“The web browser is a cornerstone of the modern desktop or laptop. It provides a point-and-click interface to the internet. However, Microsoft is no longer the only serious player in this market,” The Age reports.
“Web monitoring specialist NetApplications.com says the software colossus commands more than 80 per cent of the browser market with Internet Explorer, which has been baked into every version of Windows for the past decade. A mere two years ago, that figure was a seemingly unassailable 92 percent,” The Age reports. “However, a sleek browser named Firefox has been eroding Microsoft’s market share since its impressive debut in November 2004 and it now counts 12.5 per cent of web users as its devotees.”
The Age reports, “Some fans have, however, complained of Firefox 2’s increased bulk and noticeably slower speed. Firefox 2 is also available for Macintosh machines, which puts the squeeze on Apple’s own Safari browser, which holds about 4 per cent of the browser market. A new version of Safari, planned for release alongside the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system in the middle of next year, will include improved searching for text on a web page.”
Full article here.
More about Apple’s Safari 3, due to ship with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, via AppleInsider here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple’s Safari browser market share up 53-percent year-over-year, shows accelerating growth – November 01, 2006
Anti-phishing measures show up in Safari 3 builds – October 20, 2006
Three new Safari 3.0 tricks produce Mac OS X Leopard lust – October 05, 2006
The journey of a thousand negative miles begins with one negative step.
Firefox is a bit slow. As is Safari. Camino is fast as hell, but has no bells and whistles. I recommend Omniweb – It’s as fast as Camino but has all the cool features of the other two, and it’s on sale this month. Check it out.
For the first time, I’m enjoying OmniWeb.
Yay Opera!
I think Firefox 2 is faster than 1.5. I’ve never been happy with Safari – it’s dog slow. The only thing I don’t like about Firefox 2 are the menu buttons – too Windozish.
I’ve taken to using Flock and Safari
http://www.flock.com/
I went on a Safari once.
I banged your sister on a Safari once.
No, twice.
Brace yourselves.
Vista and new MS Office being delivered to business world on Nov. 30.
Result: All Apple and Mac news disappears.
Maybe it would not have been so if Macs ‘just worked’.
I banged an ape on Safari….his had a cute name. ….Ballmer I think it was.
I tweak the pipelining settings in Firefox to make it load pages a lot faster. I hate the default theme, so I use Aronnax’s GrApple to make it match OS X.
It sounds like people are starting to realize that MS doesn’t make the best products. That large of a drop for IE is actually pretty amazing. Now people need to start looking at other alternatives to windows. The thought of “maybe there is something better” is finally starting to get into the heads of the general public.
been using Shiira after trying everything from Safari to Opera to Firefox/Camio and even to iCab and I prefer Shiira most of all. It just seems so much faster then the other.
“IE just plain sucks.” Ted Haggard
The Great Edifice is showning a bit of crumble at the edges. If Vista becomes the morass I expect, the statue will de-breed to reveal the form within the form.
A monkey with a small chair overhead, winding up.
Hey Firefox User, how do you tweak the pipelining settings? I’d love to speed Firefox up and have always been a little unhappy with Safari’s speed (and that fact that it often locks up on CNN pages on me, particularly if I try to open more than one at a time).
And I second the recommendation of the GrApple theme.
The problem with Apple’s Safari is that they tie it to the OS, rather then releasing it for free like FireFox and IE. For the longest time I was stuck in Safari 1 since I was using 10.3 Panther… still a great OS. Now, unless you consider 10.5 to be a necessary upgrade, you’ll be stuck with Safari 2.
Apple obviously doesn’t give two shits abou their browser market share, or else they would make it a free download, like iTunes, and like virtually all other browsers.
Everyone in the real IT world knows that having multiple browser applications within a network environment is a key to disaster. Not only is there the added complexity for a network administrator configuring multiple applications, there is also the security threat of non-Windows sanctioned apps. Running “dinky” browsers like Safari on a little iMac at home may be appropriate for an amateur user, but in a business IT environment, it is imperative for network stability and security to purge all machines of non-IE browsers.
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Yes this is spam of a decidely useful nature:
http://sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3023
“Brace yourselves.
Vista and new MS Office being delivered to business world on Nov. 30.
Result: All Apple and Mac news disappears.”
You know what? You’re right. Once the upgrade nightmare stories and bug reports begin flooding in, as well as all of the stories about the flood of malware already out in the wild for the brand new OS, there won’t be enough time to talk about anything but Microsoft.
Internet Ex… What? Is that a web browser?
‘Nuf said.
Sputnik: You might actually be retarded. Web standards are in place for a reason, and when they are followed, it should matter little which browser is used.
And… Non-Windows sanctioned apps are security risks?
Well I suppose that’s possibly true.
Any comparison to the security risks Windows *itself* causes? Not even close.
And what is the ‘real IT person’ to do when they have Macs on their network?
Since IE hasn’t been updated for the Mac in… 200 years or so, and never will be again, do we just chuck the Macs?
Your design department must love you.
-c
MW: ‘five’ (3, sir!)
Sputnik,
you really do sound like a broken record. Stop looking for anger responses to boost your ego and go you use windows like the loser you are.
Sputnik,
Stop signing off with “Copyright Symbol’s” sign-off before I have to come over there and bitch-slap you!!!
sputnik is being sarcarstic. Please, Please, Please take what he says for what he means… Laugh and wink, knowing he knows what we know, but writes it in a way as to accentuate the issues.
EvangelizeWithRespect
To speed up Firefox:
1. Type about:config in your location bar and hit enter
2. Type pipelining in the Filters
3. Double-click network.http.pipelining to set it to TRUE
4. Double-click network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to TRUE
5. Double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set it to 30
6. Re-start Firefox
If you are on broadband, you should see a noticeable improvement with page loading. This won’t help dial-up users.
More discussion can be found by Googling “make firefox faster.”
“The problem with Apple’s Safari is that they tie it to the OS, rather then releasing it for free like FireFox and IE.”
That’s part of the problem, but that doesn’t explain why it’s so bloody slow.
That’s part of the problem, but that doesn’t explain why it’s so bloody slow.
Maybe it does. I believe WebKit is the actual problem.
Or simply download the Firefox add-on Tweak Network or FasterFox.
I would consider omniweb, opera, or camino if they worked with .mac to synchronize my bookmarks between machines. Until that time, I’m sticking with Safari.
@ iLie Mac
“Brace yourselves.
Vista and new MS Office being delivered to business world on Nov. 30.”
Delivered? Offered, perhaps. Ignored? Obviously!
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when i used to have it on my computer, i couldn’t help but call it “internet exploder”
people like sputnik are the IT industry’s best friends – the more it breaks down, the more secure their jobs
mw: think
I always surf this site with Camino. I get one pop-under at the beginning but in return the pages load heaps faster than Safari. I think it’s because I’m viewing “display ad” free pages. It reminds me what the net used to be like about ten years ago. It also reminds what THIS site used to be like before it got cluttered. What finally did it was those annoying phone jingle ads. I guess in a way I should thank MDN for pushing me towards Camino. It was their crass advertising that opened up my eyes to other browers.
MDN word “effect” as in cause and effect
Everyone with the true IT universe world knows that having multiple browser applications through an outstream environment is a key to success.
It stems from biology, ecological diversity is ecological stability.
Not only does the added complexity for a network administrators configuring multiple applications keep their minds sharp there is also the benefit of addressing workarounds to the security threat of non-Windows sanctioned apps.
Running a whole whack of herbivore browsers like IE is appropriate and required to sustain the few high quality carnivorous browsers like Safari for a global healthy IT environment, it is imperative for network diversity and stability as well as welcoming the insecure machines that have IE browsers and viruses like Windows.
I am editing this, I laughed too much while writting it.
Everyone with the true IT universe world knows that having multiple browser applications through an outstream environment is a key to success.
It stems from biology, ecological diversity is ecological stability.
Not only does the added complexity for network administrators configuring multiple applications keep their minds sharp there is also the benefit of addressing workarounds to the security threat of Windows sanctioned apps.
Running a whole whack of herbivore users running IE and Windoze is appropriate and required to sustain the few high quality carnivorous users running the MacOS. For a healthy global IT environment, it is imperative for network stability to have diversity, thus welcoming the huge numbers of insecure machines that have IE browsers and viruses like Windows as well as the few secure machines using MacOS and Safari.