Posted on 02/21/2007 6:11:42 PM PST by Swordmaker
Net Applications reports that Firefox lost share but Apple's Safari continued to gain ground.
Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser lost market share last month, Web metrics company Net Applications reported Wednesday. But Apple Inc.'s Safari continued to gain ground, an indicator of a slow but sure uptick in Macintosh sales.
In January, Firefox accounted for 13.7 percent of the browser usage market, Aliso Viejo, Ca.-based Net Applications said, down slightly from 14 percent the month before. The dip was the first since May 2006. Since then, Firefox's share has risen continually month to month.
"It appears to be a real dip," not a statistical anomaly, said Vincent Vizzaccaro, Net Applications' executive vice president of marketing and strategic relationships. "It's still bigger than November, though, as if Firefox had a little spike in December.
"Firefox has had minor setbacks like this before," said Vizzaccaro.
More conspicuous than Firefox's slip, however, has been Safari's steady march. The Apple browser, which is based in part on the open-source Konqueror, boosted its share to 4.7 percent in January from 4.2 percent in December. A year ago, Safari held 3.1 percent of the browser market.
"The more interesting trend is on the Safari side," said Vizzaccaro. "It looks like it's taking share away from browsers in the Windows environment."
Net Applications, which also tracks Web users' operating systems, said that the increase in Safari's share has been matched move for move by a climb in Mac OS X use. In January, the combined PowerPC- and Intel-based Mac OS X share was 6.2 percent, up from December's 5.7 percent. "Both Safari and Mac OS X are heading in the same direction -- up," Vizzaccaro said.
Windows XP still has an overwhelming lead in operating systems, however, with 85 percent. Microsoft's Internet Explorer accounted for 79.8 percent of the browser market in January.
Windows Vista, which debuted to businesses in November but only hit retail Jan. 30, had just 0.2 percent share by then, according to Net Applications.
I don't generally use konqeror as a web brower, but one thing it absoutely excels at is a file browser. If you haven't played with the fish:// protocol, you are missing out on some really slick stuff, especially if you combine dual fish:// sessions in midnight commander mode. You're on SYSA, and want to move files from SYSB to SYSC, fish:// and MC can do it for you securely and efficiently.
I prefer my enhanced Safari to FireFox and have never tried Camino, so I could not tell you. Firefox is good but I don't like the rendering... I find Safari more readable.
The GGG main list has 588 names, and no duplicate post problem. Of course, I *am* running OS 9.2.2, and you're running X... ;') What happens with the GGG list sometimes is that, after it gets done, nothing comes back (blank screen, with "Posting Comment" still in the title tab).
Safari was originally built on the Gecko engine which is used in Mozilla's web browsers... but with Safari 2.0 I think they moved it to WebCore, Apple's own display engine.
I like Opera. It runs quite nicely in SLED and XP.
Downloading and installing FireFox was one of the first things I did with my new Mac, but I'm not really fond of it. Where do I go to "enhance" Safari? I like tabs - will enhancing it get me tabs?
Thanks.
Or just hit Apple-, (hold down Apple key and comma) to get the same thing. Works on 99% of Mac programs. Lots of Mac users learn some of these because they are so universal and handy.
Thank you for your info and your patience! After so many years with Windows, it is tough to be a Mac newbie...
Make it simple, I am a noob.
Not a clue. I'm not a Linux expert. I'm running a slightly older distro of Ubuntu now (6.06 Dapper, I think) so I'm still okay. I'll wait for KDE 4's release to make major changes. What I'm really wanting is all those KDE apps for Linux and Windows and Mac. What a triumph for open-source. And open source should be able to thrive without requiring that we switch our operating systems. Look at Firefox or Audacity or other fine programs that are open-source and multi-platform. KDE, with its KOffice and package of educational programs for the public schools will be a great multi-platform offering.
Tabs are already built in to Safari. Safari was the one of the first browsers to have tabbed browsing. You just have to turn them on. Go to Safari/preferences and select "Tabs" and check all three check boxes: Enable Tabbed Browsing, Select new tabs as they are created, and Always show tab bar. Done.
While you are at it, make sure you check the Safari/Block Pop-Up Windows on the Safari menu.
To enhance Safari, giving you complete control over your tabs, download and install Safari Extender. It is shareware so it will cost you to continue using it after a trial period, but it is worth it.
The font rendering engine on Macs does a fine job and in my opinion is far better than the PC in that regard. I'm not sure what you are referring to as the "font advantage" of Windows. I have looked at both, side by side, and the Apple's display is better. This was being discussed about three weeks ago. Here are some side by side examples: 
As I pointed out to RightFighter, the PCs font rendering is distinctly grayer, the "s" is missing pixels, but the Apple not only shows complete "s"es but also has complete detailed serifs.
Apple Macs use Display PDF engine for all screen rendering. The resolution independence will be important for things like zooming in, showing the fonts at the best appearance regardless of how zoomed in or out the screen is.
safari's been using the Webkit (webcore + javascriptcore) layout engine, which itself was based on KHTML, from the beginning..
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