I also want to add that sometimes I won't be offering suggestions for Apple improvements. This post for example will discuss my take on the best browser for Mac OS X. Why does this need to be discussed? Well, it doesn't need to, but it is certainly something of an issue out there in the Mac world.
The big problem, at least, from my perspective, is that Safari just isn't as well supported yet. The reason we use Safari is because of OS integration (period). Although, some claim it to be faster, I can't really tell, but I'm not a developer so what do I know? My take is simple, Firefox is available on practically every platform. For that reason, it is quickly becoming well supported. Most websites are now written to support Firefox. And if not Firefox, then IE. Safari is now available on windows, that might make it a bigger contender, and if adopted by the internet community it will thrive and maybe become one of the three big ones. Until then, there is only IE and Firefox.
What I am speaking in reference to is in plug-ins and other forms of support. While Quicktime is available everywhere, Windows Media Player doesn't integrate at all with Safari. Heck, I don't even know if it works with Firefox on OS X. But my point is that while I can browse the internet on my PC and download any number of plug-ins and viewers for special content, it's very limited in Safari. At least most of them are available for Firefox.
There are downsides though. Firefox doesn't integrate with the OS as well. Keychain is the biggest of the issues. I'm used to using Camino or Safari to log in to a new site and my login information will be saved in the system wide keychain. But Firefox doesn't have that, not natively. Which means that if I log into a site in Firefox and save my information, it is being stored in the built in password manager. That also means that I have to hunt through Firefox settings to get to it to see that password should I be on another computer and need that information. With Keychain, all I have to do is open it, and type in the spotlight search field to find my login. It's loads simpler. And I can set that same login keychain to be run in other applications like Cyberduck, Safari, or Camino.
There is a password utility out there that does integrate all the browsers and creates a new keychain to store all web passwords. It is called 1Passwd, but it costs $30. It does seem to do more than just store passwords, but since that is the main purpose, the price seems steep. Personally, I'm hoping that someone will just make a simple firefox plug-in to download for free. If I had a clue as to how to do applescripting I would do it. Alas, I cannot. But really, this is the only thing I can think of that I don't like about Firefox. I like the look of Safari, so I added a Safari brushed metal theme.
Here's one thing that Safari should include if it wants to compete with the other browsers on the market. Both Safari and Camino lack the ability to define a new folder when adding a new bookmark. This I find to be a real pain. In order to add a page to a new folder (which I do all the time as I'm a little OCD about file and folder organization) I have to manage bookmarks in a new tab and create the folder first. Then I have to go back to my other tab and click to add to bookmarks. This is such an annoyance. That was one of the reasons I stopped using both Safari and Camino.
Oh, and here's a Firefox tip for you. If you click on Bookmarks in the menubar, you only see an option to bookmark the current page. However, if you right (or apple-left) click the tab, you will have the option to bookmark all tabs, a feature I grew very accustomed to when researching software or stuff I wanted to buy. The best part is I can bookmark all tabs and put them in a new folder.
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