2007-08-28
I think I've tried just about every web browser available for the Mac. The included Safari 2 didn't feel quite right, Firefox was too slow and a memory hog, Flock, Shiira and some others just didn't really fit what I was looking for. Camino was nice and light, and better integrated with the Mac than Firefox, but I was missing a good search box and it felt a little too limited in features. Now I'm using the Safari 3 beta and couldn't be happier. There are lots of little things that just feel "right" and it fits with the Mac OS nicely. After downloading an application you are warned that it contains an app, and if you approve the DMG file is mounted so you can run or install the app. But, the one thing that seems simple, but I've felt missing in browsers for a while is the tab management. On Linux I used Epiphany which has supported rearranging tabs for a while, and Firefox now supports it, but Safari gets one more thing right: dragging tabs between windows. So far I haven't seen another browser do this, but in Safari you can drag a tab up or down to detach it from the current window and either drag it to a different window, or out into a new window. It's not a feature I use constantly, but I do really like being able to keep my tabs organized in a logical manner instead of having a random assortment of tabs all open in the same window. Thanks Apple for getting this right.
