As a later in life Mac user, I've found Safari average in speed, average with pop ups/security. Chrome seems faster but strongly Google linked. I'd agree with others that there are still certain governmental sites that I just can't emulate Internet Explorer well enough to use, and so I have to find a Windows computer and use IE. For me Firefox always seemed to try to be too much and do too much, and didn't add too much to the Mac environment (it helped a lot in my Windows days of old, however).