Ilias Aung

iOS developer and visual storyteller

Browser Wars

8th of April, 2025

Whenever browser war discussions are brought up, people ask me why I use Safari. Simple answer: it’s excellent on battery and I prefer the UI.

I’ve been told I should use Arc, Firefox, Edge, or Brave. But why?

There’s no friction when using Safari. When I tried Arc, the first thing it did was ask me to create an account. Why does a web browser need an account? I looked through their support documentation, but the answers all relate to features I don’t plan to use.

So why? Why can’t I just use the browser without the account?

Also, as a web developer I’m well aware that Safari isn’t exactly the greatest for us. But I hate web apps and prefer native apps by far.

I know plenty of people who rely on their browser for everything. Some of my friends are researchers (and are also some of the smartest people I know) have dozens of tabs open and countless extensions installed for their research purposes.

But I prefer a clean browser experience. Personally, too many tabs opened suggests that I have lost focus and I don’t think I should have to force myself to organize them.

In fact these are the only extensions I have installed:

So, am I missing something? Why are browser wars even a thing? Feel free to reach out and discuss what extensions transform your workflow, I’d love to hear from you.