When Were 'Safari Web Content' and 'Flash Player (Safari plug-in)' Introduced?

[KeithPratt]

I have a 2006 MacBook that I use occasionally, and whatever Safari or OS update brought the 'Safari Web Content' and 'Flash Player Internet plug-in)' processes made YouTube videos (and any other Flash-based video) near unplayable.

I'm doing a fresh install and wanted to update to the OS and Safari versions immediately prior to the introduction of the separated Web Content and Flash Player processes.

If it's Safari I think they were introduced somewhere around 5.1, and if it's the OS I think it must be 10.6.8.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have a 2006 MacBook that I use occasionally, and whatever Safari or OS update brought the 'Safari Web Content' and 'Flash Player Internet plug-in)' processes made YouTube videos (and any other Flash-based video) near unplayable.

The problem isn't that Safari Web Content and the Flash plug-in are separate processes. I use Flash on Safari with ClickToFlash to control which content plays, and I have zero issues with it. Generally speaking, Flash is notorious for consuming system resources, raising temps and decreasing battery life. For Flash-related issues:

• Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available. Never install or update Flash from a pop-up on a website. Always go to Adobe's site to get Flash or updates.
• Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
• Try using the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available. (May impact fullscreen viewing. See link for details.) Some have reported better performance with HTML5, while some have reported worse. Try it and find out what works best for you.

 

[KeithPratt]

Thanks for the reply. I have HTML5 turned on for YouTube and whilst it's less CPU-taxing, there's an annoying pattern of stuttering.

With single-process Safari I could comfortably watch 720p on YouTube, but with triple-process I can't go beyond 360p without hitting the CPU ceiling. I'll take a look at your links, but I'm still eager to know what update saw the switch to the separate Web Content and Flash processes.

 

[valdikor]

Using an outdated version of a web broswer is generally a very, very bad idea. If Safari doesn't work well for you, try a different browser, Chrome (but its processes are separate too), Firefox or Opera...

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm still eager to know what update saw the switch to the separate Web Content and Flash processes.

Flash has always been a separate process, as it's not part of Safari and not developed by Apple. The Safari Web Content process was introduced with Safari 5.1, if I recall correctly.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I have a 2006 MacBook that I use occasionally, and whatever Safari or OS update brought the 'Safari Web Content' and 'Flash Player Internet plug-in)' processes made YouTube videos (and any other Flash-based video) near unplayable.

I'm doing a fresh install and wanted to update to the OS and Safari versions immediately prior to the introduction of the separated Web Content and Flash Player processes.

If it's Safari I think they were introduced somewhere around 5.1, and if it's the OS I think it must be 10.6.8.

Web content was introduced in Lion.

 

[KeithPratt]

Using an outdated version of a web broswer is generally a very, very bad idea. If Safari doesn't work well for you, try a different browser, Chrome (but its processes are separate too), Firefox or Opera...

I appreciate the warning, but I don't have any personal details or passwords saved on this computer. Camino 2.1.2 runs Flash better than Safari 5.1.5 and newer versions of Chrome and Firefox, but not as well as previous versions of Safari.

Flash has always been a separate process, as it's not part of Safari and not developed by Apple. The Safari Web Content process was introduced with Safari 5.1, if I recall correctly.

5.1 sounds about right to me. Thanks. I've since found out that Safari 5.0.5 is included in the 10.6.8 combo update, so I'm going to run that on a fresh install and see how things go.

Web content was introduced in Lion.

I'm running 10.6.8 and it's there in the Activity Monitor...

 

[GGJstudios]

Web content was introduced in Lion.

Web content was introduced in Safari 5.1, which was released for both Snow Leopard and Lion, at the same time that Lion was introduced.