I have had a problem with my Mail on my Mac. When I get ASF Windows attachments, Mail locks up and crashes. Thought it was a plugin, but I don't use any. I checked to be sure. So since I was thinking I may have to reload, I would try Safari 4 out. It is touted as the fastest Safari ever. I guess it is. The things I didn't like though, it looked a bit different. Tab corners were not as smooth, and the appearance just seemed a little different. I tried the newest feature, the one that downloads every page in your bookmarks, in a cover flow design. It was ok, but not needed by me. I also don't want my browser connecting to every single site just to have it at the ready. Thats cool for lazy geeks, but I like to click on my link, and get the page fresh right then and there. Not based on a cache file. Broadband is quite fast enough! I liked Safari 3 because it was fast, small footprint, and not much bloated code. Safari 4 goes against that idea, even if the render engine is beefed up. It is just principle.
My biggest pet peeve about Apple and Mac software updates still stands true today! There is no way to uninstall Safari 4 to back up to Safari 3. Sure you can use Time Machine, but again, thats another big program that eats up system resources. I just want a text or a few buttons. No need for swirly graphics. I want a Software Update option to uninstall Safari 4. No luck.
I re-installed OS X, patched it, and still had the Mail lockup. Seems Apple had a fix package for 10.5.6, for a problem they knew about. That worked! I reloaded for nothing, but the Mac does seem a bit snappier. I just have so many things loaded. yes that may be the problem, I plan to look over what is plugged into the system preferences folder. I may move a few things and see if that helps.
In the meantime, if you like Safari 3, keep it. Apple loves to change things. Seems they used to slap Microsoft around alot, but Windows has a few features that even the Mac has yet to adopt. Maybe Macs are not as great as the price tries to indicate. Oh I bought new laptop too, and Dude, it was a Dell! I saved $1500!
