Safari - recommendations for a new user

ChrisD. · 15 Feb 2021 at 10:15

Hi all, I've been using Chrome for years and recently switched to Edge. I have a few issues with both and I've never overly been a fan of Firefox. Every device I own is Apple apart from my gaming PC so I thought I would give Safari a go. Apart from 1Password, it doesn't look like most of the add-ons I use are available on Safari, but other 'cool' add ons seem to be Safari only.

Those who use Safari on a desktop, can you recommend some add-ons please?

Feek · 15 Feb 2021 at 10:19

I did the same some time back and now the only extensions I have in Safari are 1Password, Downie and ... oh wait, that's it!

ChrisD. · 15 Feb 2021 at 10:24

Feek said:
I did the same some time back and now the only extensions I have in Safari are 1Password, Downie and ... oh wait, that's it!

Did you ever use Adguard?

Feek · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:39

Nope, I have a couple of Piholes on my LAN so I don't use any ad blocking software at all.

ChrisD. · 15 Feb 2021 at 11:42

Thanks, I've never tried PiHole as I've read that it can cause pages to not show correctly etc. I may give it a go.

I really like Safari so far bar a few things I'm struggling with:

Can I move the pinned tabs and other tabs above the address bar, like nearly every other browser looks?
Can I eft align the favourites bar? It's currently centre aligned which I'm not a fan off
When I open a new window (not tab) it also opens all of the pinned tabs in the new window. Can that behaviour be changed?

Feek · 15 Feb 2021 at 12:21

Nope
No idea, I don't use the favourites bar
No idea, I don't use pinned tabs

All in all, not a very useful reply but I couldn't just leave you thinking I'd ignored you.

ChrisD. · 15 Feb 2021 at 14:51

I’ve already noticed the CPU temperature is lower compared to using Chrome. Just have to try some more stuff out but 1Password in particular is much better in Safari and that is essential for my workflow.

Royal Fleet · 22 Feb 2021 at 08:49

Funnily enough I am in the same situation of trying out Safari. Chrome is just becoming more and more of a system hog.

So far I like
- Not a system hog
- Reader view.

Things I need to work on
- Adblocking. Any recommendations that don't involve Raspberry Pis?
- Hand off's between devices. Chrome seemed a bit better at having history quickly available between devices.

Downsides
- No ability to have different profiles

Rainmaker · 24 Feb 2021 at 14:53

Royal Fleet said:
- Adblocking. Any recommendations that don't involve Raspberry Pis?

You can run a DNS blocker like pfBlockerNG, PiHole or AdGuard Home (I by far prefer the latter) and still run in-browser ad blocking. While DNS level blocks will filter out a lot of stuff it won't fix the white placeholders and broken layouts that result in the actual browser window, i.e. where the ads should be. Adding a content blocker like AdGuard (Safari) or uBlock Origin (others) fixes this for a nicer all-round experience. You only need minimal lists if you already have a good DNS blocker. For example just Easylist, EasyPrivacy and Fanboys Annoyances is enough to tidy things up with basically zero overhead on the system.

You'll find Safari much better at playing back media, because Apple don't allow other browsers such low-level access to the GPU for accelerated playback. I tend to find (albeit on a mid-2012 MBP) that Safari plays back 1080p media at 6% CPU usage whereas Firefox hovers between 12% and 15% and Chromium around 15%. Safari is also perceptibly snappier loading pages (for me).

alex24 · 24 Feb 2021 at 14:56

Are you meaning Safari on Windows or on MacOS?

I use it on MacOS and find it faster and smoother than Chrome. I use the bookmarks tab but other than that haven't changed much of the setup. I already have a Pi-Hole setup so that helps a bit. I have LastPass plugin and a local ad-blocker for the stuff Pi-Hole doesn't easily get (like YouTube).

ChrisD. · 24 Feb 2021 at 15:01

alex24 said:
Are you meaning Safari on Windows or on MacOS?

macOS - the Windows version has long since been deprecated.

I'm using it daily now, it seems to be the only browser that supports unlocking 1password with Apple Watch, with Chrome, Firefox etc I have to use my master password.

Safari is quick, although I find the lack of customisation disappointing plus it doesn't seem to render some work websites correctly, so I switch to Chrome now and again when I need to.

Royal Fleet · 1 Mar 2021 at 13:23

Royal Fleet said:
Funnily enough I am in the same situation of trying out Safari. Chrome is just becoming more and more of a system hog.

So far I like
- Not a system hog
- Reader view.
- The automatic filling in of text message security codes.

Things I need to work on
- Adblocking. Any recommendations that don't involve Raspberry Pis? - running Adblock as I did on Chrome. For some reason I have to pause it to get Youtube to work. Also seems to block some images which should not be.
- Hand off's between devices. Chrome seemed a bit better at having history quickly available between devices. - This is quicker now to sync bookmarks. I still can't get history across devices though

Downsides
- No ability to have different profiles - Still annoying

Some further thoughts in bold.

Reuben klang · 1 Mar 2021 at 18:11

I changed over from Chrome to Safari a few years a go, probably 5. Mainly due to chrome just being to slow. The difference in speed for everyday browsing was incredible. They've supposedly updated (a few years back) it but I never felt the need to go back, mainly because all my devices are apple.

As far as ext go, I basically have slimmed down and don't use any.