Hacker News Reader

Comment by charlescooper | Hacker News Reader

I have been using Firefox & macOS for about the last 4-5 years. I primarily use it because I enjoy the bookmark sync between my Mac and linux desktops and because I try using open-source software as much as reasonably possible. However I will used a closed-source product when I feel it is better than the open source option. (E.g. MS Excel) It seems like Safari has been rapidly improving as of late. Any recommendations to try it again over Firefox? Would be a bit annoying to find some sort of "bookmark sync" solution again, but something good probably exists out there.

View on HN

The main selling point is that it's far more respectful of system resources than its big two competitors. Noticeably lower power use, reduced effects on performance of other software outside the browser.

If the rest of your stuff is also Apple, browser sync is a pretty solid Just Works thing, which can be a benefit of using it, but you're not all-Apple, so that benefit's out.

[EDIT] "So what are the downsides?" worse dev tools, worse add-on ecosystem. Sometimes it's missing engine features that FF and Chrome have (this never hinders me at all in practice, with my usage patterns, and in fact I'm usually glad when they choose not to uncritically and promptly implement every single feature Google adds to Chrome, but I understand it bothers some people a lot, so would definitely count against Safari if those features are things you really want/need)

This is exactly why I use safari, it's not perfect, but it respects the battery life to a noticeable extent.

I love it. In my eyes it’s the best browser because of that and it’s Apple ecosystem integration.

It also feels so much faster. Maybe the others have caught up on the Mac over the years. But it used to be night and day.

I even use it for development. The dev tools are fine for me. I agree FF/Chrome are better, so I use them when I need it. Especially for the React or Redux plug-ins.

But for standard JS errors and CSS tinkering I find Safari works just fine.

I didn't know that it was lighter on system resources, that's interesting. Makes me wonder if a FF-based Electron would ever take off, because the main issue with Electron apps is the insane amount of memory consumption (last I checked anyways). Especially if you have multiple electron apps running simultaneously.

> I didn't know that it was lighter on system resources, that's interesting. Makes me wonder if a FF-based Electron would ever take off, because the main issue with Electron apps is the insane amount of memory consumption

During my own Great Browser Migration, part of my motivation for going from FF to Chrome was that Chrome caused fewer beachballs when I wasn't even using it (I'm a tab hoarder, so it's my own damn fault, kinda). My switch to Safari came when I realized it almost never caused a beachball (plus the huge battery life improvement).

I'd hope Chrome and FF have both gotten better (this was about ten years ago), but I still use FF off-and-on (though mostly on Windows) and my sense is that it hasn't improved a ton on that front. My understanding is you can fix much of this with various add-ons, though, at least on Firefox (less sure about Chrome). The Great Suspender, stuff like that. I've not used them, though.

AFAIK Firefox has The great suspender built in.

> and in fact I'm usually glad when they choose not to uncritically and promptly implement every single feature Google adds to Chrome, but I understand it bothers some people a lot, so would definitely count against Safari if those features are things you really want/need)

Thanks someone for bring it up. More features Chrome add are in the larger scheme of thing invates our privacy, WebTorrent (leaks IP addresses of the other peers). WebGPU leaks hardware info finger printing, etc.

By using web browser I expect some sort of sandboxing. Why do I need all these features in a document based viewing portal?

I moved from Firefox to Safari solely because I can two-finger pinch into a grid view of open tabs - and also it has a 'share' button that integrates with my Mac and allows me to dump websites as PDFs to my knowledge repo (DEVONthink), I was never able to organize bookmarks in a way that I looked at them ever again.

There's a pretty slick tab grouping interface but I always forget its there.

Another cool Safari tab UI feature, if you use the bottom URL bar, is you can swipe between tabs without even viewing the tab grid view at all. And if you’re at the end of the tab list, another swipe will create a new tab.

The swipe feature also makes more obvious, but easier to work around, bugs in the open in new tab -> back button feature (which is also awesome, when it works).

o thanks never heard of that

it's taking all of my willpower to learn to use two-finger-swipe back instead of my lifelong muscle "right click" "back"

whats the new tab -> back button feature?

> whats the new tab -> back button feature?

By default if you open a new tab from a link (either intentionally or by clicking a link which opens one for you), Safari adds the linking page to your history for that new tab. If you click back, it’ll close the tab and take you back to your previous state in the tab you left. It works really well when it works, but often leaves zombie tabs open with unclear history if you navigate around in the new tab.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com