Safari Extensions - do they slow it down?

[Doju]

I want to use some of the great extensions showcased at safariextensions.tumblr.com but I'm afraid they'll slow down the browsing experience and start up times. Will it?

 

[Airforcekid]

Depends same goes with Firefox if you install sensible ad blocking search bar etc it wont be effected however themes or something that modifies a page will slow it down just use common sense and you can disable them anytime.

 

[Kahnyl]

I haven't noticed any degradation yet, except for the Safari Preferences window taking a second or two to close after I've clicked x. I think that started after I installed my first extension.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I doubt you'll notice anything since they're just HTML and CSS.

 

[Catfish_Man]

In general, any system that allows arbitrary behaviors also allows arbitrary slowdowns. Hopefully extension authors will be careful about any additional work they impose on the pageload process, but history suggests it'll be a mixed bag.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

So far so good for me, but to many will slow down any browser.

 

[yetanotherdave]

I was just playing with this, as Safari was taking 10 bounces to open on an SSD!
Turned off extensions (which were stored on a seperate HDD) and it went from 10 to 1 bounce.
A lot of that will be because they are on a slower drive, but it definitely makes a difference.

 

[cindyhy]

I was just playing with this, as Safari was taking 10 bounces to open on an SSD!
Turned off extensions (which were stored on a seperate HDD) and it went from 10 to 1 bounce.
A lot of that will be because they are on a slower drive, but it definitely makes a difference.

This sounds pretty dramatic. Was the 10 bounce the first launch after boot? It should take a lot longer the first time you launch an app after boot than subsequent launches since the system store RAM Safari used into inactive memory making later launches faster. I have a mid 2009 13' MacBook Pro (which at this point is not a powerful mac at all) with the original 5400-rpm HDD. But Safari with 6 extensions running can open after 1 bounce (quit and then relaunch). But of course, I might be using lighter extensions than you did.

 

[yetanotherdave]

This sounds pretty dramatic. Was the 10 bounce the first launch after boot? It should take a lot longer the first time you launch an app after boot than subsequent launches since the system store RAM Safari used into inactive memory making later launches faster. I have a mid 2009 13' MacBook Pro (which at this point is not a powerful mac at all) with the original 5400-rpm HDD. But Safari with 6 extensions running can open after 1 bounce (quit and then relaunch). But of course, I might be using lighter extensions than you did.

I rebooted between tries, 10 with them enabled, 1 disabled. Both on first launch after a reboot. Mine is a mid 2009 15" mbp, so very similar to yours.
Quit and relaunch should be faster, as OS X caches the data for fast access later (it probably is still in RAM when you do that), but it's still faster on quit and relaunch with extensions disabled.