with some occasional use of safari when I need two browser running simultaneously. And I don't think it's going to change in the foreseeable future. The only hope is that firefox 3 could bring browsing experiences on mac to another level.