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Opera:
Has a builtin adblocker, if you want to be able to choose whatever flash anims will run or not you can to. Adsweep works on Opera as well if you don't want to set up your own rules.

Chrome:
For chrome you need to switch to the developer snapshot channel to be able to load addons such as adsweep.

Safari:
I don't remember what I ran, Pithelmet is used by many but I often find it outdated. If you want something which just block ads as in Firefox with Adblock plus you can use adblock.

To almost claim only firefox is able to block ads is kinda ignorant.

Opera:
Has a builtin adblocker, if you want to be able to choose whatever flash anims will run or not you can to. Adsweep works on Opera as well if you don't want to set up your own rules.

Chrome:
For chrome you need to switch to the developer snapshot channel to be able to load addons such as adsweep.

Safari:
I don't remember what I ran, Pithelmet is used by many but I often find it outdated. If you want something which just block ads as in Firefox with Adblock plus you can use adblock.

To almost claim only firefox is able to block ads is kinda ignorant.

I have no desire to ever use Safari. Why you ask? Sure it's incredibly compliant but what good is browsing the web without ad block?

I have no desire to ever go back to the days of ad cluttering up and slowing down websites. Sure there are those nifty little host edits that you can do in Safari to block some ads, but for the most part firefox wins out.

Until there is a robust adblock like program for Safari, firefox will always be my bread and butter.

EDIT: Almost spoke too soon, but I found a good adblock safari clone. I can't get it to work for some reason though http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/adblock

http://www.pimpmysafari.com

Safari does have extensions... they call them plugins... though if you're on Windows I think you're out of luck.

Ad Blocking for you. There are 7 options in this list. Most are free, I see one commercial offering.

And of course you could always just use a hosts file and personal stylesheet to do the work yourself. If fact with the new support for CSS3 animations you could have some fun... make those ads do a dance before disappearing ;-p

There's some adblocking plugins for Safari too. Surely, this idiotic douchebag needs to start up whyeverybrowserisblocked.com

Safari also has plenty of hidden settings and tools that you can configure by opening up its property list file. (Or the registry in Windows, I guess?) If you want to go even further, it's not like there's a shortage of extensions. Progressive disclosure at its finest.

Among Safari's unique tools is the Web Element Inspector, which is to fucking die for. Nothing I've seen for any other browser even comes close.

There are equivalent plugins for Safari on Mac. They will surely follow on Windows if it catches on.

... then may I introduce to you the future of Safari on Windows:

http://pimpmysafari.com/

Safari is extensible. It'll just take time, and a bit of sweat ....

When I switched from Linux to OSX last year, I immediately installed Firefox because that's what I'd been using before. A first look at Safari found several things "missing" that I felt I needed. There's a lot to dislike about the Mac implementation of Firefox 2.0, but it was at least something I knew.

Then I was at a conference, and the guy sitting next to me was using a MacBook Pro. We started comparing notes, with him extolling the virtues of Safari. After getting a few misconceptions cleared up, I started to look deeper into it. A trip to the Mac store to talk to one of the "Geniuses" led me to http://www.pimpmysafari.com/. I'm working on getting all the pieces installed that I want, but it looks like I can make Safari into the browser I want it to be.

It's never going to happen, at least not with the current crop of Firefox devs. They can solicit for suggestions as much as they want, but the fact is that if they have to ask, they'll never know. As long as all the developers come from a PC heritage—even the Mac developers—the OS X version of Firefox is going to feel like a port from Windows/Linux land.

I'd suggest Safari loaded up with extensions as a good alternative. If you absolutely must use Gecko for some reason, even though it's bloated and less standards-compliant than WebKit, there's always Camino.

Seriously, there's only three reasons I use Firefox over Safari:
- the "type to search" system in Firefox is unholy goodness
- allowing the addressbar to be "programmed" to search various sites via keywords is amazing
- plugins (of which I find myself not using very many of)

I think the Web Developer Extension is one of the few things that keep me coming back to FireFox. It also doesn't crash like Safari does when closing windows after watching Poker After Dark episodes.

Regarding AdBlock, tho: SafariBlock is pretty close.

DN

You know Safari has tons of extensions too, right?

www.pimpmysafari.com

What, like the ones on www.pimpmysafari.com—maintained by the guy who designed Firefox's branding, then ditched it for Safari when Safari became available? And if you use Keychain the way it was intended—like a Mac user—certificate management is a cinch. Firefox doesn't even recognize Keychain.

Yeah, Safari has similar functionality. Also, if you like Firefox's DOM Element Inspector, you really owe it to yourself to check out the element inspector available in the latest nightly builds of WebKit. This thing is fucking amazing, and speaking for myself, I find it far more elegant, intuitive, and useful than aforementioned DOM Element Inspector.

For Wikipedia, I use http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:en.wikip edia.org+%@&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky (as long as we're taking shortcuts, why not get rid of that first click too?)

BTW, Safari users can get plugins for quick search here. I particularly like Inquisitor.

You're aware Safari has more plugins than just Saft, aren't you? There's some available for Camino, too. (Both of these websites are maintained by Jon Hicks, the graphic designer who drew Firefox's icon, then dumped Firefox like the PC-esque turd that it is.) Your comment that Firefox's lack of brushed metal is "refreshing" is laughable; instead of brushed metal, what do you have instead? Faux Cocoa? Frankenstein trapped in the uncanny valley? Yeah, like any self-respecting Mac user would put up with that. And brushed metal is perfectly appropriate in Safari to those of us who aren't left-brained aspies, unable to deal with variety, wanting every application to look the same regardless of functionality.

In short, there's no excuse for using Firefox on a Mac unless you're an ugly, disgusting "switcheur" (read: poseur). Go back to beige, you tasteless slime.

Safari is even leaner and faster than Opera, and it's extensible.

Try Safari. Lean, mean, beautiful, elegant, and somewhat more standards-compliant than Gecko for the standards that matter (i.e., CSS). Oh, and plugins too (that page is maintained by the guy who drew the Firefox icon, who has since switched to Safari).

There's probably a free Safari plugin to help out with that. SafariStand, maybe?

You know, I have trouble understanding how people separate "design" and "usability." Aren't these concepts inherently linked? Take a bare list of links like Nielsen's page. It isn't usable, it isn't functional, because it's user-hostile, a huge turnoff to anyone who wants to read it. Even worse if you're just browsing through. Design and functionality aren't in opposition; nor, even more clearly, are design and usability.

I have heard this "windows is more configurable than OS X" mantra far too many times and I think it is missing any merit.

Try this with a Windows app: Right click on the executable, Show Package Contents, navigate to the interface .nib file, open it in Project Builder, modify it, save it, and relaunch the application with your hacked interface.

If you don't like how OS X looks, there are plenty of ways to change it. But people who don't even give Macs a chance from the get-go don't look very hard.

You miss your Internet Exploiter hacks and think Safari must be accepted as-is? Again, you aren't looking very hard.

At least the OS X network preferences/settings are all in one place, as opposed to Windows.

Even the OS X Terminal is way more powerful than Windows' built-in command line! (MS Command Shell notwithstanding, since it's a beta). The irony must be lost on some.

Windows is not lookin' so much more "configurable" now, is it? ;) I admit it's neat that you can interact with any windows app or dll via COM (as long as it's registered correctly! yay registry! not!)- Applescript serves that purpose on Macs but it's a little different.

Since you're on a Mac, why are you using Firefox when you could be using Safari instead? Honest question.

People accustomed to PC-world mediocrity may find Firefox satisfactory for their tastes, but Firefox pales in comparison to the legions of Cocoa-native Mac browsers. Even Jon Hicks, the talented graphic designer who designed Firefox's logo and icon, switched to Safari a while back after getting fed up with Firefox's sluggish performance, not to mention its wretched user interface and terrible rendering. He now maintains this site for extensions to Safari. Hope this helps.

Safari is debatebly a very decent browser, but it's not customizable like IE is in Windows.

It's not?

There is no activeX,

No, since that's a Microsoft-specific technology. But there's Java, which can accomplish the same things without being so insecure.

registry,

Nope, but there's an equivalent in the form of plist files in various places. I don't see what the system method for storing configuration information has to do with exploitability, though...

plugins, etc.,

Oh yes there are. Of course, an insecure plugin can introduce a vulnerability on any OS, but that's somewhat moot because on OS X (and on Windows, as far as I know) it's not possible to install a browser plugin without the user's permission.

This is really how the majority of software in OS X is.

No, it isn't. Look at AppleScript, and how most OS X applications support it. Look at the system-wide frameworks like CoreData, Bonjour, and many others that can be brought into apps with little effort.

OS X avoids a lot of the design mistakes Windows has made in the past, but that doesn't mean it's not exploitable. This is a point you fail to address in your post full of maddening ignorance.

I see no reason why someone would want to use MSN search over Google, but if you do, or simply want a more configurable solution you can use Acid Search. Not to mention some other very useful tools needed for browsing.

I use this Mac Safari plugin constantly with /.

You can always download a Safari search box plugin from www.pimpmysafari.com. Hope this helps.

"Misanthropic" is exactly the right word to describe the hatred of humanity that many, many Windows and Linux developers must feel to ship products with UIs the likes of which would send any halfway decent Mac programmer running, screaming, from the dungeon wherein he or she had the misfortune to encounter such beasts. I choose my words carefully. Don't insult my intelligence. And do some research before you spread falsehoods regarding what you perceive to be deficiencies in Safari--ultimately, all they reveal is your ignorance.

Hasn't it always run like shit? Install Safari and some decent plugins instead; you'll be much happier.

I did try it out but I found that Safari became unstable. I installed SafariBlock which is free and it works well enough. You have to reload a page for blocks to come into affect but it doesn't crash Safari :)

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versio ns/A/Frameworks/WebCore.framework/Versions/A/
sudo perl -p -i.old -e 's/(\000)a(utocomplete\000)/\1_\2/gs' ./WebCore

No, Firefox is a piece of shit compared to Safari or even Opera. To claim otherwise only reveals how proud you must be of your own ignorance, and the lengths to which you'll go in order to convince yourself of the superiority of whatever cobbled-together applications you're running on your homebuilt shitbox.

Even the guy who designed the Firefox logo, Jon Hicks, switched to Safari. He now maintains this site. It's hard to argue with that.

Firefox only meets the needs of those with poor taste in software, or who simply aren't perceptive enough to notice its many egregious flaws and crimes against aesthetic elegance. Those of us unwilling to settle for mediocrity--which includes all real Mac users--will continue to use Safari.

Try some of the plugins available at www.pimpmysafari.com.

For anyone out there with a Mac, you can do the same with SafariStand. Of course, it only works in Safari.

Pimp your Safari or try Opera's nicknamed bookmarks.

It's been a while, so I just downloaded the latest nightly and I'll give it another try. I doubt you can drop Firefox extensions straight into Camino, but there do seem to be extensions (adblock, etc.) available. (And for Safari, too, FWIW.)

Thanks for the reply.

Here's some others to choose from. I'm kinda fond of SafariBlock. Hope this helps.
http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/?c=Adblocking

And why is that? Because they've all switched to a superior browser with greater ease-of-use, style, and flexibility?

www.pimpmysafari.com

I've tried out a lot of ad-blocking software, for windows, OS X and linux, for Opera, Firefox, Galleon, Camino, IE, Safari, Mozilla and so on. And the absolute best was pithhelmet. You install it, and you never touch it ever ever ever again. You never see an ad again. No wildcards, no right clicking and adding URLs to a list, no accidental blocking of e-mail composer window pop-ups, just an ad free internet.

Grab it at pimpmysafari.com.

And why do I block ads? Because unlike ads in print, flashing moving blinking siezure-inducing gif ads are not casual and latent, they annoy the living SHIT out of me. And unlike moving ads on TV/in the cinema, they almost seem to aim at being as crass and annoying as possible.

I don't see it as a bad thing that I block ads (denying the advertiser their investment), because I'm aware that 90% of the people on the net are cruising along with IE and Gator/Collwebsearch/Bonzi Buddy installed, watching a few dozen pop-ups every ten minutes, and so keep all those fantastic advertising companies in business. I don't see a future where anything but a huge minority are savvy enough to install ad-blocking software, so I don't worry about cutting off a source of the 'nets revenue.

Then use a different adblocker, like SafariBlock.

Saft lets you rearrange tabs and even drag and drop them between windows. It's pretty cool--everything just works the way you'd expect, even with forms or whatever.

Yeah, I really hope the Firefox team can get their act together for the Mac version. Until then, there's SafariStand for FlashBlock and SafariBlock for AdBlock, which work pretty well despite the funny names.

Yeah, I really hope the Firefox team can get their act together for the Mac version. Until then, there's SafariStand for FlashBlock and SafariBlock for AdBlock, which work pretty well despite the funny names.

I prefer SafariBlock. It works more like Firefox's Ad Block.

Get it here.