My Mac Software List 3 - web browser

Now talk about the internet related applications. First of all, the most important application is the internet web browser. The build in Safari is pretty decent, until Firefox 3 came out. There are also a bunch of other web browsers, freeware and shareware, such as Camino, Opera, Omniweb, but I would like to say, it's more like a matter of taste, and they are almost on the same level. You will fall in love with anyone of them if you use it for more than two weeks. Summarize as follows:

• Die hard mac fan stick with Safari 3  build in in leopard
  
• Die hard mozilla fan stick with Firefox 3  freeware
• Lovers of both mac and mozilla use Camino  freeware
• Cool people use Opera  freeware on their computers/cellphones/wiis
• "Rich" people use Omniweb  shareware (used to be much superior than others, but now Firefox etc caught up)

I think Firefox is better than Safari for now, but I will definitely give Safari 4 (promising much faster speed on javascript) a try when it comes out later this year/or next year. If you use Firefox instead, please check my experience with Firefox 3.

If you do use Safari, check out the plugin Inquisitor  freeware, which makes your search bar more powerful, and you can configure it through Safari preference panel (command + , ). There was a bit of scadal about the developer earlier this year, but David acknowledged this problem in time. I think Inquisitor joining Yahoo! is a great move, and I'm happy to see the developers getting revenu without cutting user experience.

The password manager in Firefox seems to be decent, but I am already a 1password  shareware user. For my two years' experience with Agile, I feel quite happy with them, and now I've owned two licences. But I haven't quite compared it with the firefox manager, maybe that's also good enough. The only downside again is the steep price, but I got both licence from bundle sales, so I'm happy with it.

Another related software is Speed Download  shareware, a download manager for web browsers. Again, good to have if cheap, and I probably won't purchase it at full reatail price. And Yazsoft is quite mean at the beginning of its bundle sale.

Firefox 3

Today is the firefox 3 downloading day, and the mozilla guys are trying to reach a "record"! Congrats to the firefox team, and they really made a good job in delivering the world's best browser.

I've changed my default browser from safari to FF3. A few notes:

1. The mac theme plugin is updated, see GrApple Yummy from Aronnax.
2. The general keyboard and mouse shortcut are here. Well, I need to change my safari habits now, until they release the "New Safari with Squirrels" in Snow Leopard... or maybe FF4 is coming out then.
   
3. It is very easy to set up keyboard shortcuts to your favorite sites, which is actually better than the command+number shortcut in Safari, or this FF plugin. Even better, now the keyboard shortcut sets Cmd+Number to switch between tabs!
4. If you want "in-browser" pdf viewing support, as in safari, check this plugin from google codes in FF3.
   
5. It seems snappier and use less memory than safari!