Why Use Firefox on Mac?
Mar 2nd, 2007 by Greg Bulmash
I've been a Mac user for the past few months and haven't been particularly happy with the adjustments required when you "switch", but this isn't so much a gripe about switching as it is about stuff on Mac that just lacks functionality.
Over the last few years, I have run into situation after situation where some Javascript/DHTML tested fine on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, but didn't work properly on Safari. The latest issue is the help button on a Flash application.
If you view the page in Internet Explorer for Windows, Firefox for Mac or Windows, AOL for Windows, or Opera for Mac or Windows, the button works fine. Using Javascript and CSS, a help screen is overlaid onto the Flash application. But if you click the button on Safari, the application disappears and is replaced by nothing.
Arrgghhh.
The way it works is that it uses Flash's "fscommand" function to pass Javascript instructions to the page in which the application is embedded. That triggers the Javascript that overlays the help information over the Flash application. I'm still wondering if it's the Javascript or the CSS that's causing Safari to break my page. But at least Safari takes the Javascript instructions from the Flash application.
If you're using Internet Explorer for Mac or AOL for Mac's internal browser, you can't use fscommand to pass Javascript instructions to the browser. After some research, I found that while Microsoft has supported fscommand since Internet Explorer 4 on Windows 95 and above, they never supported it in Internet Explorer for Mac. Because AOL uses Internet Explorer as its rendering engine for its internal browser, that means that both are crippled in this respect on Mac.
Arrgghhh.... again.
While I like certain aspects of Opera, I think that Firefox offers a better interface. And given all the issues with AOL, Internet Explorer, and Safari on Mac, if you want the best, most trouble-free browsing experience on Mac, you'll "switch"... to Firefox.