Safari vs Firefox On Windows

Which web browser is best Safari or Firefox? This is becoming more of a relevant question since Apple launched their famous internet tbrowser, Safari for Windows.

In the beginning of the internet web browsers were very limited as they used pure HTML, a markup language that is used web designers to transfer information across the internet so that it can be read by web browsers.

Web browsers have come a long way since their humble beginnings and it wasn't long before Microsoft came along with their attempt called Internet Explorer. I say attempt because ever since its conception, their browser faced non standard methods of rendering web pages.

Then along came Firefox, the things that attacted users to this new browser by Mozilla were:-

• the speed at which it rendered web pages - lightning fast
• the way it rendered web pages - standards compliant
• security - Firefox actively helps to block adverts, malware and phishing attacks
• customizability - Firefox plugins have transformed the internet browsing experience by allowing you to control the information you have whilst browsing. For instance you can see immediately the PageRank of any website, or modify the websites structure using a developer toolbar in real time.

One of the problems faced by Firefox is that over long periods of internet browsing it becomes very memory intensive which means restarting the browser, potentially losing your work or sometimes having to reboot your computer. Another problem is the startup time for the browser, basically the more plugins you have the slower it is to load first of all.

So how does the new version of Safari rack up against the almight Firefox?

Safari's strengths are:

• quick to load
• quick to load web pages
• comes with standard Safari plugins for windows
• standards compliant - recently passed the ACID 3 test

Unfortunately at time of writing Safari does not come with the ability to create user defined plugins in the way Firefox allows.

So which one is best?

This answer depends on what you want to use your internt browser for (besides browsing the internet obviously). If you need the bespoke plugins of Firefox to allow you to carry out your daily task in the web then Safari wont be able to help you at present. However if all you do is browse the internet all day then you will most likely welcome an extremely standards compliant browser which the Safari browser for windows has proved itself to be.