What exactly is the free software? Safari? IIRC, Leopard isn't a free download.
But Safari isn't a $2,000 download, either. Essentially you're blaming the shortcomings of a [replaceable, free, nonessential] program by saying that it's the machine's fault, and that this one minor shortcoming in the
software suddenly invalidates the expensive
hardware you purchased. If you don't see anything wrong with that "argument," then nobody in the world is going to be able to help you.
Furthermore, if you had read my post in its entirety you would see this problem only recently arose. The fact I have used Transmission since I bought this computer yet only had the spinning beach ball problem start a couple weeks ago would lead me to the logical conclusion that Transmission is not at fault here.
It's not a illogical conclusion, but it's not like Transmission downloads at one speed and one speed only. Do you really think that conditions on your machine are exactly the same each time you use it? Torrent programs, like every other piece of software, use a variable amount of RAM as they require it. So, have you recently started downloading multiple torrents at once? Are you downloading at higher speeds with a torrent(s) with more seeders? Because that will affect the speed at which the page loads also. Since you failed to provide this information, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that all of these are possible, along with other possibilities I haven't thought of.
As for recommending someone google a problem instead of ask on here, thanks for the brilliant recommendation. Oh wait, this is a help forum where people ask questions. If you have nothing beneficial to add, please don't muck up threads with these comments of yours.
As with most situations in life, "help" starts with "helping yourself." My suggestion that you google your problem wasn't a snarky response with a "screw you" behind it, but more to
save you time so you would get your browser functioning faster. If my browser didn't work for some reason, you can bet that I would be doing everything I could to fix it ASAP- not waiting around for someone to post a possible solution to my poorly-worded post on the MacRumors forums.
The fact you're telling me to stop using Safari altogether because you deem it to be "garbage" is all fine and dandy, but it really isn't the help I'm looking for.
Well, you posted asking for a solution to a problem that you apparently "tried everything imaginable to fix." If you really thought about it, you'd realize that Safari is free also. Imagine that. I'll post the link here so you don't have to google it, since that's pretty difficult:
http://www.apple.com/safari/ . I've never downloaded/installed Safari, but I assume once you mount the disk image you'll just have to drag it to your Applications folder and click the option that says you want to replace the existing copy.
If you feel like coming out of your shell and avoiding Safari's [many] problems entirely, here are links to the other browsers I mentioned and you subsequently ignored. If nobody can figure out why your version is being so fussy, you might look into these and find that you like them.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
http://caminobrowser.org/
http://www.opera.com/
And in the larger picture, it's a good idea not to bite the hands that feed you. My original post wasn't actually meant to ridicule- it's just what I would have done in your situation. Sorry you took it as such.
