Apple Releases OS X Lion

Discerptor · Aug 2, 2011

vansmith said:
I can't say I share the same disappointments (although I can't play SC1 anymore!) but have you taken a look at some alternatives to Front Row like Plex or Boxee? They may prove to be worthy replacements for you.

I haven't looked at those, though I did try out XBMC for a while. One thing Front Row always had that I valued was the easy access to movie trailers on apple.com. If the alternatives can't give me something similar, I think I'll stick with the hack. ;P Thanks for pointing them out regardless.

schweb said:
Yeah and let's not even bother with understanding that most Pwn2Own exploits require physical access or in the last one they were testing an unpatched version of Safari to find an exploit that had already been patched.

Oh, schweb. Sometimes I can't tell whether you're being difficult or you just really get me.

(Also, the attack used still worked against Safari 5.0.4.)

dtravis7 · Aug 2, 2011

Schweb is totally correct on the Pwn2Own exploits. One they did on a Mini way back they gave the attacked the passwords. That is like giving the thief the keys to your house and telling him to rob it!

Discerptor · Aug 2, 2011

And that still wasn't enough to bring down Chrome.

In all seriousness, though, since I think people might take what I said with less light-heartedness than intended: the browser itself is almost never the source of the security flaw that ends up getting people's computers compromised, and that's been the case for a long time now. I consequently don't think Safari's security value is a huge plus or minus; the Pwn2Own comment was a slightly tongue-in-cheek plug for Chrome. Sacrificing control over cookie management, an underdeveloped extension library, and other real end-user features, on the other hand, drive my preference of other browsers over Snow Leopard Safari. But the cool gestures and full screen mode put Lion Safari on top right now when I'm booting 10.7.

dtravis7 · Aug 2, 2011

Then my suggestion to you is, use Chrome if you feel it's so superior. I really do not like the interface at all and so far have no issues with any site on Safari 5.1. I am in Firefox right now doing some Memory usage tests but miss Safari 5.1.

I do hear there are some issues in Safari 5.1 under Snow Leopard. Otherwise only thing I have seen is with the Sandboxing, Safari after time is eating a lot of RAM. More for some machines than others. Here it's not that bad but still hits around 1GB or so after a day of heavy usage.

MYmacROX · Aug 2, 2011

Ironically, the only issues I've had with Safari are when using Mac-Forums.
Intermittently...
1) only the top and bottom of a page will load and the middle will be blank, white space 2) when loading a page, there will be a blank, white square beginning on the left side of the page about half way down, approx 4" x 4"??
3) forum titles move down just a hair when I scroll over them on the main page that shows all the forums in a list

Refreshing the page always makes it load properly.

That's about it, though. Other sites have been just fine and I find Safari more responsive than before.

TattooedMac · Aug 2, 2011

MYmacROX said:
Ironically, the only issues I've had with Safari are when using Mac-Forums.
Intermittently...
2) when loading a page, there will be a blank, white square beginning on the left side of the page about half way down, approx 4" x 4"??

Yea i get this on every M-F page i load too . . . Was just going to wait until 10.7.1 to see if it fixed it.

Discerptor · Aug 7, 2011

Update for anyone that cares about Rosetta:

When you run a PowerPC application in Snow Leopard, there is a line in the kernel that tells the OS what to do with it. In snow Leopard, it was an option of two binaries, the active one able to be switched from one to the other. These were an executable called RosettaNonGrata and another one you could install called translate. When you installed translate (Rosetta), the installer package also told the kernel to send apps to this translate binary. In Lion, unfortunately, the kernel can only send PowerPC apps to be translated by the new version of RosettaNonGrata, which tells the user PowerPC apps are no longer supported. There is no way to change this.

What I have discerned in addition to this is that all the libraries "translate" depends on are still in Lion as far as I can tell; there would not be any additional overhead from letting you install it. Apple just seems to arbitrarily have decided to force the "no more PowerPC applications" issue for philosophical reasons or whatever PR is saying these days. The only way to fix this, as far as I can tell, would be to compile a custom version of the mach kernel and make a special Lion Installation that employs that. This is actually more possible than one might think, since Apple has already released the source code to compile it. It's also perfectly legal and within EULA terms so long as you don't install what you have on a non-Apple computer or try to sell it, etc. I'm looking into this, but it'll probably be quite a while before I can update with any good news. There are others on the AppleInsider forums working on this as well, and I may try to reach out to them when I have some more free time. If I figure out something, you guys will be the first to know.

WolfsBane · Aug 8, 2011

I'm actually OK with most of what I've seen on Lion. I use a laptop, in addition to to my iMac, so moving to using the track pad wasn't all that difficult to me. I kind of prefer it over the mouse.

Regarding Safari/Webkit. I have stated this before, but I have some concerns with security and specially privacy. I think Apple needs to do a better job with cookies and cache management, and pretty much anything having to do with sites being allowed to place thing in our computers to track user use. Based on what I have seen from Safari when we moved to Lion, we took a step back. I've had to install some extensions and plug ins to help me manage and clean about, (which I never did before), and would prefer not to. Also, Safari has a feel of having moved to the IOS version. I noticed that even if I clean things up, and I close Safari when I have 4-5 tabs open, instead of opening a brand new clean window, Safari is opening the same 4=5 tabs that were open when I closed the program. Also, I've noticed that it doesn't make any difference if I set a homepage when opening a new window. Safari in many occasions opens a blank page with "Go to this page" listed on the address bar.

I like some of the new features, but the browser has some serious inconsistencies and concerns as well.

Still exploring around Lion. Some things are different, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Lifeisabeach · Aug 8, 2011

WolfsBane said:
I noticed that even if I clean things up, and I close Safari when I have 4-5 tabs open, instead of opening a brand new clean window, Safari is opening the same 4=5 tabs that were open when I closed the program.

That's the new "Restore windows…" option that can be disabled in System Preferences » General

Also, I've noticed that it doesn't make any difference if I set a homepage when opening a new window. Safari in many occasions opens a blank page with "Go to this page" listed on the address bar.

Safari » Preferences » General
There's an option for what should open in a new tab.

WolfsBane · Aug 9, 2011

Duplicate

WolfsBane · Aug 9, 2011

lifeisabeach said:
That's the new "Restore windows…" option that can be disabled in System Preferences » General[/I]

I looked, but I didn't see this option in Preferences > General.

There's an option for what should open in a new tab.[/I]

The Option is "New Windows Opens With". It is set to "Homepage".

Again, it doesn't seem to make a difference. Safari still opens a new window at a blank page with "Go To This Address" on the address bar.

Click to expand...

dtravis7 · Aug 9, 2011

WolfsBane said:
lifeisabeach said:

That's the new "Restore windows…" option that can be disabled in System Preferences » General[/I]

I looked, but I didn't see this option in Preferences > General.

Click to expand...

It's there! I hope you are looking in SYSTEM preferences and not Safari preferences.

Lifeisabeach · Aug 9, 2011

WolfsBane said:
lifeisabeach said:

That's the new "Restore windows…" option that can be disabled in System Preferences » General

I looked, but I didn't see this option in Preferences > General.

Click to expand...

Look closer. Screen cap below.

(EDIT: Actually look at dtravis' screen cap while I delete mine with the crudely drawn arrow) :Blushing:

There's an option for what should open in a new tab.

The Option is "New Windows Opens With". It is set to "Homepage".

Click to expand...

That's a different option from what I am talking about. See screen cap below.

RONE · Aug 9, 2011

Are you sure you're opening new windows and not new tabs?

WolfsBane · Aug 10, 2011

RONE said:
Are you sure you're opening new windows and not new tabs?

Yep. I was completely closing the browser, and opening the Safari application again. But I think you guys helped me find and resolve one of the issues...

Restore Windows....

WolfsBane · Aug 10, 2011

dtravis7 said:
WolfsBane said:

It's there! I hope you are looking in SYSTEM preferences and not Safari preferences.

Click to expand...

That took care of one of the issues, thanks. Apparently, restore windows does override some of Safari's basic selected behaviours.

Discerptor · Sep 2, 2011

I thought I'd give an update: As it turns out, Diablo 2 and Starcraft 1 both run perfectly in Wine, which in turn runs fine on Lion. It makes the lack of Rosetta easier to deal with.

RONE · Sep 3, 2011

Thanks for the info Discerptor.