mozilla, camino, firebird, thunderbird. What's the best one?

[junior]

Sorry for the ignorance, but why do they have so many different browsers? What makes one better than the other? I've used Mozilla 1.3 in the past and have also used camino.
What do you guys recommend out of those options and why?
BTW this is only in terms of browsing, rather than a browsing/mail combination.
Thanks.

Edit:
Actually it seems Thunderbird is only for mails. So forget I mentioned Thunderbird.

 

[bousozoku]

I use all three but mostly Camino.

Firebird, on Macintosh, is by far the roughest of the three.

Mozilla has been around the longest and is close in functionality to Firebird but carries the extra baggage of IRC chat and mail/newsgroups.

Camino is my favourite but I've seen several reports that it's doomed and FireBird will replace it eventually. Then again, I saw something recent that they've started work on it again. The one feature I really like is that the bookmarks in a drawer but I've read that will be eliminated. Therefore, I'll probably end up with Mozilla just because of the newsgroup reader.

 

[FattyMembrane]

your choice depends on what you want from your browser.

mozilla takes the suite approach, giving you a browser, irc chat, mail, newsgroups, and page composition all in one package. in addition, it allows you to add extra components using xul extensions (ranging from themes, to card games, to ad blockers, to rss aggregators).

firebird gives you all of mozilla's extensibility, but is only the browser portion. as such, it will eventually be smaller and more efficient (right now it's just as slow and bloated as moz).

camino is only the browser component and is contained within a cocoa osx interface. camino starts up faster than firebird/moz and has much better osx integration, however, you can't use any mozilla extensions/themes with it.

safari is (in my opinion) the best browser for osx right now. once firebird hits 1.0, i think it will be the moz variant of choice for osx. it hurts me to say that, as i've been a camino user since the .1 days.

 

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by bousozoku
I use all three but mostly Camino.

Firebird, on Macintosh, is by far the roughest of the three.

Mozilla has been around the longest and is close in functionality to Firebird but carries the extra baggage of IRC chat and mail/newsgroups.

Camino is my favourite but I've seen several reports that it's doomed and FireBird will replace it eventually. Then again, I saw something recent that they've started work on it again. The one feature I really like is that the bookmarks in a drawer but I've read that will be eliminated. Therefore, I'll probably end up with Mozilla just because of the newsgroup reader.

\

Camino will stick around. According to the official Mozilla roadmap, Firebird will replace MOZILLA, not Camino. Also, you can download the latest nightly to see that, yes, the bookmarks aren't in a drawer. The latest nightlies are much faster as well.

 

[Counterfit]

I'm surprised that no one has said that Thunderbird isn't a browser, but a mail/newsgroup reader. I use it for newsgroups and it works pretty well.

 

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by Counterfit
I'm surprised that no one has said that Thunderbird isn't a browser, but a mail/newsgroup reader. I use it for newsgroups and it works pretty well.

Notice junior's edit? He mentioned it.

 

[alset]

Thunderbird is great. Camino is superb. Thunderbird is an easy to configure newsgroup and mail client. Camino is an efficient and attractive browser. My vote is for Camino.

Dan

 

[junior]

Okaty, thanks guys. So it seems for purely internet browsing purposes, Camino is the winner?
I've just tried both and they don't seem to be different in loading speed, so maybe I'll go for the lighter Camino (and safari ofcourse!).

 

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by junior
Okaty, thanks guys. So it seems for purely internet browsing purposes, Camino is the winner?
I've just tried both and they don't seem to be different in loading speed, so maybe I'll go for the lighter Camino (and safari ofcourse!).

Make sure you get a nightly build of Camino. They're a lot more advanced than the latest release version (based off mozilla 1.5 code instead 1.0 code).

 

[mrjamin]

firebird is definately the best browser for linux + winblows but i agree, its too sluggish in OSX at the moment.

While camino's fast, there's something about it that annoys the hell outta me - i dunno what! Possibly that its not quite customisable enough for me.

I have to say i can't stand Safari - there are elements about it that are just plain illogical too me, probably the worst piece of apple OSX software i've used yet. It may well be fast, and it might look much but i despise it!

As for IE, i'm not even going to go there

So yeah, i'm sticking with Firebird - i can tollerate slowness if i can get it set up exactly how i want it to! Recommended extenstions:

Googlebar
Download Statusbar
tabbbrowser extensions
GoUp

I use the SafNB skin (safari clone) which looks great and applies well to the whole browser.

IMHO a webbrowser is the important app on any system as its the one that i use the most so getting one that behaves itself and is extendable enough is a must, firebird fits the bill perfectly for me

 

[pyrotoaster]

Safari is, by far, the best browser for OS X. Camino/Chimera was good back in the Internet Explorer days, but Safari trumps it in just about every way.

If you're looking for a second browser, go with Camino. It's not nearly as good as Safari, but it's a lot better than IE and the current Firebird.

Originally posted by mrjamin
I have to say i can't stand Safari - there are elements about it that are just plain illogical too me, probably the worst piece of apple OSX software i've used yet. It may well be fast, and it might look much but i despise it!

We're all entitled to our opinions, of course, but I'd like to hear why you don't like Safari. I really like its powerful-but-simple interface and the bookmarks system (I like having complete control over where each bookmark is).

 

[mrjamin]

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
[We're all entitled to our opinions, of course, but I'd like to hear why you don't like Safari. .

I can't stand the url autocomplete thing as it just seems plain illogical to me, i.e. the way it tacks on previously visited directories and filenames straight away without offering just the domain itself.

javascript support is shoddy and causes all kinds of issues with many websites i frequent.

Tabbed browsing is ok, but not customisable enough - i love firebird "single window mode"

I also dislike all the built-in urls it suggests when you're typing an address in the address bar.

when safari crashes (which it seems to rather a lot - "unexpedly quit" seems a little ironic at times!) the page/tabs you were viewing don't make their way into the history, so you have to retrace your steps to get back to where you were

its not nearly customisable enough for my liking - i'm very particular in my tastes!

it does have some great features that i wish were in Firebird, such as the bookmarks management, and the status bar, telling you how links will open, i.e. "opens www.website.com/page.html in a new window"

The html rendering is getting there, it looks great but you still get a few glitches where it struggles with completely standard html + css

Safari should be "there" by version 2 at the latest imho

 

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by mrjamin
I can't stand the url autocomplete thing as it just seems plain illogical to me, i.e. the way it tacks on previously visited directories and filenames straight away without offering just the domain itself....

You've definitely got some good points there. I agree that Safari's auto-fill does tend to be a bit overly-agressive with URLs, and I particularly didn't like it auto-filling Google searches (thankfully, that can be turned off). I don't have trouble with any sites I visit, but I know problems exist.

Considering the fact that Safari's only at version 1.0, it works pretty well.

 

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
You've definitely got some good points there. I agree that Safari's auto-fill does tend to be a bit overly-agressive with URLs, and I particularly didn't like it auto-filling Google searches (thankfully, that can be turned off). I don't have trouble with any sites I visit, but I know problems exist.

Considering the fact that Safari's only at version 1.0, it works pretty well.

Compared to Camino's 0.7?

(I think they're both fine browsers. For me, the latest Camino nightlies are faster, but Safari is a little more polished, so they're really about even).