Safari 5.0.4 blows!

[Precision4]

I'm not loving FF4 either. The really crappy thing is that I like Chrome a lot but can't stand it's flakey plug-in support and it seems to crash on the Forum Spy which I live in when on MacRumors.

I like chrome as well, except downloads never maintain their file names, it always renames to attachment.xxxx. If they would fix this I would use it.

my MBP is only 1 month old, and I have had no problems with safari. The only realy problem I get is leaving my MSexchange work webmail open. If I leave this window open long enough, safari locks up.

 

[Gregg2]

I've never gone over 600MBs!

That's where I am now. I only check it rarely. Can't even remember the last time...

 

[Mac_i_Am]

Same thing, I get the spinning rainbow a lot.

I checked my RAM usage yesteday, Safari was eating around 3 gigs

Should we wait for an update or get some ram sticks?

I'm going from 4 to 8GB on my MCP... will update this thread about any difference I feel

 

[nasty devil]

I'm going from 4 to 8GB on my MCP... will update this thread about any difference I feel

Ouch. Thats a lot.

 

[S.B.G]

I'm going from 4 to 8GB on my MCP... will update this thread about any difference I feel

Ouch. Thats a lot.

Increasing the RAM in your machines will improve performance for sure. But the constant spinning wheel issues are indicative of another problem. Its not a problem unless all the RAM is used and the computer is using the swap file heavily. Check your page outs and swap usage under iStat or Activity Monitor.
It could also be Flash corrupting Safari, try uninstalling it and use Safari without Flash for a bit and see how it runs.

8GB of RAM is respectable now, but it certainly isn't considered "a lot" anymore. See my earlier post in the thread where my iMac has 16GB of RAM.

 

[Mac_i_Am]

OS/X will manage it all just fine and if your concerned about it, quit Safari while working on your other programs.


Then plug it in.

Instead of addressing the REAL issue that Safari is a memory hog + freezes + drains the battery in the process + brings the computer to a snail's pace... your "solution" is to either ignore it (cos all is perfect with OSX/safari) or to plug it in

Dude, I really hope you dont work in customer service...

btw - for once, flash doesn't seem to be an issue. It's safari.

 

[S.B.G]

Instead of addressing the REAL issue that Safari is a memory hog + freezes + drains the battery in the process + brings the computer to a snail's pace... your "solution" is to either ignore it (cos all is perfect with OSX/safari) or to plug it in

Dude, I really hope you dont work in customer service...

btw - for once, flash doesn't seem to be an issue. It's safari.

If you want to address the issue of Safari using more RAM than you desire, perhaps you should contact the developers of Safari at Apple and ask them to re-write the application. I believe the usage of RAM is by design, not error.

I did offer other solutions to the freezing problem such as uninstalling Flash. Did you uninstall it or just say that it isn't the issue, that Safari is?

You came here asking for assistance, I provided a couple of things from my experiences and you come back to insult me regarding customer service. Is that really necessary?

 

[Cheffy Dave]

Safari has issues, the beach balls drive me nuts, Chrome has no issues, and I never see a beach ball, so Chrome is what I use

 

[Mac_i_Am]

If you want to address the issue of Safari using more RAM than you desire, perhaps you should contact the developers of Safari at Apple and ask them to re-write the application. I believe the usage of RAM is by design, not error.

I did offer other solutions to the freezing problem such as uninstalling Flash. Did you uninstall it or just say that it isn't the issue, that Safari is?

You came here asking for assistance, I provided a couple of things from my experiences and you come back to insult me regarding customer service. Is that really necessary?

If you believe this is how safari is meant to perform and your system is able to handle it, then great. However, I've been using safari for many years and it has never been this bad where it needs 3 out of 4GB just to run 3 measly email tabs. Flash or not, why would a browser need to use so much memory to do simple tasks? If that is by design then it's severely flawed.

Apparently, Flash has become a scapegoat for mac users and in some instances it may deserve it. But if I'm already doing more then an average web user (by installing Flash blockers + constantly killing it through Activity Monitor) and still Safari keeps hogging more & more memory -- then Safari is the problem. It needs to better deal with it.

I'm not knocking your actual advice but its lousy of you to undermine the user by asking what I intend to do with used ram or telling me to plug in the laptop cos one app wants to over work the system.

FYI I'm also getting "service battery" icon so the battery is depleting even quicker.

 

[pooryou]

I'm not so concerned about the RAM but the beachball and the video in flash movies stopping is a big issue in my opinion. I haven't seen a version of Safari run this bad in years.

 

[Dr McKay]

OS/X can't "catch" anything from Windows; it's like a human trying to pass the flu virus to an automobile - it just doesn't happen.

The only thing is OS/X could be a carrier of a Windows virus, and a user would have to manually [purposefully] send it on to someone with Windows; i.e. attach the virus to an email, with intent.

You know that even Apple recommend that you use an Anti-Virus?

And seriously, how is an Anti-Virus using that many resources? Mine sits in the background using 4MB of RAM, and 0% CPU. When it runs a system scan, (Once a day at 4AM) the CPU spins up to about 30% and it then uses about 100MB of RAM.

 

[emaja]

That 1.13 GB of inactive RAM is not in use by any current processes, so it is not a question of RAM starvation that is slowing your system down.

What is your CPU usage and what processes are running? I had a big problem with Safari crashing and freezing all the time. I thought it was RAM too, but turns out that there was an app - in my case iStat Menus - that was causing the problems. I uninstalled it and BAM - all was well.

I think this is a case of "too much information" which leads us to the wrong conclusion - and I include myself there too.

 

[S.B.G]

Apparently, Flash has become a scapegoat for mac users and in some instances it may deserve it. But if I'm already doing more then an average web user (by installing Flash blockers + constantly killing it through Activity Monitor) and still Safari keeps hogging more & more memory -- then Safari is the problem. It needs to better deal with it.

I'm not knocking your actual advice but its lousy of you to undermine the user by asking what I intend to do with used ram or telling me to plug in the laptop cos one app wants to over work the system.

FYI I'm also getting "service battery" icon so the battery is depleting even quicker.

It was a legitimate question. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. What good is it for unused RAM to be doing nothing? If it's free, Safari will use some of it and the more available, the more it will take.

Don't confuse what I'm saying about the freezing and RAM usage. These appear to be two separate issues. The freezing issue could be anything and it is doubtful that the RAM usage is the cause.

Flash is a common denominator in these freezing issues, but as you say Flash has become a scapegoat. While that is true, Flash also earned itself the reputation of causing many problems. It may not be the actual problem on your machine, but I recommended the first and most probable solution that usually works more often than not; uninstall Flash and then reinstall it.

The issue of Safari freezing all the time, could be anything. Have you emptied the cache and reset Safari from the file menu? Have you turned off any plugins and/or extensions to see if any of those are causing the problem? Are you experiencing any of the freezing on other applications?

As for the battery issue, you said earlier that the battery was getting drained quickly when using the laptop. The obvious answer and solution was to plug it in. I don't understand how that is undermining the user. How old is the battery and what are the load cycles on it? Check out this guide for more information:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

You know that even Apple recommend that you use an Anti-Virus?

Yes that is correct. They say so right here:

Mac OS X 10.6 Help

Run an antivirus program if you find any suspicious files or applications, or if you notice any suspicious behavior on your computer.

However, that is likely just a legal thing for Apple in the event a real virus or malware ever comes to OS X. Then Apple can say we told you so and their butt is covered. In the mean time, read this and you will understand better the [non]issue of malware OS X.

Mac Virus/Malware Info

 

[Dr McKay]

It was a legitimate question. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. What good is it for unused RAM to be doing nothing? If it's free, Safari will use some of it and the more available, the more it will take.

Don't confuse what I'm saying about the freezing and RAM usage. These appear to be two separate issues. The freezing issue could be anything and it is doubtful that the RAM usage is the cause.

Flash is a common denominator in these freezing issues, but as you say Flash has become a scapegoat. While that is true, Flash also earned itself the reputation of causing many problems. It may not be the actual problem on your machine, but I recommended the first and most probable solution that usually works more often than not; uninstall Flash and then reinstall it.

The issue of Safari freezing all the time, could be anything. Have you emptied the cache and reset Safari from the file menu? Have you turned off any plugins and/or extensions to see if any of those are causing the problem? Are you experiencing any of the freezing on other applications?

As for the battery issue, you said earlier that the battery was getting drained quickly when using the laptop. The obvious answer and solution was to plug it in. I don't understand how that is undermining the user. How old is the battery and what are the load cycles on it? Check out this guide for more information:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ



Yes that is correct. They say so right here:

Mac OS X 10.6 Help



However, that is likely just a legal thing for Apple in the event a real virus or malware ever comes to OS X. Then Apple can say we told you so and their butt is covered. In the mean time, read this and you will understand better the [non]issue of malware OS X.

Mac Virus/Malware Info

But wouldn't you rather have one, and not need it, than the other way around, especially when the day comes around when one does eventually rear its head. Especially one thats supposed to be incredibly unobtrusive, like Sophos for Mac.

 

[S.B.G]

But wouldn't you rather have one, and not need it, than the other way around, especially when the day comes around when one does eventually rear its head. Especially one thats supposed to be incredibly unobtrusive, like Sophos for Mac.

No I wouldn't. But that's me. To have antivirus or not to have antivirus is personal preference on OS X.

As an IT Administrator and a savvy web user, I ran Windows XP for many years without any antivirus at all. All that I needed was to keep the security patches up to date and ensure I was behind a hardware firewall [properly configured]. I never once had any problems or malware get onto my PC. Antivirus can only do so much and it's not 100% protection. The best protection a user can have is to be mindful of what sites they go to and what things they download and install.

For OS X, and even Win7 now, the overwhelming majority of malware for [Windows] requires user interaction, meaning you have to purposefully install something or enter your admin password to allow it to execute. There are only a couple of pieces of malware for OS X and they are usually found in pirated software and require the user to grant privileges through their admin password. General web browsing and email attachments on OS X will not result in an infection.

I think that the average Windows user should have antivirus as a layer of protection against themselves. OS X users have no need for antivirus.

 

[GGJstudios]

But wouldn't you rather have one, and not need it, than the other way around, especially when the day comes around when one does eventually rear its head.

No, because no current antivirus app can protect you from a virus that doesn't yet exist. If you read the Mac Virus/Malware Info that has been posted, you'll see:

Having virus protection software on your Mac is pointless, as far as protecting your Mac from viruses, since current antivirus software cannot detect a Mac virus that doesn't yet exist, because they simply don't know what to look for.

As for this:

Run an antivirus program if you find any suspicious files or applications, or if you notice any suspicious behavior on your computer.

That's a suggestion to use AV in troubleshooting a specific problem.... not a recommendation to keep one running all the time.

 

[dj-anon]

But wouldn't you rather have one, and not need it, than the other way around, especially when the day comes around when one does eventually rear its head. Especially one thats supposed to be incredibly unobtrusive, like Sophos for Mac.

Even on windows, AV software does nothing against real threats. Usually they add the protection after the attack and removal usually requires some specific external application.

Having a passive antivirus and running it once or twice a month is good enough for mac, and a weekly check for windows.

 

[pooryou]

Wonder if 5.0.5 is any better?

 

[S.B.G]

Wonder if 5.0.5 is any better?

Well, we'll see. I hope so because I did start to notice a glitch in Top Sites that when I would load a page, it would get merged per se with the page and Top Sites. To clear it I would quit Safari and go back in. But that only happened to me once or twice.

 

[pooryou]

Unfortunately Safari 5.0.5 still blows. Still getting the spinning rainbow lockup which can be dismissed by focusing a different window. Lame.

 

[mrsir2009]

If it uses 2.5GB of RAM then how does my Dad's MBP manage Safari when its only got 1GB of RAM? Its not laggy and doesn't have any problems on that computer...

 

[roadbloc]

Why not just run a normal Flash blocker in the first place?

If all you're going to do is block flash, then why not just not bother installing flash instead of using even more RAM for a plugin which blocks it?

 

[MacYale]

try Stainless for standard web browsing.

it doesn't have all the bells and whistles as chrome and FF and Safari, but I can open 20 tabs and Stainless doesn't even crack 100 MB of ram. the pages also load in a matter of seconds. (Doing the same on safari is usually a beach ball or lag spike and much longer time to process).

EDIT: 20 tabs opening at once, I meant.