Web experience on OSX

[lonny]

This might seem like an old subject... but I feel like we are living in "dangerous" times.

Sad as it is, I am not completely satisfied wit hsurfing on OSX. Sure, we have a choice of browsers, and Safari looks lovely, Mozilla keeps on getting better, and Camino still rocks.

Still there are difficulties accessing some sites. And I'm not talking about fancy stuff like 3D chat rooms and the like...

Lycos webmail doesn't work properly.
My italian webmail system (www.email.it) works ok on Mozilla, but not on Safari.
My bank's site crashes Mozilla (and Camino).

Apple shoud make a BIG effort in order to improve compatibility with some big players, Lycos being an example.

Otherwise switching more people is going to be hard...

[Arden]

Well, the only web experience I have in OS X comes from the rare times I haul my iMac into the office and hook it up to the DSL modem, and I haven't done this but twice, and not recently. It still only has the v51 beta of Safari on it, and whatever version of Chimera was out then.

In Safari beta v51, my email site mislabelled the buttons, leading to an error in my emailing (I pushed Reply to All instead of just Reply). I agree, Apple needs to put the pressure on web designers to conform to standards, and they need to take the initiative themselves to realize that not everyone uses WinIE.

[serpicolugnut]

Getting Safari to work with every website is something Apple has set its sights on, but in reality, there are going to be some sites that just won't work with it due to no fault by Apple. There are moronic companies/web developers who, instead of using clearly defined standards, will opt for a Microsoft only hack, and then to add insult to injury, make the browser check that IE being used, and when it's not, it will simply lock you out.

Safari can spoof sometimes to get around these roadblocks, but sometimes even spoofing won't work.

If you find a site that doesn't work with Safari, use Safaris bug reporting feature (Apple really does read them), and also send an email to the site developer letting them know they are losing a potential customer/viewer/etc.

Overall, though, I'd say the web browsing experience on the Mac is the best that it's been since OS X debuted. It could definitely get better (Flash playback speed? Hello???), but the trend is upward not downward...

[Veljo]

I agree. I started off using Macs way back in the days of System 6, but then set my sights on a PC due to the increasing amount of games, etc. available for them. My PC was my first Internet machine. I didn't get my iMac until Internet Explorer 6 was out. Coming from IE6 to the Mac's browser at this time (5.1?) I have to admit it was horrible. To this very date, my school uses Internet Explorer 5.2. I hate it but I have no other choice. Safari won't load our school emailing system. After entering your password it tries to download a file instead of going to the next page. Sure, we are only version 1.0 in Safari now, but it's increasingly irritating for me. I mean, Flash runs slow, Java is a complete and utter nightmare (painfully slow, text isn't smoothed,etc). That bug report thing in Safari, I've submitted at least 8, way back since v51 and nothing has happened. It can only get better but...

[monktus]

The thing is, Mircosoft's Mac software is way better than its Windows software. IE for Mac sucked an then 5 came out which although I didn't want to admit it, was way better than NEtscape 4.7 - more stable, better HTML rendering. Outlook Express 5 was the mail mail client I've used. But the OSX IE sucks compared to Sarfari. As was mentioned further up, the problem is (mostly) not Safari but lame developers not conforming to web standards. Safari is based on KHTML, a linux browser which makes it very compact and standards compliant. The problem is the rest of the world! I haven't used Camino etc much. I hear its very good but I stayed away from the Mozilla browsers because they're so big and slow. Hopefully the new slant Mozilla are taking will help when they ditch their current strategy of having a huge codebase. Haven't used the new Operas much, I liked version 5 for OS9.

[lonny]

The problem is the rest of the world!

While I agree that the problem is caused by those who do not conform to standards, we are going to be cut out from (most of) the Internet if something doesn't happen soon!

I don't know what...

Implement an "Explorer emulation" mode?
Pressure on developers to follow standards?
Pressure on AOL to use Netscape (Mozilla) as their browser?

As it is now I have far too many problems with browsing. Most can be solved by using a combination of browsers (IE for banking, Netscape in classic for online supermaret, Mozilla for webmail and Safari for "normal" browsing)... but it's hardly convenient...

[bobw]

There is an Explorer emulation mode, along with;
Netscape 7.0, 6.22, 4.79
Mozilla 1.1
MacMSIE 5.2.2
Windows MSIE 6.0

Check http://www.versiontracker.com for Safari add ons.

[lonny]

Should have made myself clear...

I didn't mean "emulation" as in identifying as Explorer.
I mean "emulation" as in supporting activeX commands, and all those quirky things that make some sites load unproperly on our machines...