I see many threads populating this forum about how flash is extremely CPU intensive and almost unusable on a Mac. Is this true or are these issues rare and user related? I plan on buying a MBP and I would like to know the general consensus on flash.
In the last 6 months or so I've had a lot of major crashes with my 2007 MBP, and in some (but certainly not all) cases it was while running some kind of Flash media in Safari. I had the MBP tested for GPU issues, and no problems there, so I'm still left wondering if it was due to recent OS X updates, Flash, or some combination of issues.
I now have my brand new MBP, and one of the first things I notice is how it doesn't come with the Flash player installed. And I'm actually pretty hesitant about installing it. For one thing, there are no more annoying Flash ads on MacRumors that fill up half the screen when I accidentally hover over them! Sweet relief. I've set YouTube to use HTML 5 where possible, and that works a treat.
Also, which browser is generally the fastest, most reliable browser? On PC for instance, Chrome is unsurpassed in speed. Firefox used to be the browser of choice but it has since been dethroned. Safari on a PC is terrible.
I have all the major browsers installed, either on Mac or PC, for development and testing purposes, but for my own personal browsing I use Safari on the Mac. The Opera UI is way too cluttered for my liking. Firefox and Chrome are both okay… although Chrome has some font related bugs that put me off using it. Other than that, it's just a personal preference thing I guess. Why not just test each one for a few days and see which you like best?