The state of OS X Web browsers

I am frustrated, and I am willing to bet that many others who use OS X are frustrated too. The reason: Every Web browser available under OS X is a compromise.

Here is a brief look at the OS X browsers that I use and where I think they all have strengths and weaknesses:

Internet Explorer

Despite my wishes that it wasn't so, IE remains the fastest and most stable browser for OS X. So why am I not happy with it? Simple: It comes from Microsoft, it doesn't adhere to standards, its Java support is slow and clunky, and if I use it over the length of an entire day while doing my work on the message boards for Lycos.com, it bogs down and stops functioning multiple times per day. The last complaint may not be IE's fault, but regardless, IE gets in my way multiple times per day while I work.

I admit that IE is fighting a losing battle in winning my allegiance as a Web browser, but if the program simply worked, at least at this point because of its superior rendering speed and the best Java support of any OS X browser, I would simply lump it and use IE until someone else got it right. But IE doesn't work as well as it should.

OmniWeb 4.1

The second best browser in terms of dealing with Java, Javascript and rendering right now is OmniWeb. Especially the latest preview releases, now standing at 4.1b34, offer speedier page rendering and fairly accurate display of a majority of pages on the Net. But in my work, it still comes up short. OmniWeb cannot work with the Java chat client on Lycos and it also doesn't work with the Javascript pages and utilities I require in my work with Lycos.

What OmniWeb does right is offer speedy updates to its program, addressing the bugs mentioned by users who subscribe to the OmniGroup mailing lists, and the program also offers spell checking support (which is a great bonus if you use your browser to write in a Weblog tool like Radio 8.0.2.

Mozilla 0.9x

Mozilla is growing into a good runner-up in the OS X Web browser standings. If you load a plug-in, it offers Java support and it also is supposed to be one of the more standards compliant browsers around. Add in the ability to open multiple browser windows using the tabbed interface that only Mozilla supports right now on the Mac, and it seems like a good alternative. But again, there are compromises. I have yet to get the Java plug-in to work properly on my PowerBook. And, if you hop to another browser to do work for a while, say IE so that you can work with Java pages correctly and then try to go back to Mozilla, the browser takes forever to become active and ready for use.

Mozilla also doesn't look as good as OmniWeb in the way it renders pages or in the way that the interface looks. But there is no denying that if you have the inclination, Mozilla is the only browser in the current batch that can offer an integrated package bundled with e-mail, chat and Web page editing tools all in one program.

One shortcoming of Mozilla for me is that it doesn't work correctly with Radio 8.0.2. It renders the pages from the Radio server, but it shows broken graphics for every graphic link on the pages. Add this shortcoming to the lack of built-in spell checking and Mozilla is not ready for prime time as a browser to use as a writing tool.

The others

The rest of the OS X browser pack all fall short, but they still have their followers. I lump the rest of the browsers together because none of them support Java or Javascript to a full extent.

iCab X is nice because of its HTML checking capabilities (although it can be frustrating since no Web pages on the Internet seems to adhere to the strict standards it requires to approve a page).

Opera for OS X shows promise, but the latest beta crashes all the time and it is possibly the farthest of all OS X browser from being a mature program.

Netscape for OS X offers many of the same pros and cons of the daily Mozilla releases, but like IE, it is seldom updated. This means that it is anyone's guess when the shortcomings - Java capabilities most of all - will be updated and fixed. The Java plug-in that works under Mozilla also works with Netscape X, but I have not played with it.

In conclusion

And so, anyone looking for the perfect OS X Web browser is likely to face the same compromises that I face. IE is good for some things, OmniWeb is good for others and the Mozilla/Netscape versions may be good for some things as well. I often find myself using IE and OmniWeb at the same time, playing to the strengths and making up for the weaknesses with each browser.

Meanwhile, I keep looking for a winning browser...

An update: (1-31-02) I downloaded and tested the Java plug-in for Netscape and Mozilla, and neither of them will work with the Java chat client or any other Java on the site I need to access for work, the Lycos Communities.

My conclusion stands: IE 5.13 for OS X is still the most robust overall browser under OS X 10.1.2, followed closely by OmniWeb...

Another update: (2-8-02) While I am still using IE 5.1.3 for my work with Lycos, I find myself using OmniWeb more and more for other Web work. OmniWeb has now been updated to version 4.1sp39, with three new versions in the last 24 hours...

One major reservation I have with IE, though, is that it comes from Microsoft. I comment with my latest thoughts on that topic in: Tired of viruses and bugs? Ditch Microsoft...