I’ve used many browsers in the past, but I’ve mostly kept coming back to Apple’s Safari. I can’t blame “lock-in” because Apple lets you easily export your data, and most browsers will import it automatically when you start them. It was more about muscle memory, a familiar Mac-like UI, and not having any real issues with Safari.
So what changed? Well there were a few issues that had started to rear their heads intermittently:
- Page loads would “stall” indefinitely until I refreshed the page (this was rare, but happened enough to start to annoy me).
- iCloud Tabs and bookmarks weren’t syncing properly, occasionally the feature would just stop working, or bookmarks would appear hours/days later.
The first issue I still don’t have a good answer for, and I spent a lot of time double-checking all my network settings, falling deep into a rabbit hole of MTU, MSS clamping, bufferbloat, ad-blocking, and DNS, but everything checked out.
The second one was a fairly minor irritation, as I could go to the device with the page I wanted, and just send it across using the Share Sheet, however it did catch me out a couple of times when I was in the office and didn’t have the device with me. I spent a lot of time messing with iCloud settings, turning syncing off and back on, or resetting Safari would sometimes make it spring back to life, but not always.
Neither of them happened a lot, but when they did it was starting to wear me down. But what to do about it?
As luck would have it, I’d read a blog post about Firefox rolling out a big design refresh in version 157, along with a cute new mascot called Kit. and I liked the idea of supporting a browser that isn’t based on Chromium like everything else (Firefox is still built using their own rendering engine, called Gecko), so I decided to take it for a spin!
First impressions
Firefox 157 immediately feels faster than Safari, at least on my M1 Pro. I was quite surprised, as I can’t say Safari even felt “slow” per se but there’s no denying Firefox feels much snappier switching between tabs, opening pages, and even navigating within them. It feels essentially instantaneous.
So how do I feel about the new UI? It’s definitely not a pure Mac-like interface, but I do quite like it. It’s a lot more polished and refined than the Firefox of old, and I have to say it’s definitely more “fun”. I like being able to customise the appearance with themes – there’s a few subtle colour schemes available in the default theme, but you can also go nuts and install totally custom themes from their marketplace if you want.
There’s some nice attention to detail I appreciate too, for example I moved the sidebar to the right of the window, and the sidebar button’s icon flipped around to reflect that. Nice!
In terms of extensions, everything I needed is available for Firefox. Some extensions I use in Safari can be a bit “glitchy,” like my password manager which sometimes needs extra clicks to autofill correctly. It has worked perfectly in Firefox so far. I wonder if this is due to Safari’s restrictions on extensions. It’s not the most scientific study, but I feel like I’ve experienced more glitches with extensions in Safari than other browsers I’ve used. Answers on a postcard?
The scorecard
So after running the latest Firefox for a few days, where do we stand with my original list of complaints?
Page loads stalling
I haven’t seen anything like this so far, and though it didn’t happen often, I think we can tentatively scratch that one off the list.
Syncing
Syncing so far has been rock-solid. Bookmarks and open tabs across multiple devices show up immediately. Also, the way Firefox presents this in the UI is significantly better. You click your profile, and it shows all the devices you’re syncing, along with the time they last synced, and there’s even a button to perform a sync immediately.
Safari has absolutely no UI for this and honestly, I can’t overstate how much better Firefox is in terms of user experience here. Obviously the best experience is that things should Just Work ™️, but when things aren’t working, having this information readily available in the UI makes it SO MUCH EASIER to troubleshoot, I love it!
More software should follow Mozilla’s example here, and we can scratch the second issue off our list!
iOS support
Firefox is also available on iPhone, however due to Apple’s restrictions on third-party browser engines for iOS, every browser actually uses the system Webkit engine to render pages. The only thing third-party browsers can do to differentiate is focus on other features, and the overall user interface/experience.
Overall the iPhone version is pretty good, but the swipe gestures for closing tabs aren’t as slick as they are in mobile Safari. I often find myself having to swipe again because it didn’t work the first time. I’d love if Firefox added the “swipe up to show all tabs” gesture that Safari has, as that is firmly fixed in my muscle memory. I’d also like to be able to change the downloads location, so I could save directly to iCloud Drive. As it stands, they show up in the Downloads page within Firefox itself, and you have to use the Share Sheet to send them to other apps, or the Files app, so it’s not as smooth as it could be.
Syncing bookmarks and tabs has been working well though, and it does feel subjectively faster than Safari, even though it’s using the same renderer.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the new Firefox, and hope they can keep up the good work!