21/08/05
37Browser Survey Results
OK, the results are in – this was a hard one to count, but I reckon I got them fairly accurate. The numbers won’t tally exactly with the number of comments – just to pre-warn any lurking pedants. Thanks to everyone who took part – it was a tremendous response.
(apologies for the fuzzy crapness of this image, but I really can’t be arsed doing it again)
The Results:
| Safari | 157 |
| Firefox | 53 |
| Camino | 28 |
| Omniweb | 5 |
| Shiira | 3 |
| IE | 1 |
| Opera | 1 |
| iCab | 0 |
Number of people who didn’t read the rules first: 25 ;o)
No surprise there I guess, Safari is king. I remember seeing another survey that showed Firefox much more on a par with Safari, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. Most people preferred it for speed, UI and OS X integration. Firefox’s popularity seems mainly due to the web developer toolbar, which lets face it, is a genius piece of work. There were a large number of Safari users who were put off Firefox as default due to its interface and lack of mac-ness.
Pretty much all those on Camino stated they were using the bleeding-edge nightly builds, which I’m not surprised at. They’re solid, stable and go like the clappers. Mozilla power, Mac Style indeed.
I’m not too surprised at Omniweb’s lack of votes, but I did hope for a lot more. Sluggishness seems to be the main issue for people not using it. Glad to hear no moans about having to pay for it though, as I did expect some “why pay when there are free browsers?” comments.
Opera and IE languish at the bottom with one vote each. I’m not assuming the IE vote was a joke, as IE Mac does have some nice features, so you never know.
Receiving no votes was poor old iCab. I expected at least one person using iCab 3 beta to come forward, but it appears not. Has Safari trampled all over iCab’s possible market?
Also, no one seemed to pick up on that fact that someone used Firefox for its ‘live boobmarks’ – maybe it was just me that found that funny?
and now.. my vote
What about me? Browser hopping as usual. I would love to say Omniweb as my default, but there are some niggles that stop that – performance, not yet updated to the latest rendering engine, doesn’t work well with Flickr, various unpolished areas of the UI and lack of find as you type. Maybe a future release will see improvements, but to be honest, I’ve not got any great hopes. Omnigroup – please surprise me!
I guess Safari would be my default, but lately I’ve been using Camino nightly builds, and found myself falling in love with my old favourite all over again. The UI is clean and looking good, and while it lacks some features I’d love (mainly RSS detection to pass URLs into NewsFire and ability to restore tabs at startup) I’m finding myself using it anyway. Its so nice to be using a fast, responsive browser again, especially after Safari overloaded with plugins. I guess its the downfall of installing plugins, but its either Safari with a features and a slightly unresponsive interface, or no Safari at all for me. Page rendering speed is fast, but simple tasks such as clicking a bookmark bar folder can sometimes take seconds to appear. Infuriating.
Shiira, while impressing with useful innovative features like tab expose, goes and adds things like the cheesy ‘page transition effect’. I’m not sure that the direction for Shiira is quite clear, but its still one to keep an eye on.
Opera is impressive, and I like the idea of combing email & browser. There’s a lot of features in there, but it looks like a dogs dinner, has strange key combos (cmd-T for adding bookmarks? Whats that all about?!) and calls tabs pages. Joe Clark has a more eloquent list of its failings – but if you’re using it and like it, good for you. I can kinds see why you’re attracted.
Firefox (Deer Park) is better, but its still no Mac app bless it.
So, while it should be a Safari/Omniweb split, I’m going to vote Camino here, especially as its an underdog in the ratings, and I think it deserves more!
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Zach said 1146 days ago:
As im fairly new to Mac’s I still awe over the effects. The way Safari rolls images down. Just the whole interface.Miko said 1146 days ago:
Everyone hates the microsoft monopoly for putting IE standard on all copies of Windows. So does Apple with Safari; and the poll shows that it’s a majority in use.But—I’m glad to see that people choose Safari, compared to being forced to use it as in IE.
Paul Lloyd said 1146 days ago:
Looks like you’ll need to update your ‘I ♥ OW’ badge then…!Tom said 1146 days ago:
I liked Camino before they messed up with the tab bars. Again, I like to build Firefox from source.ChrisJ said 1146 days ago:
Oh, I missed the voting. As a new mac user, I used Firefox at the start, and disappointed with its speed (where the Windows version is great), changed quickly to Safari (extended with some plugins – thanks for that, Jon!).Camino (especially with CamiTools ) looks very promising.
Mayo said 1146 days ago:
Re #2: Yes, however the system will function just fine if you delete Safari, whereas Windows will barely boot if you delete IE. Slight difference for the end user, but quite a big one when you go out to judge monopoly.Miko said 1146 days ago:
@Mayo—True, that’s true. My point was that Mac user’s awareness to multiple browsers, where some Windows users who think that the net is IE.Delfin said 1146 days ago:
There was one Mosaic vote, even for only purposes…;-)
Chris McElligott said 1146 days ago:
It’s a pity I wasn’t back in time to vote… I’m a huge Camino fan but the RSS detection in Safari is something I can’t live without anymore.Jon Hicks said 1145 days ago:
Tom you’re mad – the new tabs in Camino are the shizzy!Jon Hicks said 1145 days ago:
#8 – No there wasn’t a vote for Mosaic, first line only counts! ;o)Jens Meiert said 1145 days ago:
These numbers calm me. It was time for Mac IE to go, too.Robin said 1145 days ago:
Poor old iCab :( I’ve tested 3.0beta and it seems really nice, but not quite enough to turn me away from Firefox.Matt Turner said 1145 days ago:
“The way Safari rolls images down…” Man, i thought that was a bug, it drives me to see huge (dimensions) background css images come rolling down.Sunny said 1145 days ago:
The best thing abt Camino – unified toolbar + beautiful buttons. Speed and responsiveness is just gravy.Mukund said 1145 days ago:
If you did a Linux survey, Firefox would be king. The old bloated Mozilla suite does pack some punch in certain areas.. you can browse a .eml file using HTTP as a formatted email for example.Judi Sohn said 1145 days ago:
Re: #2. Yes, it’s true that you can delete Safari and be fine. But you better hope that you remembered to set your default browser to something else before nuking it and you’ll never want to change your mind. For some strange reason Apple requires you to launch Safari just to set something else as the default.ecco said 1145 days ago:
Re: #17. You can also use Camino to set the default browser. Or Default Apps.And I would have voted for Camino in your survey! It’s fast, reliable and mac-like.
Jeff Hartman said 1145 days ago:
I like Camino a lot, but Safari still holds me close by loving me with it’s CSS text-shadow property.Egor Kloos said 1145 days ago:
I’ve tried iCab and it does pretty well. But for some reason they can’t as solid as Safari of Firefox. Opera’s interface is a too quirky for my taste. I’ll be meeting up with a few happy clogger’s this Sunday. We’ll put it to a vote. Not mac heads so I’m thinking that Firefox will get the nod. I’ve been using FF for a good while now. Maybe I should give Safari a go again.Rob Mientjes said 1145 days ago:
Egor, not fully true anymore, as Mark and Anne are on Mac now, and Faruk will be getting his in a month. The demise of Windows in our group is coming, possibly most to the grief of Hayo, who still believes that Apple is vastly inferiour. Silly lad, that one.I am totally happy with these results, Jon! You’re right, I too saw a survey where Firefox was on par with Safari, but I don’t recall where.
Erwin heiser said 1145 days ago:
Does this mean I can now stop catering to Mac IE 5 and its bizarre browser bugs?clint said 1145 days ago:
safari its a great chick browserâ„¢real men use firefox
jesse said 1145 days ago:
I love safari! I love Apple … every product they release is amazing and perfect!hurrah!
Hans said 1145 days ago:
Darn, I missed the voting because of your silly broken RSS feed. Kidding; I actually got a new Powerbook just last Wednesday.I would have voted for Camino, as I dislike the fact that Safari’s built-in, like IE. Plus, Camino is Firefox’s cousin, which I use on Windows XP all the time.
By the way, does anyone know how to get rid of that line under the main toolbar separating it from the bookmarks bar? (In Camino, that is.)
Damian said 1145 days ago:
I think the surprising result that Firefox sometimes scores high among Mac users (though not in this survey) is because the “switchers” are frightened to go too far from their previous experience and cling onto software that they’ve used before on Windows. In use it is obviously far inferior to Safari in so many ways – not least that it is not Cocoa and not a real OS X browser – and any real OS X user will want Safari. Camino is a different kettle of fish, and is definitely getting there, but it still doesn’t quite make the grade.Ian said 1144 days ago:
I always used to be surprised that so many Mac users use Firefox when it’s so un-Mac-like, and both Safari and Camino blow it clean away in so many areas. But, not only is it kinda reassuring for switchers (from Windows and Linux) because it’s familiar, people (such as my lovely missus) prefer it simply because they’re used to using it on their PCs at work.I’m a little sad not to see Camino doing better, but as I voted for Safari (as much as I like Camino, I just use Safari more) I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
James said 1144 days ago:
Huge Camino fanboy reporting in!It’s fast, it’s responsive and it looks pretty – what more do you need?!
Matthew Pennell said 1143 days ago:
Don’t suppose there is any data on the split between versions of Safari? I’m wrestling with 1.2 at the moment, so I would love it if 99% of people were on 2.0 already and I can give up…Derek Ashauer said 1143 days ago:
The great thing with FireFox is that you can customize so much of it. You can easily make FireFox look like Safari and then reap all the benefits of FireFox (Web Dev Toolbar!) I personally hate the look of Safari, so that part doesn’t trouble me at all.Delfin said 1143 days ago:
Did anyone mentioned WebDevAdditions or Debug menu options for Safari…?JaX said 1143 days ago:
Camino for life! Safari’s interface bothers me. Also, I find it disturbs my designs ever so slightly.Tom said 1142 days ago:
Jon, the new tabs are weird and doesn’t feel natural to me.hello said 1138 days ago:
Shiira’s the best. Hands down. I’m completely addicted to it.Erik V. said 1138 days ago:
Where’s the love for Netscape 4.x?Jon Hicks said 1137 days ago:
No more votes!marc nothrop said 1131 days ago:
I still tend to browser hop; it’s Camino at work, mainly for superior NTLM support and other Windows lock-breakers… I can almost fill in my time sheet, yah progress! ; )...but the speed is definitely nice. I’ve a soft spot for Camino, and the increased development of late has been very welcome.
Safari is OK, loaded up with pluings I registered Saft long ago, the rendering is pretty god, but it tends to get bogged down, particularly with a lot of windows/tabs.
Ideally OmniWeb would be my main browser, despite the UI starting to feel a little creaky in places… I’m holding out hope for the upcoming move to WebKit, which should address a lot of the rendering complaints, but the UI could use some work, as could the memory management, and maybe a few more specialised features to justify the price…?
Still, for some reason, I really want to use this browser!