Apple punts Safari update Apple today upgraded is Safari browser to version 4.0.2, promising improved stability of its Nitro JavaScript engine. Whether this update will solve the pesky crashing problems reported here and elsewhere remains to be seen. We've been running it for a couple of hours with no problems - but intermittent crashes have an …
I got so frustrated with the random crashes I moved to Firefox a couple of Safari versions ago. Saying that I use Firefox makes me feel like a dirty freetard, so to make myself better I've put a Safari skin on it so I'm not reminded everyday.
Maybe when I can be bothered I'll give Safari another go.
I was having huge problems after updating to Safari 4 with it continually crashing. A look at the crash dump logs pointed to the Shockwave plugin. I updated that to the latest, and it's been fine ever since. I'm not saying that's what's causing all the problems, but worth checking.
40.2Mb for a browser?! What Apple iTunes lockin DRM spyware bloat crap do they ship with that then to get it up to 40Mb? Are Apples too cool to have sensible sized installs and compression?
"Oh, stuffit... the Mac faithful will download it regardless."
Or is it that they simply couldn't click the context menu with the cyclops mouse to select "release build" instead of "debug build with full browse database"?
I've read about this crashing lark since Safari 4 came out of beta but... so far it hasn't happened here.
I'm a bit miffed about the removal of the progress bar and its stupid replacement paddle wheel but it's otherwise very solid - even with a dozen or so windows open (currently there are 13 open and CPU usage is 5% - 10% depending on which window is frontmost).
Actually have been a pretty happy Firefox power user (it's very well 'tweaked') but decided a while back to give Safari a try. Stuck mostly with Firefox but found Safari to be useful for certain things.
Then, as I recall, somewhere with late Safari 3, seemed like an update made Safari start grinding my PC to a crawl, just like an earlier poster had experienced. And it was the only app. that did so. Also noticed that killing any Safari process always got the computer running fine gain. All this on a pretty sufficient, very stable and always currently patched XP Pro SP3 Athlon 64 dual-core box that's a bit over a year old.
So I quit using Safari for a while. At least until Ver. 4 came out. "Maybe this will fix the problem," I thought. No such luck. "Great news!" I think today with news of the patch for 4.0.2 on El Reg. All will be well in Safari land again. Nope.
Couldn't even get the software update for 4.0.2 to finish downloading, even at 3am USA CT on a 10M DSL connection that seemed to be working fine and quite 'live' on anything else I tried at the time. Worse yet, when I tried to stop the download by clicking 'cancel' on the Apple updater, it hung. That problem finally cleared up just before I headed to task manager to kill the updater.
Maybe I'll try to update Safari to 4.0.2 later on? Probably. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. But does anyone know of a good reason why Safari doesn't have a 'check for updates' function of its own like most everything else does? Or why the crazy beast is a 50MB+ download? Just doesn't seem like enough of a product to require such a big chunk of install code. I'd think Apple had been taking software development lessons from M$, but I've noticed that other things they do (like QuickTime / iTunes at 85MB+) seems inordinately huge.
Is this the kind of 'fun' I'd experience if someday I broke down and bought a Mac?
... almost always while executing Javascript, though it was really only annoying when WebKit decides to crash the Xcode documentation viewer and in so doing takes all of Xcode with it.
@Jeremy 2: it's nothing like as bad as requiring a restart for font changes, but there's clearly something suspicious at play. I guess WebKit is used throughout the OS for about a million things, but nevertheless I'm a bit uneasy by anything that requires a restart.
To Rod MacLean (and maybe Ivan Headache and Paul Gomme, too)
Maybe not a 'crash' as in blowing itself off the screen. I've seen FF 3.0.x do that a few times. But hang? Sure, and slow the whole system down along the way. Also not window or tab related. Just put 3 pages of Sun Micro's website up on Safari in tabs. No Shockwave / Flash elements. Within a minute or so, XP Pro system (described in my earlier post; sorry I was so long) started 'stalling out' or hanging just trying to switch from one app. to another. Shut down Safari and system was fine. Open to hearing any explanation someone might have.
Try KwikFit's online booking - the vehicle selector boxes won't update. But that's probably because the entire site is shite - always crashes at payment time in any browser (maybe not IE, but I don't use that turd) so you have to call the bloody call centre.
(Disclaimer: Only using KwikFit because A: It's near, B: Sent 20% discount voucher, C: Wife's car.)
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