Safari is my main browser at home and has been pretty much since its inception. Periodically I go off and use Firefox, Arch, and other such things, but I always come back to Safari. It just gets out of my way, while integrating a few quality of life features that normally end up as extensions in other browsers.
My big gripe with Safari is the extensions being moved to the App Store. This creates a lot of unnecessary friction. I’m curious how much their AI extension creation will be able to do in macOS 27, maybe it will make this a moot point, but it’s still annoying.
At work I use Chrome, which I don’t like, but feel forced into it due to the company actively breaking or blocking everything else. As a general rule these days, I want to avoid all Chromium based browsers, to not give Google any more power on the web than they already have, but I’d have to quit my job for that to be possible at work.
I also use Mullvad’s browser from time to time at home.
EWW from Emacs. If Emacs can't render the HTML then the website is not worth using. No JavaScript. I don't want to accidentally run non-free code on my processor.
I came back to Firefox after a stint of trying others out. I returned because, despite all of its downsides, it's still the least bad option of the ones I've tried.
But (despite that I used to be hardcore Firefox user and advocate) I'm not married to any particular browser. It's so easy to change browsers that I'll do so the instant one that better meets my needs comes around.
> so I'm wondering why so many people still stick with Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
most non-tech folks aren't even aware firefox exists; they just use whatever is already installed;
i predominantly use firefox, since its firebird days (v0.6 perhaps?);
i switch to chrome when its one killer feature, inband language translation, is needed; firefox has a translator, but it is rather lackluster;
There was an era before Chrome when non-tech people were using Firefox in large numbers. Friends would install it in friend’s computers. Eventually OEMs started preinstalling it with systems. Similar to what later happened with Chrome.
Vivaldi on desktop and mobile. It's still chromium for compatibility, but the tab handling fits me. And of course the social/political aspect is appealing (I'm from the EU).
I just started using Brave Origin after trying to switch to Safari for a while. Safari felt aggravating to use after having used Chrome for so long, but Brave has been great.
It's plenty of RAM, I think it's not your machine's fault, it's just that Dia afaik uses chromium and chromium likes ram, I used to use arc, and I was not willing to switch to Dia looking at what The Browser Company did to arc
Safari because of the seamless integration with Apple platform features and because it is the most energy efficient browser while still being the most performant. It’s the best of all worlds.
Same here, I love it. I've also caught quite a few Safari only bugs because I was "that one dev on the team who uses Safari" - everyone needs a Safari dev on their team.
If you are tied to apple ecosystem, then obviously Safari is going to be the fastest one since its apple specific so they can optimize it for their hardware, though I think with as powerful computers as we have right now, you can run almost any browser without performance issues
Safari is my main browser at home and has been pretty much since its inception. Periodically I go off and use Firefox, Arch, and other such things, but I always come back to Safari. It just gets out of my way, while integrating a few quality of life features that normally end up as extensions in other browsers.
My big gripe with Safari is the extensions being moved to the App Store. This creates a lot of unnecessary friction. I’m curious how much their AI extension creation will be able to do in macOS 27, maybe it will make this a moot point, but it’s still annoying.
At work I use Chrome, which I don’t like, but feel forced into it due to the company actively breaking or blocking everything else. As a general rule these days, I want to avoid all Chromium based browsers, to not give Google any more power on the web than they already have, but I’d have to quit my job for that to be possible at work.
I also use Mullvad’s browser from time to time at home.
EWW from Emacs. If Emacs can't render the HTML then the website is not worth using. No JavaScript. I don't want to accidentally run non-free code on my processor.
I came back to Firefox after a stint of trying others out. I returned because, despite all of its downsides, it's still the least bad option of the ones I've tried.
But (despite that I used to be hardcore Firefox user and advocate) I'm not married to any particular browser. It's so easy to change browsers that I'll do so the instant one that better meets my needs comes around.
Have you tried any other firefox based browsers, like Zen, or LibreWolf?
Yes, I have.
> so I'm wondering why so many people still stick with Chrome, Safari, or Edge.
most non-tech folks aren't even aware firefox exists; they just use whatever is already installed;
i predominantly use firefox, since its firebird days (v0.6 perhaps?); i switch to chrome when its one killer feature, inband language translation, is needed; firefox has a translator, but it is rather lackluster;
There was an era before Chrome when non-tech people were using Firefox in large numbers. Friends would install it in friend’s computers. Eventually OEMs started preinstalling it with systems. Similar to what later happened with Chrome.
Vivaldi on desktop and mobile. It's still chromium for compatibility, but the tab handling fits me. And of course the social/political aspect is appealing (I'm from the EU).
Depends on what device I am using. Currently Thorium/Chrome, sometimes Firefox.
I'm currently moving away from Chrome though, as I can no longer use any MV2 extensions because all the workarounds stopped working.
Brave with all the cruft turned off except Brave Shield. Chrome isn't bad either.
I'd love to be able to tolerate Safari, but it's just not a good day-to-day desktop browser.
I just started using Brave Origin after trying to switch to Safari for a while. Safari felt aggravating to use after having used Chrome for so long, but Brave has been great.
Google Chrome on Mac
Safari on iPhone
Firefox with ublock origin plugin on desktop as well as android.
I currently use firefox, works well for me.
Been using firefox recently, least laggy out of that chrome and (eww) edge.
I've been using Dia, and this got better after the recent inclusion of Spaces similar to Arc.
But, I'm suffering from RAM issues. Got 24GM RAM M5 (Non-Pro) MacBook Pro and about 10-15 tabs open, I'm consuming 19GB RAM with 5-9GB RAM in swap.
I mean... now I'm wondering if I should've got higher RAM.
Since I came from Air M1 8GB RAM, I thought 24GB is plenty enough but seems like not.
It's plenty of RAM, I think it's not your machine's fault, it's just that Dia afaik uses chromium and chromium likes ram, I used to use arc, and I was not willing to switch to Dia looking at what The Browser Company did to arc
Safari because of the seamless integration with Apple platform features and because it is the most energy efficient browser while still being the most performant. It’s the best of all worlds.
Same here, I love it. I've also caught quite a few Safari only bugs because I was "that one dev on the team who uses Safari" - everyone needs a Safari dev on their team.
If you are tied to apple ecosystem, then obviously Safari is going to be the fastest one since its apple specific so they can optimize it for their hardware, though I think with as powerful computers as we have right now, you can run almost any browser without performance issues
> I think with as powerful computers as we have right now, you can run almost any browser without performance issues
And yet Chrome’s memory usage has become a meme at this point.