Alternative Browser for Safari?

Question

On my laptop I have IE 5.2.3 which has been on the machine since I got it. I only use it when I run into those sites that don't work on Safari. On my imac IE was not provided so I downloaded Firefox 1.0.7 which again I only use on sites not compatible with Safari maybe 2 or 3 times a month at most.
I'm aware that there is a Firefox version 1.5 available and my question is whether I should bother downloading this or just stick with the original? Again I only need another browser for those occassional sites.
Thanks for any advice,
John

Answer 1

There are a lot of topics here that discuss which browser is the best one for OS X. My conclusion after using 90% of them and in reading other people's comments is that there is no clear winner. There are almost a dozen very good to excellent browsers for OS X and most of them have users who insist that the one they are using is the best.
There is one clear looser: IE/Mac. Microsoft abandoned development 3 years ago, they ended support at the end of last month, and they will end distribution at the end of this month. It is way behind the times in features.
This topic does not really have much discussion, but I provide a couple links to topics which do have fuller debate.
You can get a sense from the discussions of which browsers you might like to try. My suggestion is to try one for a while, then try another for a while. You can keep the ones you like and you can delete the others. Also, with OS X you can have multiple browsers open at the same time, so you can have two different browsers open so you can go to the same sites in each to compare them. I often have five or six browsers open at once when I am testing web sites.
The major browsers are Camino, Firefox, Opera, OmniWeb, iCab, and Mozilla. Note that Mozilla and its cousin Netscape are both Internet suites that include email, a web-page editor, IRC client, and News reader. Unless you need the full suite, you do not need these programs. Also, Firefox is not a native Cocoa app, so it does not take full advantage of OS X, but many people still use it as their default browser.
Finally, many people keep at least two browsers on hand for times when a web site will work in one and not the other.