Alternative browsers

February 4, 2004 11:33 AM

I want to investigate free web browsers other than Safari for OSX (10.2.8). The most obvious alternative seems to be Firebird, but it doesn't seem to recognise my third mouse-button for tabbed browsing. Does anyone know how to fix this (I'm prepared to look silly), or can anyone suggest an alternative? What shape is Camino in these days?
posted by nthdegx to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Firebird's pretty much it. You'll need to configure your mouse at the application level (if your drivers support this, or use USB Overdrive) to map the wheel button to Command-Click.
posted by mkultra at 11:37 AM on February 4, 2004

My microsoft wheel mouse works in mozilla on the mac, which is a setting in preferences I don't see in firebird, so I'm sure it's somehow possible to get firebird to recognize it too.
posted by mathowie at 11:53 AM on February 4, 2004

I still use camino, it just seems peppier than firebird,
although I do suspect the two will merge at some point
in the future, so I do try to keep current on firebird as well.

( and mkultra is right about USB overdrive,
although I just use the specific macally driver )
posted by milovoo at 12:19 PM on February 4, 2004

It's a microsoft wheel mouse I'm using, too. I don't see an option to enable the mouse wheel for tabbed browsing in mozilla, either. Am I missing it? I'll have another look at camino.
posted by nthdegx at 12:29 PM on February 4, 2004

Camino is good. I mostly use Safari, but I don't suffer when I load up Camino.
posted by adamrice at 12:42 PM on February 4, 2004

The new release of Omniweb has been getting good buzz.
posted by o2b at 1:16 PM on February 4, 2004

Out of curiosity, nthdegx, what's your objection to Safari?
posted by JollyWanker at 1:48 PM on February 4, 2004

nthdegx: I had to use USB Overdrive to get the middle button of my Microsoft Explorer mouse working properly on Mozilla, IIRC.
posted by adrianhon at 2:01 PM on February 4, 2004

dumb question, but do you have the microsoft mouse drivers installed? might make a difference. there should be an option for "middle mouse click opens tabs" in the tabbed browsing panel of mozilla somewhere, unless the OS X release is radically different.
posted by Hackworth at 3:18 PM on February 4, 2004

FWIW, I'm using Firebird 6 and have full middle click functionablility. I didn't do anything special to get it, as far as I know, since my computer is freshly reformatted with all new software. I can make one suggestion, tho, which is to install the Tabbrowser Extensions. Extensions are your friend.
posted by ashbury at 3:43 PM on February 4, 2004

Well my understanding was OSX fully supported microsoft mice without the need to install drivers. Certainly, scroll-wheel tabbed browsing works for Safari - but I want to switch as a) a couple of online applications I use a lot don't like Safari too much, and b) I'm annoyed by the latest turn in Safari development. Thanks for all the suggestions. If Camino doesn't work quite right, I'll go with USB Overdrive. Of course, if I take that route, I'm still left with the choice of which browser to use, so any more pointers on that score are most welcome. Thanks, everyone.
posted by nthdegx at 5:44 PM on February 4, 2004

Actually, using Tabbrowser Extensions, it seems I can skirt round the middle-click issue by more specifically specificying when I do and don't want to open links in new tabs. The fact that I can open an off-site link in a new tab, but a local link in the same tab all with the left mouse-button means I can more or less mimic 90%+ of my left and middle-click usage in any case. I'm sure for the remainder I can get used to alternative methods. So thanks, ashbury, looks like extensions are my friend.

BTW - Camino did work fine, except it didn't like the apps in question any more than Safari did.
posted by nthdegx at 6:51 PM on February 4, 2004

nthdegx- install the MS drivers. They're based on USB Overdrive, and they're free. It's what I use, and it just works.
posted by mkultra at 6:57 AM on February 5, 2004