Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Internet Tools, Bad Apple, Apple
Dear Apple, why does Safari control my default browser?
I'm sure I have written about this before, but I can't find it so I am going to rant about it once more. With the recent release of Firefox 2, and the optimized versions, I have been fiddling with my Default Web Browser quite a bit. Apple, in all their glorious wisdom, decided that Safari is the app that controls your default web browser.
Huh?
Most of the time I am not running Safari, and it find it rather silly that I must launch a browser that I don't use to make yet another browser my default. This is clearly something that should be a System Preference, since this is a system wide default (logical, ain't I?). The same goes for using Mail.app to set your default email client.
Come on, Apple, give us a pref pane in System Preferences to set these things globally without launching apps that you think we should be using.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
loki capret said 3:10PM on 11-07-2006
Probably for the same irrational reason that Image Capture controls what happens when a digital camera is connected.
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SimDan said 6:22PM on 11-07-2006
I'm quite sure this used to be in the system preferences until the Internet preferences pane got hijacked by .Mac
Compare the Jaguar and Panther system preferences here: http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/menu
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Smivey said 3:10PM on 11-07-2006
Of course, this used to be set in a System Preferences pane before Safari came out. Actually, I prefer to have Safari my default browser.
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Sketch said 3:11PM on 11-07-2006
This and Mail's controlling the defaults has long been an annoyance for many a system's administrator, especially when we don't use Mail.
The cure is an app such as RCDefaultApp http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/
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Alex said 3:13PM on 11-07-2006
Camino can also control what your default web browser is.
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Dustin Cook said 3:20PM on 11-07-2006
Why does it also control my default rss reader.
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NewMexiKen said 3:22PM on 11-07-2006
Can't you just go to the Firefox preferences and ask Firefox to check now and change it if isn't the default.
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Carlos said 3:26PM on 11-07-2006
Why would i want a system preference pane if i can set this in the preferences of every web browser?.
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Alex said 3:29PM on 11-07-2006
I agree it's an odd design choice. Should be in a preference pane, or file association block somewhere instead.
That said, I don't know how you can abandon safari after using it. It's so much faster!
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Peter Garner said 3:28PM on 11-07-2006
Been using RCDefault App for a while now. Great little pref pane!
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Nikhil said 3:30PM on 11-07-2006
Here's a question for you: why do Apple integrated services like "search with Google" still revert back to Safari after I change my default web browser? That drives me completely insane.
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mrjelly said 3:35PM on 11-07-2006
This issue has come up before. The preference is supposed to be set by the app itself. From what I understand, it's not so much that Safari or Mail provide the only means of setting that preference, it is more so the case that several apps aren't set up to set the preference correctly. Take a look online, which I'm going to do myself momentarily. Why should there be a Systems Pref pane for this? That's not as intuitive as being able to set the preference from within the app that you actually intend to use.
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Floggy Bottom said 3:32PM on 11-07-2006
"Mail.app" grrrr...I swear, I wish this label would die.
http://daringfireball.net/2003/06/you_have_new_mail
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Scott McNulty said 3:35PM on 11-07-2006
I disagree with Gruber on the Mail.app nomenclature. Given his reasoning I should call iCal, Apple iCal, and Safari, Apple Safari. I think .app is much more suitable, and it means less typing.
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teachermatt said 3:38PM on 11-07-2006
You are right NewMexiKen, you can go to the Firefox preferences and ask Firefox change it if isn't the default.
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Erik van den Ordel said 3:41AM on 11-08-2006
Wow. It's amazing how one rational and well-stated post (# 12) can put a bunch of pointless, ignorant ranting, whining a finger pointing. Thanks, mrjelly.
I have to tell you that I have done technical support for some fairly popular consumer products, and the vast majority of people complaining about how things work (or don't work), is typically based on people being ignorant and/or misinformed about a product (often for lack of RTFM) and making pessimistic assumptions and prejudgement about things they refuse to actually spend the time to learn about.
Oh, and of course, those that are the most ignorant tend to like to spread their misinformation, giving rise to popular misconceptions that ruin a good product's reputation. Kind of like this article...
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iDarbert said 3:56PM on 11-07-2006
I think Apple expects every Browser, Mail client and RSS Reader to let you choose which one you want to use, but not every app (expecially the ones not designed for Mac OS X like Firefox and Thunderbird) does that.
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Mark S said 3:56PM on 11-07-2006
OmniWeb lets you set the default browser too.
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Matt Pipes said 4:14PM on 11-07-2006
Amen, give us back our preferences! and while I'm on the subject I would respectfully submit that Preview as the only default image viewer irks me, I would like to change it to Photoshop... Curses!
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V. Mardian said 4:09PM on 11-07-2006
Calling it Mail.app is both shorter and more explicit than calling it Apple Mail. Apple Mail could refer to email received through dot mac.
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