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Miltz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I tried it for 2 weeks. During that time my laptop battery was awful and it was always hot, very hot. It got as hotter than when I used photoshop to process photos. I would say it's not worth using on a Mac unless you absolutely "need" it. I gotta give it to Apple, safari is extremely energy efficient. I only had 1-3 tabs open in Fidelity during this time.
 
I use Vivaldi.

Plenty of other browsers out there besides Chrome or Safari. It's not a binary choice.

The only time I use Safari is when some specific purpose requires it. Other than that, you can give it (back) to Apple all you want. I hate Safari with all the passion of a white hot sun.
 
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My default is Safari and I often used Chrome to log in to a second youtube profile, to have both profiles active on my screen.

I've since used Brave in place of Chrome.

(my main browser remains Safari)

-
 
I prefer Safari. 🤷‍♂️

I used to use Chrome on Windows, but it became a pig. I switched to Firefox, and that seemed bloated too. Eventually I just nuked Windows entirely and switched to Linux and picked up Firefox again. Works great (sorta) there!
 
I'm using Chrome right now just because it's got the most compatibility with the most websites. It's fine for me, but I also don't have that many tabs open.

That said, I think everyone should try out different browsers, since they're all a little different (or sometimes a lot different), and each one has its own features.
 
Chrome is OK but I don't like that they install a bunch of update/background services. I understand why, but I want a straight opt-out of these things and I'm not aware of whether such a thing exists. I just use stable Chromium and avoid the problem altogether.

I mainly use Firefox though because it's what I'm used to, but Mozilla needs a complete leadership purge and a rethink of strategy. It has been going downhill for at least half a decade if not longer, probably quite a bit longer.
 
I tried it for 2 weeks. During that time my laptop battery was awful and it was always hot,
I use Chrome on a Mac Mini. There is no battery, so I don't need to worry about how much power it uses. The case is slightly warm, but there is no fan noise. Right now I can open 8 tabs and two browser windows on a 27" 4K screen. About 12GB of RAM is in use, with 12% CPU use.

I also have a few terminal windows and a text editor a bit more open. The Mac is about 88% "idle."

I think the conclusion is that Chrome works poorly on an under-resourced Mac, and in that case Safari is the better choice.
 
Chrome is OK but I don't like that they install a bunch of update/background services. I understand why, but I want a straight opt-out of these things and I'm not aware of whether such a thing exists. I just use stable Chromium and avoid the problem altogether.
There was an instance some time ago for me where I wanted to keep using Microsoft Edge, but anything beyond the version I was using would just quit out on the Mac it was running on. Edge likes to update itself a lot and turning off updates doesn't work - at least for me.

So, this is what I did. I found out where the actual update app resided in the system, then I set permissions for it to be 'no access'. I did the same to the folder and then I locked the app with Get Info in Finder. In the Applications folder I set Edge to be Read only and locked it via Get Info.

I also set Little Snitch to deny the updater any outside access. Finally, I stored a copy of the app version I needed elsewhere.

Extreme, but it mostly worked. Sometimes stuff was able to get through, but I didn't have to worry about it much after doing all this.
 
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There was an instance some time ago for me where I wanted to keep using Microsoft Edge, but anything beyond the version I was using would just quit out on the Mac it was running on. Edge likes to update itself a lot and turning off updates doesn't work - at least for me.

So, this is what I did. I found out where the actual update app resided in the system, then I set permissions for it to be 'no access'. I did the same to the folder and then I locked the app with Get Info in Finder. In the Applications folder I set Edge to be Read only and locked it via Get Info.

I also set Little Snitch to deny the updater any outside access. Finally, I stored a copy of the app version I needed elsewhere.

Extreme, but it mostly worked. Sometimes stuff was able to get through, but I didn't have to worry about it much after doing all this.
I had to do either the same thing or something very similar with Edge a few years back. They dropped support for my OS and instead of just leaving me on the last supported version, it auto-updates to a version that I can't even lanuch. Luckily I had a backup of the app, so I went in and eliminated the updater. By now it's getting outdated, but at least it still runs...
 
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I’m still on Arc, with Vivaldi as a backup (and on PC). My M1 Pro MacBook Pro is doing fine considering its battery age, but I frequently see Arc listed as using more energy now, unlike previous years.
 
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I’ve used Chrome since 2010 and it remains the most solid option for my workflow. I’ve tried alternative--Firefox is sluggish on YouTube, Arc is too complex, and I dislike Safari’s overly simple interface. As a YouTuber with over 70k subscribers, Chrome provides the most seamless experience for my needs, so I see no reason to switch.
 
I'm using Chrome right now just because it's got the most compatibility with the most websites.
Leaving aside the issue that it isn't the 90s and we shouldn't be building websites for specific browsers, any other browser that uses the same Chromium engine should work just as well.

Google has open sourced the Chromium engine -- but not the rest of the Chrome browser, for some reason. (Hmm, what could that be...?)
 
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Freakin wrote:
"Safari or "Anything but Chrome" is fine."

Same here.
I try to keep as far away from google products as possible.
No Chrome. No google search. No google photos. No google nuthin'.

I DO use Youtube, but I don't sign into "an account" there.
Instead, I use Brave (or DuckDuckGo) and browse in a private window...
 
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Safari was set as my default in my iPad but after also using Brave for some time, I just recently made it the default. I don’t know enough about what’s “under the hood”, but my home network uses PiHole and recently found that some websites that complain about my ad blocking and try to prevent access because of it in Safari, still work fine on Brave. I’m still using both, though.
 
I hate Safari with all the passion of a white hot sun.
What did Safari do to you to deserve such hate?

I'm using Safari now and while it's very strict about random things like audio MIME types, but the killer feature for me is how clean and customizable the top bar is.
 
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What did Safari do to you to deserve such a fate?

I'm using Safari now and while it's very strict about random things like audio MIME types, but the killer feature for me is how clean and customizable the top bar is.
There is a bit of history with me and the app, most of my rage being directed at the PowerPC versions. The one issue I used to have with it was that it would load maybe 90% of a page and then just hang. In the meantime the CPU would spike.

I largely skipped using it on Intel Macs unless I had to. But I don't recall it being much better.

Now, I'm running Sonoma on my 2009 Mac Pro (which is Intel) and it seems it has improved. However, here we now run into preference issues.

I can't modify Safari. Oh sure, it's got extensions, but unlike Opera, Vivaldi, Chrome, Firefox, etc, if I want to customize things, that isn't happening.

Here's an example (my Vivaldi browser app):

Screenshot 2026-07-20 at 08.40.48.jpg

Note that I have the tab bar, the address bar and the bookmarks bar sitting on the bottom of the app. You can't do that on Safari. It takes mods with Firefox and other browsers (but can still be done).

And finally…I just do not like how Safari works. I get that most people use it, but I'm the type of user that when I get a new Mac I'm installing Microsoft Office and Adobe CC, so I don't have to use Apple's apps. On devices, I will install the browser I use.

In short, because Apple refuses to allow me to bend Safari to my will and make it look and function the way I want it to - I don't care for the app. So, I use a browser that WILL allow me to do this. I spend a LOT of time in a web browser each day. I want it to be 'comfortable' and work the way I want it to.

Fortunately on both iOS and Mac, I can install other apps.
 
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