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Comment by CodeGlitch | Hacker News Reader

As a huge Mozilla fan, I really do hope that Firefox OS takes off at least in a small way. I hear that the Firefox browser isn't being used so much on Android (people are tending to stick to the default Chrome browser). Mozilla really do need to get into the mobile market.

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Defaults are such powerful things. If Microsoft had managed to keep IE even marginally competent back in the Long Browser Winter, the window for alternative browsers on the desktop would have been much, much narrower.

It's my hunch that a lot of Mac owners never give Safari a fair chance because their time in Windows land drummed in to them the notion that only dummies use the default browser.

Doesn't help that it's not particularly compelling:

http://www.zdnet.com/the-big-browser-benchmark-january-2013-... http://www.techradar.com/us/news/software/applications/best-...

I use Safari daily, both to test and to visit several popular websites. My experience is that it's the first to somehow lock up with even a moderate number of windows/tabs open.

There's a lot of things to like about OS X, but these days I don't think Apple's heart is in web-related stuff.

IMO it still has the best overall look and feel. Anecdotally, I very seldom see any freezes or crashes. Perhaps having plug-ins completely disabled makes the difference.

Then why bother making Safari at all? Just rebrand Firefox or Webkit or whatever. it's not like having Safari in the mix has some massive value to the community

Safari is the reason Webkit exists. Apple forked KHTML for their browser project and called the result Webkit.

Odd. I use Safari as my main browser and since Mavericks, I don't think I've ever seen it lock up. URL to test?

In my experience, Safari on Mac is the nicest browser for no reason other than Firefox and Chrome failing to nail trackpad input in the way that Apple has.

Granted I still use Firefox because I sync bookmarks to Windows, but if I could sync FF for Windows and Safari for Mac I'd switch back tomorrow. Not so keen on Safari for Windows or iCloud sync.

Not the finest of solutions, but it does work Xmarks: http://www.xmarks.com

I've also found that it is smoother as relates to scrolling etc. Chrome will sometimes lock the screen during memory intensive stuff, Firefox will do it a little, and Safari is buttery smooth.

If they had used Safari on Windows, I am sure they would have stayed away from the Mac version because I recall the Windows one being crashy and buggy.

Ah, those days of young browsers when Firefox was called Firebird and Chrome version numbers went up by dot increments, not integer jumps. It isn't that long ago either!

According to the Play Store, mobile Firefox is in the "50,000,000 - 100,000,000" installs category. For a platform where Chrome is the default browser (as opposed to Windows and IE), that ain't too shabby.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fi...

Well it'd be good if the HTML5/H264 video player wasn't a piece of crap and it integrated with Android intents etc properly...

Would you mind be more precise so we can fix it?

Yes:

steps: Open mp4 file in Firefox 28 on Android.

actual behaviour: Shows in tiny partial window inside browser. Content is small, laggy, impossible to control, cannot be made full screen.

expected behaviour: opens with default android media player interface or asks which interface to use as per intents system.

strictly speaking, Chrome isn't necessarily the default - Chrome mobile isn't the same app as the "Internet" browser included in Android. (though it's included in newer phones - my shiny new S5 lets me pick the default as it appears to not be set yet)

For users that may still have the "Internet" app as their web default, I imagine Firefox is a better experience.

I'm curious how many of those installations actually see much use, especially on an ongoing basis.

I know several people who have all sorts of browsers installed on their Android devices, but only end up using one of them frequently. The others are used for the rare site that doesn't work well in the preferred browser, but these other browsers don't see much, if any, use beyond that.

Ff on Android is, ironically, years ahead of ffos.

As someone has used Firefox on desktop since it was called Pheonix, the Android Firefox app is just bad. It consistently renders pages worse than Chrome, will show desktop pages when it should be showing mobile, has frustrating address bar behavior, and just generally makes me want to throw my phone at the wall. I want to love it - and I try it every couple of months - but it's just no good.

I don't think it's bad, especially recently.

The interface is rougher than Chrome, but it has the benefit of Sync and AdBlock.

It's the only mobile browser with any kind of extension support, I believe.

I also like the tab-switching view better than chrome's - however, it's hard to access, which is a shame.

Really? I use it every day and have none of these problems. I love the thing.

I'm not sure why, exactly, but a few months ago it took a notable leap in usability. Today, I use it for everything, and it works superbly.

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