Wasn't this bug reported in November? It's absolutely ridiculous for them to wait this long.
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macOS Monterey 12.2 and iOS 15.3 Release Candidates Fix Safari Bug That Leaks Browsing Activity
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But you seem to forget, that the people finding this bug, are IT professionals, paid to do this very thing (either before or after), they say nothing until they get the ok to, this allows the software company to look into it, and deal with it. It's hardly worth worrying about.
I'm staying with Firefox for the time being. There are just too many annoying bugs in Safari 15, several of them related to compact mode.
It’s not silly as it not really a browser issue it’s an issue with the rendering engine (WebKit).
Webkit is built into the OS so applications can render webpages, so would always unfortunately require an OS update
To all those members complaining about the "timely manner" statement. I would say this is very timely and your complaints indicate you have no experience in software development.
I've been in software development for many years (I am a Head of Product at a software technology company), and patching something isn't just a 5-minute job, even if you know what the issue is and how to fix it.
A small change on an API will impact many, many areas of a product and this means thorough testing is required, and diligence of any related libraries and products.
This is hugely time-consuming and since this product impacts so many platforms, it's not just a case of patching and letting it go into the wild. Especially in this instance, a security audit would have to also be conducted to show the result works, and this would have to be verified by multiple organisations.
Then, the patch has to be tested to ensure it deploys safely and correctly over the air. That update process takes time to implement, manage and check. It then needs checking again, more testing and feedback from users (beta), and devs to ensure they are not experiencing any issues. Again, all this takes time.
I hope this provides some perspective as to how and why these fixes take a little time.
It reminds me of the days when I used to build websites for clients. Talking to an individual who has zero ideas as to the complexities of a solid product is the most infuriating and patience-testing experience as a developer.
Anyway. Two months for a fix like this on this scale is perfectly acceptable.
I've been in software development for many years (I am a Head of Product at a software technology company), and patching something isn't just a 5-minute job, even if you know what the issue is and how to fix it.
A small change on an API will impact many, many areas of a product and this means thorough testing is required, and diligence of any related libraries and products.
This is hugely time-consuming and since this product impacts so many platforms, it's not just a case of patching and letting it go into the wild. Especially in this instance, a security audit would have to also be conducted to show the result works, and this would have to be verified by multiple organisations.
Then, the patch has to be tested to ensure it deploys safely and correctly over the air. That update process takes time to implement, manage and check. It then needs checking again, more testing and feedback from users (beta), and devs to ensure they are not experiencing any issues. Again, all this takes time.
I hope this provides some perspective as to how and why these fixes take a little time.
It reminds me of the days when I used to build websites for clients. Talking to an individual who has zero ideas as to the complexities of a solid product is the most infuriating and patience-testing experience as a developer.
Anyway. Two months for a fix like this on this scale is perfectly acceptable.
That's a really easy to understand explanation. I never thought about how Web page rendering components used by Safari might actually be required by other apps and thus part of the lower-level OS, rather than simply a part of Safari.
Still, couldn't said apps just call up the components and modules of Safari.app that they need to render Web content? After all, Safari is one of the apps that can't easily be deleted (if at all) from macOS. That suggests to me that it might just be possible for them to update the relevant rendering engine code in the Safari.app package and just update that app, rather than updating the entire OS. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding how WebKit works...
I was wondering about that.. How embedded is WebKit in OS?
I thought that when the "uninstall and install again the stock apps" feature was included in iOS it was the beginning of a feature that would allow us to update every app from the App Store in a future iOS update. It's easier to automatically update an app than the entire OS for the user, just like WebView from Android.
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I still even get, on both Safari and Tech Preview, on compact mode where the text disappears when you're searching something on the address bar ... nice. It happens sporadically, but its highly annoying when it happens.
Safari 15.3 will likely release when the macOS 12.2 update is released, and it'll fix this bug for Catalina and Big Sur.
12.2 RC Safari also brings back Tab Pre-Loading, something i really missed for the last 3 months. Thank You Apple!
Gotta love that bug. Why does it occur? I don't know.
- Should say Search or Enter website.
- Typing in that search field leads to it being cut off as well, shown in the second image.
I love compact mode besides that, though.
I never liked Safari on the Mac, I have always used Firefox in strict mode with ublock origin and privacy badger. Works well for me, but many of the other browser makers as well as Mozilla are quick to jump on bugs or so it feels like, Safari is however always behind the curve on privacy and security bugs and for that reason I gave up using Safari. On my iPad and iPhone yes I have no choice really as Mozilla and Brave etc are just colouring within the lines of iOS's WebKit rather like a MVNO provider on a mobile network.
Nothing is timely with Apple these days. Apple needs to wake up and become less arrogant.
Any official word on whether or not this will be fixed for Big Sur as well?
I don’t have any real issues with Monterey, I just wanted to keep my Mac mini on Big Sur for the time being…
I don’t have any real issues with Monterey, I just wanted to keep my Mac mini on Big Sur for the time being…
Apple won’t preannounce security fixes, but the newest beta of Safari 15.3 already fixes this. Security notes detailing the fix will be released after Safari 15.3, macOS 12.2, and iOS/iPadOS 15.3 are released to the public.
It sounds like you believe Apple decided not to work on this for two months, but days after it is disclosed they have a release candidate that has a fix for it. I would prefer them fix it and test it thoroughly to ensure the fix doesn’t actually make it worse.
Outside work, Safari has been my favorite browser on iPhone/iPad/Mac. Not so much lately.
Google search is often extremely slow on my Mac and iPad, tried all the fixes I could find. No help.
Sometimes on my Mac logging into any Google service will fail. Yesterday Safari started opening my daughter’s school accounts login page when I tried to login to my YouTube account. That school account is actually Microsoft account, so what the heck. Cleaning cache and history fixed this one.
Now I cannot access discussions in this forum from my iPhone without using Edge.
None of these issues are happening with Chrome or Edge on the same devices. I am so close permanently switching away from Safari.
Google search is often extremely slow on my Mac and iPad, tried all the fixes I could find. No help.
Sometimes on my Mac logging into any Google service will fail. Yesterday Safari started opening my daughter’s school accounts login page when I tried to login to my YouTube account. That school account is actually Microsoft account, so what the heck. Cleaning cache and history fixed this one.
Now I cannot access discussions in this forum from my iPhone without using Edge.
None of these issues are happening with Chrome or Edge on the same devices. I am so close permanently switching away from Safari.
Sounds good for iOS. On macOS, I moved on a long time ago - first to Chrome and now to Firefox (with uBlock Origin & Ghostery).