Surfn oftn slo on Safari & dslextreme. Wary of trying Firefox or Opera.

Question

I've bn using safari, and myisp dslextreme.com, broadband not dialup.
Usually often ok.
But frequently slow and often very slow.
And last week or so dslx startup screen has been blinkin and loopin, and they said not my fault cuz they are redesigning somethin.
Their techguy sd Safari oftn doesn't mesh well with certain websites.
He sd he has several Macs and is happier allso using other isp's like Firefox, and Opera.
I thought I'd give it a try. But I am a b-b-bit reluctant and trepidatious.
Just lookn for someone to reassure me.
I see on this Apple discussion site some people complaining problemms with Firefox, so i guess it's not err free. I'mm happy with my old mac Mail applic, so not worried now about mail probs
And if i do go onto firefox site, should i b e careful about wshich version to download to fit my old iBook g4? Or would it not let me download something that didn't fit?
I couldn't see anyway to ask such questions, so i would be grateful for advice for this olgeezer.

Answer 1

What version of OS X are you running? Your specs don't seem to include this.
Why are you wary of trying one of these browsers? If you don't like it, you can go back to Safari.
No software is perfect. Firefox has bugs. I'm sure Opera and Safari have bugs. One big advantage of using a non-Safari browser on a pre-Tiger system is that you will benefit from the latest security and bug fixes. On pre-Tiger systems, you cannot use the current version of Safari so you cannot benefit from the latest code.
The latest version of Firefox, on the other hand, will certainly run on Panther. I'd have to check about earlier systems.
You will probably be offered a suitable version of Firefox automatically. Just make sure it is for "Mac OS X" (and not Windows or Linux). If you want a language other than US English you may need to link to the page listing different language and OS options. In that case, just be sure to choose the Mac OS X one. The download should be a disk image. If it does not mount automatically, double-click to mount it and drag the application to your Applications folder.
I have the latest version of Safari but I've never so much as opened it. Firefox is my default browser. Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes it annoys me. Overall, I like it far better than the other browsers I've tried.
Of course, YMMV.
If you could say which version of OS X you are using and a bit more about the nature of your concerns, it will be possible to address your situation more specifically. You won't lose anything by downloading either of these browsers, though. As I say, you don't like it? Trash it and go back to Safari. Simple as that.
- cfr