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Comment by caymanjim | Hacker News Reader

How many Safari users even know what an ad blocker is? It's not exactly a power feature, but people using the stock browser shipped with their OS probably aren't aware that it's even an option.

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Many people using Mac will use safari because it's power usage is incredibly low compared to the others. Im a Firefox user, but on a MacBook, safari is the only option.

I think many people using a Mac use Safari because it’s the default.

I use it because it has the best looking font rendering and the smoothest scrolling

This is why I use it. I haven't upgraded to Safari 13 yet so if that's where the change is it hasn't hit me yet. Still using an old version of ublock origin that has updated lists and between that and pihole it's going strong.

Firefox is nice and chrome is ok but they're a distant second at the moment due to the ecosystem with iOS

To further add to that EVERY person using an iPhone is using Safari. If they search the app store for adblock or some other name brand blocker, they’ll be instructed to turn on content blockers.

Firefox is supposed to have fixed that in nightly builds. Can’t land in the main channel soon enough.

My MacBook is plugged in 90% of the time. While travelling for example on a plane and I forget to charge it, then yeah, Safari is helpful to have.

Even while plugged in, your computer has limited CPU/GPU to go around.

Swapping out one app for another that's almost identical but with less CPU usage seems like a no-brainer. Though I do keep Chrome around with a couple tabs open for its development tools during work.

Safari even uses fewer resources when watching Youtube/Netflix at the same resolution. I first noticed this while using a dual monitor setup with a fullscreen game on one and Youtube/Netflix on the other. I noticed my game's FPS would improve if I merely changed from Chrome to Safari when watching video. Did some more scientific measurements and never looked back.

In addition to the power usage, Safari is the only browser that syncs tabs and passwords with the browser on my iPhone. I tried to use Firefox (in response to this change) but I couldn't log in to any websites because all of my passwords are randomly-generated strong passwords stored in Keychain and Firefox refuses to use the Keychain.

Some people actually choose to use Safari from the plethora of available browsers. Low battery use, smooth scrolling, and utmost respect of system settings (e.g., Firefox will still use a blue accent color even if you set your system accent color to something else) are all reasons to consciously choose Safari over another browser.

I have some 5 or 6 browsers on my Mac, mostly for development purposes but for everyday web browsing, unless there's some special requirements, I still use Safari. It's the most convenient and efficient of Mac browsers, and the rest just feel a bit crufty and un-Mac-like.

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