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.

Running Nighlty code

[failedlogic]

Just wondering what other's experiences have been running the nightly code. I've been doing it with Firefox (and when it was Firebird for 2 years). But I've not tried with WebKit. Is it fairly stable, better rending of pages and faster?

There are a few sites that are noticeably slower on Safari. Its one of the only reasons I'm using Firefox. That and there are a few plug-ins that are better than Saaft and company.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:I concur

[StressedEd]

...is that the process "kernal task" keeps eating up...

Can anyone give a concise explanation of what "kernel_task" actually is? I have seen some broad chatter and an overview [bleepsoft.com], but nothing significant. I too notice it going banannas from time to time. Then again I use MATLAB and various other memory eaters quite a lot...

Re:Firefox is a better browser.

[greed]

All that Firefox lacks is password storage in the keychain and bookmark sync across multiple machines.

Between the two, it doesn't matter where I am, Safari has the same stuff in it.

Which is handy 'cause my stupid G4 iBook has a thermal fault somewhere around the NVRAM and I really should call the repair centre and see how they're getting along.

It's not like the G3 iBook had 6 bad main logic boards put in it....

(And yet I still can't stand to use Windows as a primary OS. Maybe I'll get one of those laptop Solaris machines. Or one of those old PowerPC Thinkpads that run AIX.)

wasn't the slowdown natural??

[towsonu2003]

I've been using Firefox in Linux so long, I got used to Firefox slowing down every inch of my laptop when I go to sites that use transparent PNGs or javascript (digg and sourceforge are a major slow-downers for instance - I don't go there anymore... and I can't comfortably use slashdot's new commenting system)*

So when I read this item, I told myself "oh, so... what I'm experiencing isn't normal. it can be news in slashdot... wow." Firefox has different effects on different people I guess...

* Using a clean profile + a nightly build doesn't help. Submitted bug reports do not get any interest from devels except tagging it with "perf" (I know, they're busy, but look - it's news on slashdot when it's Safari on Mac).

bugs in question? so far, I was lazy enough to file just these: 366728; 368365; 368908; 369044; 369682; 370697

pls don't reply w/ "worksforme". I spent considerable time trying to not reproduce the slow down effects, as you might guess...

Re:Safari or Firefox?

[vilms]

Take a look at Shiira, while you're checking out web browsers.
It's another take on Webkit but seems to work better in my particular work environment* than Safari ever has.Pw

Pw

*other places of work also available

Re:Safari or Firefox?

[NickFitz]

Forum advice was to run "repair permissions", I did but it didn't help.

It didn't help because the people who gave you that advice are imbeciles who believe in voodoo. [daringfireball.net] It was able to help with occasional problems caused by Classic and bad installers circa OS X 10.1, but there are hardly any circumstances where it will make any difference to anything on more recent versions, as explained here. [unsanity.org]

Re:Problems with slashdot and safari

[redanzl]

I used to use Saft for ad blocking and saving sessions, but Saft slowed down Safari even more. Now I use SafariBlock [fsbsoftware.com] for blocking ads, and Forget Me Not [kisonecat.com] for saving sessions, and it works fine.

You can import adblock filter lists into SafariBlock, as well as add site on the fly.

Safari is not one browser

[hudsucker]

What is not always realized is that there are two Safari versions.

Safari 1.x runs on OS X 10.3 and earlier.

Safari 2.x runs requires OS X 10.4.

All the performance fixes go into Safari 2.x only. The only fixes for Safari 1.x are for security problems.

I'm running OS X 10.3, and I have noticed that Safari has severe severe performance problems. I think it is caused by Flash applets, which bring it to its knees. Websites with flash applets frequently will cause 100% cpu usage. And trying to use flash based video players often can't keep up, because it is demanding more than 100% cpu.

So now that there are so many flash ads, exploring the web is a painful experience.

  * * *

OK, I know this is futile, but I'll try to head off the obligatory responses:

Q. Do you really expect Apple to enhance Safari for older operating systems?
A. I don't expect them to. But I wish they would fix the performance problems.

Q. If Flash ads are the problem, why don't you block them?
A. The ads pay for the web sites.

Q. Why don't you upgrade to OS X 10.4?
A. Because that would break certain other software needed for work.

Q. Why don't you use another browser?
A. I do.

Q. Why don't you just get a get a new, faster computer?
A. Because I keep expecting Apple to release a new model, in between a Mac mini and a Mac Pro.