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Firefox is clearly better in some ways than Safari.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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Firefox browser sets new standard for OS X


March 16, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   If your Mac is running OS X, you no doubt already know that Apple's operating system is immune to the Internet ailments of that plague Windows, such as spyware, Web-page hijacking and, of course, Windows viruses. And, if you've even used it at all, you've probably had a chance to dump Microsoft's tired OS X browser, Internet Explorer, in favor of one the best Web browsers ever designed, Apple's superb Safari.
   But Safari has company. Firefox, the Web browser favored by millions of Windows users, is available in a version for OS X, as a free download from www.mozilla.org. I'm a big Safari fan, but as soon as I tried the Windows version of Firefox, I knew I had to see if the OS X version is just as good.
   If anything, it's even better. The Mac OS X version seems more stable than the version for Windows, and runs a tad faster, too. Better yet, Firefox is clearly better in some ways than Safari.
   Two superior features stood out almost immediately. Firefox can save entire Web pages locally and provides an outstandingly easy, yet powerful, bookmark system.
   I love the way Firefox saves complete Web pages. With a Web page open, pressing Cmd-S saves the page and all its contents -- all the pictures and text, for example -- to a location you specify on your computer. (I suggest using the Documents folder.)
   The way Firefox creates and manages bookmarks is a delight. There's even a touch of genius in the way things work. With any page open, you can run your mouse pointer over the list of bookmarks (after clicking the Bookmarks menu) and click a choice that shows up in every bookmark folder if you want to add the current page to the list of bookmarks. (The option is called "Add Bookmark Here." It will save you a lot of time per day if you create as many bookmarks as I do.)
   Want more genius? How about the way Firefox deals with its tabs? When you click on a nested folder containing more bookmarks in your main bookmark list, you'll see an option to open ALL the bookmarks at once, in tabs. (You might note that Safari offers the same function, but only for bookmarks you've placed within folders on the Safari Bookmarks Bar. I doubt that many Safari users even know about the bookmarks bar, so the number of OS X users who know they can open multiple pages at the same time can't be very high.)
   Firefox has another great feature that makes Safari look like a duffer. You can customize the look of Firefox very easily. You can make it look like Safari, for example. Or, as I've done, you can make it look like nothing else in the history of personal computing. (My Firefox has cool buttons and icons that look like they came out of "Hansel and Gretel.")
   This is done through "skins" or "themes" that you add to Firefox with a few clicks after clicking "Themes" in the Tools menu. You can't mess anything up. Give it a try. Like Firefox itself, they're all free.
   You should also try the "extensions" written for Firefox. They're free scripts that add new functions. One that I enjoy is the "Super Bible Toolbar" that lets me search for any Biblical phrase in any of 19 versions of the Bible, in any major language. You'll find dozens upon dozens of other extensions.
   The way Firefox works suits my habits nicely, and I'd guess it might fit yours, too. For example, clicking a link while holding down the Cmd key, a simple left thumb press for a right-hander like me, automatically opens the target page in a background tab. This lets me keep on reading the main page while opening links in the background. (Safari requires a two-key maneuver for the same operation.)
   I like Firefox so much that I've made it my default OS X browser -- the browser that automatically opens when you click a link in e-mail, for example. You can do this in OS X 10.3 (Panther) by running Safari and choosing Preferences. Under "General," choose Firefox in the "Default Web Browser" entry. If you have an older version of OS X, go to System Preferences and choose the "Internet" section, then click the "Web" tab and then "Default Web Browser."