16 votes

Topic deleted by author

10 comments

  1. [8]
    unknown user
    Link
    In response to the author re: Safari... what's wrong with Safari exactly? Preface: I am about as deep as you can get into the Apple ecosystem, so my opinion is certainly biased. Here's why I use...

    In response to the author re: Safari... what's wrong with Safari exactly? Preface: I am about as deep as you can get into the Apple ecosystem, so my opinion is certainly biased. Here's why I use Safari:

    • Safari is the most power efficient browser on macOS. The competition isn't even close.
    • Safari is the most aggressive privacy-first browser currently available. It's the only browser that implements advanced tracking protection (via ML). It's the only browser which actively employs anti-fingerprinting techniques (hell, Safari 12 on 10.14 doesn't even allow the loading of local fonts from your system).
    • Safari ships first a surprising amount of the time: prefers-dark-mode has already hit Technology Preview, and that's from Media Queries Level 5, which is currently a draft. It was also the first browser to ship backdrop-visibility.
    • Safari & Chrome both support an approximately equal number of bleeding edge features.
    • Keychain integration for passwords & credit cards from iOS and macOS.
    • Painstakingly-good password generation tools.
    • Acceptably usable dev tools. It's not Chrome dev tools, but neither Chrome nor Safari's dev tools tells you what font your font-stack is actually using. That distinction goes to Firefox.

    The "Safari is junk" talking point is totally overblown.

    9 votes
    1. [2]
      Deimos
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Are you a web developer, or is this just from a user perspective? Safari has far more bugs, incompatibilities, and missing features than the other browsers in my experience, but you won't...

      Are you a web developer, or is this just from a user perspective? Safari has far more bugs, incompatibilities, and missing features than the other browsers in my experience, but you won't necessarily see any of that as a user because the site developers have already put in all the extra effort to work around them for you.

      11 votes
      1. unknown user
        Link Parent
        Dev, primarily web. Safari is my primary choice for development, even. Can't say I've seen these bugs everyone seems to be having. Then again I'm not exactly building a Discord clone or regex101....

        Dev, primarily web. Safari is my primary choice for development, even. Can't say I've seen these bugs everyone seems to be having. Then again I'm not exactly building a Discord clone or regex101.

        I also test in both Chrome & Firefox.

        3 votes
    2. [2]
      Wes
      Link Parent
      I have trouble believing that's true... Every time I go to use a relatively recent-feature, Safari and IE are the only browsers that don't support it. They've finally come around on Service...

      Safari & Chrome both support an approximately equal number of bleeding edge features.

      I have trouble believing that's true... Every time I go to use a relatively recent-feature, Safari and IE are the only browsers that don't support it. They've finally come around on Service Workers at least.

      neither Chrome nor Safari's dev tools tells you what font your font-stack is actually using.

      It should be visible under Elements > Computed in Chrome's dev tools. Not the best interface though, I'll grant you.

      9 votes
      1. unknown user
        Link Parent
        I mean, the link is right there for you to click :). Granted, caniuse.com might not be a exhaustive list of all features, but it should have >90% of them, especially as it's crowdsourced and...

        I have trouble believing that's true...

        I mean, the link is right there for you to click :). Granted, caniuse.com might not be a exhaustive list of all features, but it should have >90% of them, especially as it's crowdsourced and available on GitHub.

    3. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      Since I have to support medical application portal access and VDI tools like VMWare Horizon and Citrix, I can tell you that Safari is the bane of my existence. I routinely have to tell physicians...

      Since I have to support medical application portal access and VDI tools like VMWare Horizon and Citrix, I can tell you that Safari is the bane of my existence. I routinely have to tell physicians to change to Chrome or Firefox on Mac to ensure they have access.

      Safari continues to lag behind on support for security standards updates (TLS, 2-factor authentication protocols). I can't recommend it when it has so many idiosyncracies (and yes, it's scarcely proper to speak of "web standards").

      4 votes
    4. [2]
      JuniperMonkeys
      Link Parent
      I agree with your points (with the caveat that, since it sounds like the author is probably writing from a cross-platform perspective, things like Keychain and Apple Pay are less useful). However:...

      I agree with your points (with the caveat that, since it sounds like the author is probably writing from a cross-platform perspective, things like Keychain and Apple Pay are less useful). However:

      Safari is the most power efficient browser on macOS. The competition isn't even close.

      The author of the linked article didn't comment on efficiency, but a good point to make (given its market share) is that Chrome is curiously inefficient regardless of platform, versus Safari, Edge, or the new Firefox. I know they've improved it since 2016, but it remains equally adept at killing a MacBook or Thinkpad.

      3 votes
      1. Heichou
        Link Parent
        Chrome's inefficiency is due to it storing every tab and extension as a separate process, right? It eats RAM like a motherfucker

        Chrome's inefficiency is due to it storing every tab and extension as a separate process, right? It eats RAM like a motherfucker

  2. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. frickindeal
      Link Parent
      I've read that Apple doesn't care about desktop because iOS sales are such a huge part of their business, with MacBook and iMac sales being meager in comparison. Apple makes more from iTunes and...

      I've read that Apple doesn't care about desktop because iOS sales are such a huge part of their business, with MacBook and iMac sales being meager in comparison. Apple makes more from iTunes and iCloud than they do from desktop. And mobile Safari is actually a fantastic browser, very well integrated into the rest of iOS, so they've done their work there.

      2 votes
    2. teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      Ironically, VS Code is an Electron application.

      Visual Studio Code's success before deciding that killing Edge was the right move

      Ironically, VS Code is an Electron application.

      1 vote