I'll admit that I couldn't care less about tight Mac OS integration (the only time I use Safari is in a VirtualBox window from an XP installation under Ubuntu), but for me, the killer Firefox features are recently closed tabs, auto-restoring the tabs from my last session, and the ability to customize it with extensions.
>Auto-completion in Firefox requires the use of the Down Arrow key to select something from the list of suggestions. In Safari you can just use Return to accept the first suggestion.
I HATE when return picks the first item from a match-list. How the hell do I just type what I want to type?
You have to backspace the autocompleted text, but it doesn't appear immediately, so you have to either:
- Type what you want to type and race to hit return, or
- Wait a moment for the text to appear so you can hit backspace.
The whole experience is really frustrating, and easily one of my least-favorite features of Safari. It probably contributes to my tendency to Google sites rather than just entering URLs I already know by heart.
I never knew Control-Command-D would define a word you're hovering over. Something small like that is enough to make me consider switching back to Safari.
I remember seeing extensions for Firefox that do just that. Maybe you should investigate about it.
About the article itself, when I clicked I thought it would compare general stuff about firefox and safari, but it's mostly about mac OS integration. Since I don't use it the article ended up being pretty useless for me :(.
try the answers.com firefox addon. it's my unlivewithoutable addon. alt-clicking on a word will show the results in a small window within the page. because it's answers.com, it has access to wikipedia, a dictionary, and whatever else answers.com has
one nice thing about it is that the text matching is greedy. so when you alt click on a name ("bill gates"), idiom/saying ("jumping the shark"), etc, you get the results you expect
"Location Field — The new Firefox 3 location field, the so-called “AwesomeBar”, is too clever. When I click the mouse in the middle of a URL, I just want to place the insertion point. I don’t want to select the entire URL. If I wanted to select the entire URL, I’d double-click. Click to place, double-click to select — just like any other text field."
Bah, it's all a matter of habit. Firefox's "/"+term for find, as well as C-k and C-l to select search and URL fields respectively will always be second nature to me.
Yes, people like DHH have mentioned using Firefox for development but Safari for casual surfing outside of work. I can't get comfortable with it for casual surfing, either, though.
