I finally installed Safari 3 this week and wow, am I impressed. I figured the speed increases were a marketing gimmick but you can really notice the difference. Pages render much quicker and Javascript runs much smoother, making the whole browsing experience that much more snappy. One page you can really notice the difference is the Mac page at Apple.com. Load the page in Firefox and try the accordion menu on the right. Now load the page in Safari and try the menu again. The animation is quite choppy and sluggish in Firefox but quick and smooth in Safari.
I started to use Safari as my primary web browser, but there were some things that I really missed from Firefox. Luckily, the Safari user community has bridged this gap with plugins:
- Keywurl
Keywurl is a Safari plugin that emulates Firefox’s Smart Keywords, something that I use a lot in Firefox and can no longer live without in my web browser. - ForgetMeNot
Since the addition of Session Restore in Firefox, I now expect my browser to reopen with the tabs I had open when I closed. The ForgetMeNot plugin adds this feature to Safari.
I am now a fully converted Safari user for browsing the web, though I still use Firefox for web development.