Browser Wars! Firefox Vs Safari
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Firefox 3, "Ready for Prime-Time" Though Still Beta
Reuters reports that Mozilla has decided that the current Firefox 3 Beta 4 is suitable for all users to try. Originally, when Mozilla announced its availability last week, the Mozilla blog stated it was suitable "for testing purposes only." Here's what's new in Beta 4, according to the Mozilla blog:
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- Improvements to the user interface: better search support in the Download Manager, ability to zoom entire page or just the text, continuing look and feel improvements on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
- Richer personalization through: location bar that uses an algorithm based on site visit recency and frequency (called “frecency”) to provide better matches against your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, as well as an adaptive learning algorithm which tunes itself to your browsing habits.
- Improved platform features such as: support for HTML5’s window.postMessage and window.messageEvent, JavaScript 1.8 improvements, and offline data storage for web applications.
- Performance improvements: changes to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimization resulted in significant gains over previous releases in the popular SunSpider test from Apple, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run much faster, and continued improvements to memory usage drastically reduce the amount of memory consumed over long web browsing sessions.
The final release of Firefox 3, which will feature further tweaks to its visuals and stability improvements, is expected in June. Meanwhile, you can download Firefox 3 Beta 4 for Windows, MacOS, and Linux here.
Got iTunes? Get Safari!
If you use iTunes, seeing the familiar Apple Software Updater tool pop up to offer you a new iTunes version is a familiar site. But, if you though you saw an unfamiliar program name in the updater window this week, you're not seeing things.
cNet confirms (complete with screen shot) that Apple is now using its Apple Software Update tool to offer its new Safari 3.1 browser to iTunes users running Windows, making it very easy to try (and reminding lots of Windows users that Safari runs on Windows!).
Safari 3 Faces the Acid(3) Test
If you're already running Firefox as well as IE, is there room for one more? If you are concerned about browser standards compatibility, the answer is 'yes.' According to Steve Noonan's widely cited database of browser compatibility with the Acid3 web standards test, Safari 3.1 beats everyone with a score of 75% on both MacOS and Windows Vista.
If you're looking for the most standard-based browser, it looks as if Safari is the one to have (at least for now). But Firefox 3 is not far behind: its beta 4 gets a 68% score - and both blow any version of Internet Explorer, including the beta of the new standards-based IE8, out of the water.
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Trever
March 24, 2008 at 12:09pm
I know that i will get hammered for this but i just downloaded the safari browser and i will try it but i have to say that IT is SLOW when opening my web pages and i do not have a crap puter eathier I DK i will try it but i never liked FF eathier i am a IE man so far but will try this.
willsmith
March 23, 2008 at 12:39pm
If you want to try out Firefox 3, but use extensions that aren't compatible yet and don't want to mess up your Firefox 2 profile, download Portable Firefox 3 Beta 4.
If you use plugins that don't tightly integrate with stuff that changed with FF3, you can try using the Nightly Tester Tools Extension, which lets you try forcing extensions to work. FF3 made big changes to a lot of stuff, so forcing a FF2 extension to work with FF3 could break things in a bad way.
Finally, if you install FF3 and want to go back to FF2, you can. Just uninstall FF3, then set IE to be your default browser in the Choose Default Apps control panel. Then, reboot the PC and set FF to be your default app again. That will reset any file association problems you have.
statewd
March 22, 2008 at 3:57pm
Mozilla CEO criticized Apple for putting the Safari browser in the "Apple Software Update". He called it wrong and denounced Apple for doing this. "This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices." Read more on the fight of words:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143752/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
Shalbatana
March 21, 2008 at 11:17am
One shouldn't encourage apple.
There's no time like the future.
oihorse
March 22, 2008 at 4:46am
If their Safari manages to force or inspire the existing players to make better browsers... well we win.
With Safari leading the way in the Acid Test and always being the proverbial thorn in MS's side, perhaps it'll force MS's hand in making IE a little more compliant.
sdcat
March 21, 2008 at 10:11am
Another browser war, is apple's Safari safe enough to be used in conjunction with MS platform when browsing internet, especially after knowing OSX/itune/quick time had more bugs and issues than windows' last year? I guess the real question would probably be, is apple's Safari really up to the internet users(of varieties) challenge?
Marcus_Soperus
March 21, 2008 at 10:29am
This website: http://www.michaelaulia.com/blogs/2008/03/safari-31-goes-final.html
has some good commentary on Safari 3.1's features and how it compares to Firefox and IE.This website: http://www.blognotes.in/2008/03/19/apple-safari-31-world%E2%80%99s-fastest-browser/
has a list of features and example screenshots (might be culled from an Apple PR piece). Rendering speed and Javascript speed are two important benefits that Safari 3.1 offers over other browsers.I think it's worth a try. We'll post reports of significant bugs or security problems in new blog entries when/if they show up.
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