Using Safari Slows Your System?

sandoz writes "Macenstein has up an interesting article with some evidence that running Safari seems to slow down unrelated programs. While the speed with which a browser renders a Web page is an important measure, the difference between browsers is usually a matter of a few seconds at most. To my mind, a more important measure of speed is how a browser affects the overall speed of your system." Some responses to the article suggest that memory handling in WebKit may be the culprit. The Safari developers have already responded to this article on the webkit.org blog. They explain why the slowdown might be occurring and how it's (probably) already been fixed in the nightly build. And they request more minimal test cases.

my test case

[gEvil (beta)]

I have a 5-1/2 year old iBook. Running anything slows my system down... : p

Bloomin' OS X copycats

[tttonyyy]

Don't you realise Windows has this technology already - it's been slowing down unrelated programs for years! (Sorry, I know it's cheap, but I couldn't resist!)

Of course it slows your system

[Timesprout]

Going on Safari is supposed to be a chill out vacation isn't it. And because nature is so balanced, life speeds up for all the wildlife who have to run like fuck when they see you approach with your high powered rifle.

But I wonder

[raynet11]

If a train leaves Boston with an I-MAC running Safari doing 40MPH heading west and a 2nd train leaves Chicago doing 60MPH heading East with an mini MAC running Safari and Quake 4. How many I-PODS will be sold funding more "Hi I'm a MAC" comercials before: a. My Karma can be kicked down another notch b. The code will be fixed ? c. This post will be changed to flame bait d. This post is silly and you can't believe your still reading it?

Re:Bloomin' OS X copycats

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you realise Windows has this technology already - it's been slowing down unrelated programs for years! (Sorry, I know it's cheap, but I couldn't resist!)

No, Apple has had this technology for years and Microsoft just copied it, as usual.

Re:I concur

[loafing_oaf]

Just switch to Firefox. I'm using it right now on Windows XP, and I haven't noticed any problems with memory le*$@!!- NO CARRIER

Re:I concur

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

However, since 10.4.5+, I have noticed that (as a whole) there appears to be an inability of OS X to free RAM up as efficiently as it used to. Programs like Safari, after many hours of usage, will remain as a HUGE RAM/virtual memory sink

They must be using code from Firefox...

(ducks)

Re:Bloomin' OS X copycats

[lanswitch]

yes, but who owns the patents on this?

Re:it's the memory stupid

[SporkLand]

I've never seen a weird mistype like footprint -> offtprint. Are you typing like 2 hoojillion words a minute and those are the sort of strange errors that occur?

Re:Bloomin' OS X copycats

[cyfer2000]

Xerox, as usual.

I get it...

[petermartin]

Safari slows down other programs so that it can look faster in comparison. So that's the secret of their success!

Re:Bloomin' OS X copycats

[jZnat]

I'd suspect Sun [sun.com] holds this patent..