Screw Safari! I'm back on Internet Explorer!

[FlashHarry]

I used Safari for a while--and got to love it, which is why this sucks even more. You see, Safari crashes at about one in four Web sites I visit. First it hangs... then it quits 'unexpectedly.' I've Googled for a fix, and found several involving deleting .plst preference files. This worked once, however they keep re-spawning in the pref. folder. In any case, I've had enough.

Let's hope the good folks over at Apple fix the damn bugs before IE5.1 is no longer supported.

By the way... the bug in question is also f*cking up my 'Mail' app. OSX: 'crash-proof?' I dunno...

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. hmmmmm

What's your version of OSX? Safari is quite stable for me on 10.2.

My version of Safari is 1.0 v85.

[FlashHarry]

3. OSX 10.2.6/Safari 1.0(v85)

BTW, I don't have 'administrator privileges' on this machine, so I can't screw with it too much.

[Mika]

2. Do you have Diskwarrior by Alsoft?

If you don't - get it.
Get the latest version that boots the Mac to OSX.

After I ran Diskwarrior, which rebuilds and optimizes HD DIRECTORY files (bat files, fat files, forks, etc) all most of my weird lockups went away.
Run it once a month (as in: boot from CD rom and do your HD directory rebuild and optimize).

[htuttle]

4. My copy of Safari has been really solid

So has Mail. (both on 10.2, and 10.2.3).

If both are messing up, then there's probably something else wrong.

How much free hard drive space you got? This is a common problem. OSX really likes to have about 2-3 times as much hard drive space as you have RAM -- 1GB is a good amount to have -- less can be problematic (swap space, cache, etc...start to run out and malfunction).

Another thing that can cause a bunch of weird problems is disk errors. When was the last time you ran 'disk first aid' on your startup disk?

Bad RAM can also cause lots of weird problems, but those usually result in a kernel panic (and is the leading cause of them, btw).

Finally, both programs will probably be logging something when they dump. If you run the Console program in Utilities, you might be able to see some instructive log messages (and if you don't know what the hell they mean...either post'em here or PM me).

If you want to try another browser, I'd suggest Camino over Explorer 5.1. Definitely faster, and you get tabs.

I support and write software for OSX for a living, so I'm pretty familiar with it's ins, outs, and idiosyncracies.

[FlashHarry]

6. It's an older G4, with 448MB RAM.

I don't know how much HD space I have, because the System Profiler has been 'gathering' for several minutes now (another glitch?). As far as first aid goes, I'm not even sure what that is, or if I could administer it (not an Admin), but the OS was clean-installed only last week, so it shouldn't be too messed up.

[alfredo]

13. I think some javascript crashes Safari.

the only crashes I have had was because of the bane of the internet, javascript.

[htuttle]

14. If you just recently clean-installed, then that's probably not it

To check your hard drive space, one way is to select the drive in the Finder, and Get Info.

One other thing I can think of is to maybe give OmniWeb a try (if you feel like pursuing this .... it's not very fun, I know...).

OmniWeb (from http://www.omnigroup.com) now uses the same HTML rendering engine as Safari. If the bug that's crashing you is in the Safari code 'proper', and not in the rendering engine, you might have better luck with it.

[LynneSin]

5. Use Opera

I've used Opera for over a year now and I love it. There is the free version and the pay version. ONly difference between the 2 is the small banner on the right up of the free version. HOWEVER....I have my opera setup so that I only receive pop-up ads that I asked for - ie - if I click on my yahoo address or the smilies box here at DU - I get those pop up boxes. But I never ever get popup ads.

Seriously go opera

[Evil_Dewers]

8. Opera is pretty cool

but it is imperative that all surfers have an up-to-date firewall --especially dumbass IE users and of course anyone who uses a connection which is always 'on' (DSL, Cable modem, dedicated T1/T3 line).

I use Mozilla and Opera.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Is it really necessary to insult 70% of the board?

"dumbass IE users"....fyi, this dumbass is using IE with Win XP Pro and I am absolutely delighted with my system performance.

[newyawker99]

12. Hi Evil_Dewers!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[pansypoo53219]

7. ugh

this luddite feels your pain.

and all this other advice makes the luddites head hurt. will just stay with MS explorer. I can change the colors.

[Evil_Dewers]

9. Get a firewall pronto

if you don't already have one.

[MR. ELECTABLE]

10. Mozilla/Camino your best bet on OS X

Yeah, Safari has bugs. Apple was forced to push out a 1.0 release early because Microsoft decided to stop suporting Internet Explorer for Macintosh. Personally I think it could have used a few more beta releases, but Safari 1.1 isn't far off...

For you PC users out there, Opera on Mac is a piece of shit. It is rarely updated, and last I heard they actually stopped making it!

Really, the fastest, most compatible browser for Mac OS X at the moment is Camino, which is available at www.mozilla.org. Basically, this browser uses the Mozilla rendering engine by building a Cocoa framework around it, allowing the integration of all the usual goodies...

[Abaques]

15. Support Open Source!

Go mozilla! Open source software keeps innovations coming and keeps the big boys worried.

[Deja Q]

18. AGREED 100000000% !

For Windows or Linux, Mozilla is the best choice these days.

I wish it translated the fonts I normally use in my website, but that shouldn't be too difficult to re-work...

[alfredo]

16. Here's the fix

Quit Safari. go to your home in the finder then to /library/preferences. Look for come.apple.quicktime.plugin.preferences.plist. Drag it to your desktop. Start Safari.
That should fix it. The file will be created again on its own. Most likely the preference file is corrupted. If it now works OK, trash the one on the desktop.

[Deja Q]

17. Not to defend Apple, but

OSX, the operating system, is crash-proof. This doesn't mean the applications are perfect. It just means the OS shouldn't crash if an application crashes. I've heard OS X is VERY stable, which is very good. It's a welcomed change from MacOS's history of making buggy OSes which made Win95 look solid by comparison.

Try Mozilla. It's the best browser I've used. Even Konquerer has its problems, which is a shame as its got the most potential... I think they make it for Mac, but I'm not certain; I'm not a regular Mac user.

But no one app should be able to mess with another app (though if MacOS uses anything similar in concept to a DLL then it is possible...). I've seen MS apps do it to each other all the time. :eyes: But the same thing on MacOS? I have yet to see that happen on Linux, though give it enough time and a shared library file gone bad will mess up other apps that share it...

[alfredo]

19. Safari is built using Konqueror code

KHTML. And yes it does run on OSX. Apple has its own X11.

I use fink, an app that uses the deb filesystem.
http://fink.sourceforge.net/index.php

http://www.apple.com/macosx/x11/

KDE and Gnome run well on OSX.

Since 10.2 I have not had one crash.

this could be pretty cool too:
http://metapkg.org/

BTW, Mozilla firebird is pretty good, But Camino is my fave.