The beauty and the beast

July 16

While the Icelandic government votes on whether Iceland should apply for EU membership I am trying to cast a vote between two Mac Os X browsers; Safari and Firefox.

firefox_iconI’ve been a Safari user ever since Leopard came out but recently, with the launch of Safari 4, we’ve not had such a good time together. Safari keeps crashing on me for no apparent reason, it loads slower than normally and doesn’t seem to adequately render many sites I frequent.

So with the launch of Firefox 3.5 I started looking over the fence to see if the grass was greener. Firefox 3.5 brings many new features and promises faster browsing. Initial memory tests showed that Firefox is lighter than Safari on my system, taking 40mb less of virtual memory. After using Firefox for a while it seems much more stable than Safari, loading faster and rendering websites at a great speed. So why has it been so hard for me to switch?

I’ll tell you why! I’m a graphic designer. The look and the user interface means a lot to me. Safari just looks so damn good compared to Firefox. Safari is the beauty while Firefox is the beast. A roaring beast mind you but not a good looking one. Now I know that Firefox has the ability to be themed. Currently though most old themes don’t work with the new browser and the ones that do aren’t nearly as compact as the default one. Lets take a better look.

Buttons

browser_buttonsThe Safari buttons are very compact and stylized while the Firefox buttons are big and chunky and take up a lot of unwanted space. They align strangely with the bullets above them and that small dark arrow that lets you access recent websites is just not needed or could be incorporated into the button in my opinion. What Safari does in the new version of the browser is to include the Reload and Stop buttons into the Navigation bar which I think is really clever. Take a close look at the Firefox’s default buttons anti-aliasing. It’s not pretty.

Navigation bar

browser_navigationThe same goes for the Navigation bar. Safari just looks a lot better. The plus button on the left is for adding bookmarks. Firefox uses the blue star and the drop down arrow on the far right which is similar to the Reload and Stop approach Safari uses. I prefer it the way Safari does it. I also really dislike the way Firefox treats favicons, putting them in a button-like element that holds limited purpose.

Search bar

browser_searchWhy do you need to use the site’s favicon Firefox? Why? Google’s favicon is as ugly as their logo. I don’t want that color smudge polluting my web experience all day. Give me a preference to switch it off. You guys should just copy Safari on this one. It’s much neater and cleaner.

Bookmark bar

browser_bookmarksOk I admit this is nitpicking but the details in the difference between the bookmark bars have me wanting to use Safari. The Safari bookmark bar is much more integrated into the whole UI. The text blends better into the background. The Firefox bookmark bar’s gradient really irks me because it separates the bar from the other UI elements.

Tabs

browser_tabsAnd lastly the tabs. Again, what’s with the friggin’ favicon love Firefox? Loose them or give me a preference to switch them off. They clutter up the whole thing. Safari’s tabs are minimal and sweet. The best part about them is that the Close button doesn’t appear unless you hover over them. Genius! In Firefox they are always visible, only adding to the clutter. They are also on the wrong side in my opinion. Almost everything in the whole Mac OS X system is closed on the left side of the window. It is taking me a while to get used to closing tabs on the right side, even though the button is always visible.

Despite having all these things that I don’t like about the Firefox UI I made the switch today after three Safari crashes. I’ll just have to make do until someone (maybe I’ll look into that myself) designs a super minimal and compact theme for Firefox that integrates well with Mac Os X.

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12 Comments so far

  1. Asa Dotzler on July 16, 2009 at 10:16 pm

    You can get some of what you want from Firefox with simple add-ons.

    Try Grapple for a good package of changes:

    http://www.takebacktheweb.org/

    If that’s not sufficient, then check out the add-ons site where you can pick from more than 7000 Firefox enhancements to customize Firefox for your use.

  2. Ragnar Freyr on July 17, 2009 at 1:03 am

    Wow!
    Thank you so much for that tip Asa! It was almost exactly what I needed. Fantastic! Now I don’t miss Safari at all! :)

    Thanks again!

  3. Siggi Orri Þórhannesson on July 17, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    Use safari ;)

    Its mac native and it obviously appeals to you as a user.

    All the arguments made in the post are pro safari hehe ;)

    Also Firefox is heavier on your system. Did you know that? :D

  4. Ragnar Freyr on July 17, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    In my tests Firefox was actually lighter on my system than Safari. :/

    Anyways, I’m going to give it a chance. Especially after discovering Grapple.

  5. Ragnar Freyr on July 17, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    I also want to support open source!

  6. Asa Dotzler on July 18, 2009 at 5:32 am

    There are a few more changes you can make that will get you even closer to the Safari look and feel are

    Fission – progress indicator in the address bar.
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1951

    Xclear – “x” icons in the address and search field to clear their contents.
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/13078

    Resize Text Areas – simple way to resize, or move text areas.
    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8287

    Good luck and thanks for choosing Firefox!!

    - A

  7. Coleman Rooksby on July 18, 2009 at 6:17 pm

    Hey Ragnar, I have the ultimate solution for your Safari vs. Firefox problem:

    Lose the Mac, get a PC and get Google Chrome :P

    (I just couldn’t resist…)

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