Re: [NTLK] [OT] Re: iCab speed: it's OS X's fault!

On 18/9/09, Don Zahniser wrote:
|
>speed problem seems to involve iCab's private cookie storage,
>perhaps javascript. It's probably insignificant or unnoticeable on
>more current systems.

Having recently discovered how to disable swapping, I now know it's
the OS' fault. While preliminary reports* suggest Snow Cat is much
improved, previous versions OS X are way too swap-happy. (I can't
test Snow myself on my G4. Damn!)

*http://cestdelamerde.com/archives/22-Killing-Mac-OS-X-Swapping-How-To-Disable-dynamic_pager.html

http://tinyurl.com/yrsb6m

With swap off on my PB G4, I'm finally seeing an appropriate
performance boost from doubling RAM, which had been a huge
disappointment. I never could figure out why opening a few dozen web
pages of less than 100 K each required gigs of swap files. Now I know
they don't and dynamic pager (the swap binary) is a buggaboo Apple
ignored for a decade.

My CPU and disk used to be churning away constantly, now with
swapping dead it's like escaping hell into nirvana: peace, quiet, and
much much more responsive/capable machine (e.g, more apps/windows
open at a time).

BTW, I'm working on posting details how to kill swapping easily;
maybe OSXHints will post one-step hack I stumbled on. (I've not tried
above method as I don't know how to compile.)

Also, there seemed a significant improvement in iCab devouring
RAM/swap some months back. But it may have been an OS update, as
developer said he didn't know anything he'd done to improve things.
And there was a HUGE improvement when iCab incorporated WebKit last
year.

Further: any page with Flash content is a real drain on iCab,
consuming big % of CPU until one closes it, regardless whether it's
in focus or not, or whether the Flash file is downloaded! Ah, Adobe!
-Not!

>never warmed up to Camino, although speedy and trouble free

It's got enuf features and almost always comes through on pages iCab
can't, so it's my second choice.

Years since I looked at Opera, sounds worth another try, as Safari is
way too minimalist/klunky and Firefox so bloaty.

Delighted to hear others use iCab. I'm not alone!

B

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Received on Sat Sep 19 05:32:14 2009