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.

Comments

OMG

[cowscows]

Hey wow, a piece of software isn't perfect, and the developers are trying to fix it. This is an exciting new paradigm for programming. Thanks for keeping me updated!

Re:it's the memory stupid

[MojoRilla]

But this is utterly unsurprising. If you run a big memory app like photshop you already know better than to be running other apps that consume memory.

Really? You know, this isn't 1997 when OS's did cooperative multitasking and machines had 32 megs of RAM. In 2007, many people have dual core machines and 1 gig or more RAM, and like to run more than one program at the same time. In this day and age, people want and expect to be able to run multiple apps (including web browsers, instant messaging programs, office apps, and, gasp!, photo editing apps) at the same time.

Re:Weird...

[Afecks]

The ENTIRE OS works perfectly. Everything.

This was modded insightful? This is the "perfect" example of fanboy behavior. One zealot makes a broad sweeping claim that nobody in their right mind would dare to make and then another comes along and mods him insightful. Only a self-delusional fool would think perfection is attainable and there is nothing insightful about deluding yourself.

Hmm

[bill_kress]

I'm not an apple fanboy yet, but I'm really impressed with the immediate response of the Safari development team. Imagine if IE was slowing down some other program--the last group you'd expect to hear from would be the IE dev team--so far outside the realm of possibility as to be laughable.

Re:WTF

[cowscows]

This story isn't about some exciting new program, or some cool technology, or even an updated version of a popular piece of software. This is a report about a non-critical bug for a web browser. A web browser with limited market share and a number of good alternatives. Oh, and the developer has already acknowledged it, explained it, and described some of the progress being made to fix it. This isn't about technology, it's about a minor decision in the production of a web browser not being the optimal solution.

Slashdot covers a huge range of topics, a lot of information goes through it each day. It's constantly bring in new editors, and they get craploads of submissions each day. Keeping all of that in mind, I just fail to see how anything in this article was worthy of a front page spot on the site. I'm not calling for the firing of the editors or anything, just making fun of them a little bit for posting something silly.