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Anyone else sick of Safari?

Safari has been my main browser and has been for about a decade. It has core features that I've come to rely on (iCloud sync, Reading List, and now tab groups) and, most importantly to me, it knows what it is and doesn't try to become an entire OS on it's own like Chrome.

That said, the Monterey release has been pretty bad and I'm disappointed that it hasn't improved. Safari's always had bugs here and there, but on macOS Monterey (clean install) it can hang, tab groups are funky and sometimes go back when you load a web page for no reason, iCloud tabs and reading list have had sync issues for months. It's very frustrating.

There is no other browser that I'd want to use at the moment, but if a year from now it's in the same shape or worse I'll seriously look at Firefox.
 
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Updates make Safari better. But after an update it's necessary to perform certain functions differently. When you irritatingly discover that something doesn't work the way it has for you for the past several years, asking around on the web usually results in finding a way .. unless .. a related setting is set differently from what Safari sees as standard setup. Then when you perform the recommended fix, you don't get the expected result - not until you finally, through search and trial and error discover that one setting that's different from what Safari considers to be the norm. This sort of thing can sometimes be VERY frustrating.
 
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FelineTech said:
I completely disagree. I actually prefer Safari's plug-in architecture for privacy reasons.

1Blocker is fantastic. Yes, it requires a subscription, but it also supports family sharing. The developer needs to make "something" for their efforts.

Safari plus 1Blocker is a fantastic combination. I have a lifetime subscription to 1Blocker. Works across Mac, iPad, iPhone.

It blocks trackers, cookies, ads, etc. And because it uses the Safari plug-in architecture, 1Blocker doesn't "read" your webpages. It instead sets all of the rules that Safari will use (what parts of the HTML to ignore), so 1Blocker doesn't need to have access to your data. (Wipr works in a similar way).

And yes, once you have Safari exclude all the trackers, ads etc, all webpages load faster!! You can always set your default search engine to DuckDuckGo to avoid Google as well.
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Just use AdGuard in the app store then, it’s free and has 99% of the functionality.
 
TrancyGoose said:
I found that Adguard also works pretty well..allthough, must admit, it works better in Chromium, but decent performance in Safari too.
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The one thing AdGuard has in chromium over Safari is the free “stealth” feature. If you aren’t using that on a chromium browser you definitely should.

I feel more secure on a Chromium+AdGuard setup than Safari+AdGuard+Private Relay.
 
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I've used Safari since it was launched as a beta in '03 when Internet Explorer on a Mac was a thing.

Today, I use Safari exclusively with Firefox as a backup (e.g., work sites).
 
I hate that Safari lacks of extentions which I need and like on chrome.. mainly for Twitch.tv
 
I’m using safari with minimal issues, as far as day to day use there is no problems. The only issue I am having is my iCloud tabs are not showing up in multiple devices like they are supposed to.
 
I've had a bit of an existential crisis recently with browsers, switching between Edge, Firefox and Safari, and just when I think I've decided on a new daily driver, something pops up that makes me switch over to another one.

I don't like how Safari installs extensions on a system level, which is a big no-no on work machines.

I like Edge, but not how MS forces their other products and platforms down your throat—even more so than Chrome.

Chrome is a no-go for me until it has a reader mode (which it never will).

Firefox seems fine...but it feels like it's missing a level of polish that the others have. And using it feels like being on a sinking ship.
 
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ericg301 said:
I've had a bit of an existential crisis recently with browsers, switching between Edge, Firefox and Safari, and just when I think I've decided on a new daily driver, something pops up that makes me switch over to another one.

I don't like how Safari installs extensions on a system level, which is a big no-no on work machines.

I like Edge, but not how MS forces their other products and platforms down your throat—even more so than Chrome.

Chrome is a no-go for me until it has a reader mode (which it never will).

Firefox seems fine...but it feels like it's missing a level of polish that the others have. And using it feels like being on a sinking ship.
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You have it in one. (or three).

Specifically, from my point of view, Safari is still my choice for almost everything. It is just the BT. problem but that single problem is evidence of the overall egotistic corporation's inability to work closer together for the simple service of their customers.
 
Have never used Safari and have been on a Mac since 2009. I also don't use a Mac keyboard either.

Used Firefox, then switched to Waterfox Classic with the Classic Theme Restorer, which I am using right now. It can beachball after awhile on this Mac mini M1 but I live with it because it is my fave browser.

I also occasionally use Chrome but not often. And I use Brave sometimes.

Might be of no help but that is what I use.
 
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I keep seeing people say that Safari uses less RAM than other browsers, but when I was comparing it to Brave a few months ago I was surprised to notice that Safari actually seemed to use more of it.

But then, checking the Disk tab in activity monitor, I saw that Brave was writing a lot more on the disk. My theory is that Safari keeps more stuff loaded on the RAM, while Brave uses the SSD a lot more, potentially wearing it down faster.
I also noticed that Safari seems to flush unused tabs and quickly reloads them when they are selected again.

To do the comparison you have to wait a few hours so the disk writes have time to accumulate. Then close the browser, open the exact same tabs in the other browser, and continue using the machine the same way. At least 2 or 3 hours later check the disk usage. In my case Safari had much less disk writes than Brave (like less than 1GB versus 5 or 6GB), but used almost twice as much RAM.
This is on a 16GB M1 Pro btw.
 
TrancyGoose said:
A Simple question.
Anyone else sick of it? I get that it's integrated in to Mac OS and all, but so many websites, just refuse to load properly and work, despite Apple's boastings in improvements. Why is this?
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I've never encountered any website that doesn't work on Safari. Any examples?
Compared to chrome and edge, Safari have a much better interface and the top bar does not take up so much space.
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I was having some trouble with sites not loading properly in Safari, in particular after logging in. I turned off “hide my IP address” and that cleared up most of it. Not sure what those sites are doing behind the scenes but it was failing when one of Safari’s privacy protections was enabled.
 
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Safari is slow. I fired up my new MacBook Air and tried to stick with safari before downloading another browser and it would just hang all over the place. I downloaded Edge (currently my favourite macOS browser) and it was just as fast and fluid as it was on my old 2016 Pro.

I even tried Orion (basically safari but with Chome extension support) and it was just as bad.

I’m tempted to try Firefox again now that I’m on Apple Silicon but that’s a project for another day.
 
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