PC users always say they have more apps than Mac users. But that's not true of browsers. We review five.If you work or play on a Mac, you've never had more Web browsers to choose from--at last count, there were 10, if you include the integrated browsers of MSN and AOL. The competition has resulted in a browser renaissance for Mac users, with hot new features and new levels of performance. We took a look at the top five standalone Web browsers, three of which are available only for Mac OS X.
At the top of the Web browser heap are Apple's Safari and the open-source Camino (formerly known as Chimera), which have both surpassed Internet Explorer in performance and in features such as tabbed browsing. In response, Microsoft has given up the ghost, announcing that version 5.2.3 is the last new version of Internet Explorer for Mac. However, in our informal testing, we still found IE indispensable for some tasks.
At the bottom of the browser list, at least among the five we evaluated, sit OmniWeb and Opera, which have some innovations and strong points but are marred by some omissions and drawbacks. For instance, OmniWeb and Opera both had more JavaScript errors than the others. Read our reviews and minireviews of the five Mac browsers to determine which is the one for you.
| Safari Apple's app either reignited or won the Mac browser war, depending on whom you ask. |
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Internet
Explorer 5.2.3 |
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| Camino The open-source choice is the heir apparent to the Mac browser throne, at least until Safari gets to 2.0. |
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OmniWeb
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Opera |
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