effigy used with license by copyright holder
I have a WWW web browser confession to make : I ’m an inveterate tab hoarder . I ’ve tried to change . I ’ve tried to cull loose tab key and tried to hold out opening raw one — but somehow the capable check retort just keep open on rising . At this percentage point , I think I ’m beyond saving .
What I ’ve learn is that I need amacOSweb internet browser that can adapt me , that has learned to take my tab - based failings without judgement or correction . And after many class of trying , it turns out that Safari is not that browser app .
Image used with permission by copyright holder
The tab problem
Safari treats yellow journalism in the same way that Google Chrome does ( and the same go for allChromium - based browserslike Edge , in fact ) . That is , the more tab you open , the smaller each individual tabloid catch . If , like me , you have lots or even C of tabs open at a time , each one is shrink down to the size of a pinhead in the tab key bar .
Needless to say , this is pretty anxiety - inducement , as it ’s a pain to incur whichever tab key it is that I ’m looking for . Sure , I could always , you know , clear out my tab , but who have it away when I might need that clause on the perfect way to iron my shirt ? It could be right now . Bookmarking it and forgetting about it just is n’t an option .
Instead of being more measured with my tab use like a right grownup , I ’ve train the well-situated way out and alternate to a good web browser choice : Firefox . Unlike Safari , when Firefox get to a sure tab threshold , it lets you scroll the pill legal community . Tabs stay a sane size and never quail down to an unmanageable proportion . It ’s enable my bad habits , and I know it .
Sharing is tricky with Safari on Mac
I ’ve actually used Firefox for over 15 years now , and I ’ve previously written aboutwhy I love it so much . But while it was always my go - to Windows web browser , Safari still clung on while I was using my Mac . Recently , I finally pulled the plug and exchange over to Firefox on my Mac , and I could n’t be happy .
As I ’m someone who regularly uses both Windows and macOS , I find myself frequently post content from one gadget to another . Apple ’s ecosystem is capital for that ( hello , AirDrop ) , but drop dead from Windows to macOS and back again is n’t so straightforward .
That is manifestly the subject when it amount to send out myself web content . Apple pulled Safari from Windows years ago , so if I ’m say a webpage on Safari on my Mac , I have to email it to myself if I want to record it on my PC . It feel like it ’s 2005 all over again .
If I use Firefox on my Mac , though , I can simply expend its Send Tab to gimmick feature film to pink the website across to Firefox pass on my personal computer . It takes just a 2d and does n’t clog up my email inbox . The irony is that Firefox is fundamentally set up the kind of walled - garden ecosystem that Apple has long perfect .
Playing catchup
Despite what I ’ve said so far , it was n’t just Safari ’s tab key management that forced my hand , although that played a big part in it . For one matter , both Safari and Firefox are some of thebest browsers for privacyand have a plethora of privacy - protecting feature of speech built in . In that regard , switching to Firefox on my Mac did n’t feel like a step back at all .
But there ’s something else , and it comes down to a more underlying problem I have with Safari : it constantly feels like it ’s toy catchup . We had to wait old age before it got multiple browsing profiles , something challenger have long since baked in as received in their own browsers .
Even worse , we had to wait until November 2023 to get favicons in the favorite bar . That ’s right , websites save to the toolbar have only just gained this key visual clue , literally years after every other browser app implemented the feature .
In the end , it was a compounding of all these factors that conduct me to give up Safari on my Mac . I used it for days because , as the default macOS connection web browser , it was easy . But sometimes you ’ve got to go beyond the default to observe something just .
Safari is n’t the best web web browser around , but what is ? Could it beChrome , Firefox , Opera , or Edge ?