Spinning Beach Ball of Death...

Having not used Safari as a browser until recently, I have never seen this on my Mac.

I primarily use FF, but trying to branch out a little & use Safari some.

However, I have noticed that I can run the same websites (this has only happened when visiting websites, forums, etc., as I really haven't done anything else yet) and when using Safari I frequently get the Spinning Beach Ball (for anywhere from 5 to 15 or 20 seconds).

So far I have not seen this ever happen on FF. What does this mean and why is it happening? How frequently does this happen (average ~10 seconds) to others and does it happen more with certain websites or other apps?

*Is there something I should be doing, or not doing to not have this happen?

Thanks so much for all your input and suggestions to me!!!
I really appreciate everyone's time & interest

J.

Is your Safari up-to-date?

Try the "Empty Cache" command in the application's menu, or even "Reset Safari" and see if that clears things up.

Safari should be performing more-or-less exactly the same as FF.

Nope, Safari is rubbish for certain sites IMO. I have an animated gif avatar at one forum, and it hangs every time without fail in Safari. It just can't render the graphics well at all.
I don't like Firefox much, but have resigned to using it on my Powerbook, and Chrome on my iMac because of this issue.

chas_m said:

Is your Safari up-to-date?

Try the "Empty Cache" command in the application's menu, or even "Reset Safari" and see if that clears things up.

Safari should be performing more-or-less exactly the same as FF.

Click to expand...

Thanks, chas_m!
I will try that, but before I do, I have a comment/question. This computer is about 14 days old, so it hasn't had much use and VERY little of it has been on Safari.

It says the Safari version is 5.0.2, which it came with. I don't know if that's up to date, but will go check that out.

Thanks for your advice!!!

Should I still try "Empty cache" and/or "Reset Safari" first?

This ball and the delay is one of the things that kept me from trying Safari more than a few hours when I first got it.

Thanks for all the other responses too! They must have come while I was checking out the first post and responding.

FF & Safari definitely do NOT perform more or less the same and haven't since the first day I got this Mac.

I do have the current version of Safari.

Kevriano said:

Nope, Safari is rubbish for certain sites IMO. I have an animated gif avatar at one forum, and it hangs every time without fail in Safari. It just can't render the graphics well at all.
I don't like Firefox much, but have resigned to using it on my Powerbook, and Chrome on my iMac because of this issue.

Click to expand...

Agree with this post completely, i to have had numerous problems with safari esp after updates, so much so i even started a thread about the problems. Every other browser i use , FF, Chrome(my default now), and Opera, have been problem free

All I can say to that is that it hasn't been my experience w/Safari at all. I find it lightning fast anywhere I want to go, which is why I use it.

I watched a recorded TV program yesterday using Firefox 3.6.9 and it was fine. Trying the same thing with Safari 4.0.5 was frustrating the last time I did it, which was quite some time ago. Maybe 5.0.2 is better, but I wonder if it was the difference in browsers. So my experience is much the same as the OP, and I don't have a solution.

Like you, I have tried to force myself to use Safari. I'm at the point, where I do it pretty much do it twice per year. And like you, I often find so many irritating stumbles with the program, that I always switch back to Firefox.

My advice is - if you don't like it, don't force yourself to. There's nothing wrong with Firefox.

cwa107 said:

Like you, I have tried to force myself to use Safari. I'm at the point, where I do it pretty much do it twice per year. And like you, I often find so many irritating stumbles with the program, that I always switch back to Firefox.

My advice is - if you don't like it, don't force yourself to. There's nothing wrong with Firefox.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I need to quit trying so hard and just stick with what I know for now. I just end up frustrated and I'm already having the mac learning curve as it is.

I guess it was/is reassuring just to hear someone say that!

I find Safari (WebKit) faster than all browsers, Chrome is garbage, 50-70% cpu usage watching video, fonts are ugly. Since Safari has extensions, it rocks.. Using Safari, more sites than not use HTML5 15-20% cpu , my fans never come on.. When a site don't work in Safari, it would be nice to know the site so we can try.

jsgal said:

Thanks, I think I need to quit trying so hard and just stick with what I know for now. I just end up frustrated and I'm already having the mac learning curve as it is.

I guess it was/is reassuring just to hear someone say that!

Click to expand...

Yep, it's tough getting used to all the little eccentricities of the Mac. If you go back to my very first posts here, I struggled here and there. Fortunately, there's almost always a tweak or an add-on that can make you feel more at home. Now, when I get in front of someone's new Mac, I start rattling off about a dozen different things that can make the transition easier. People often are shocked when they see the difference a few small settings can make.

Safari is one of those Mac things that I just can't wrap my brain around. Particularly on a Mac laptop, where Firefox has FAR superior gesture support on the trackpad. I also like how it handles RSS feeds in the Bookmark Toolbar (you can just click a feed and it will drop down and give you a quick summary of all the stories, rather than needing to change pages). I also find the rendering to be more to my taste.

People often say that the Firefox UI isn't very Mac-like. I don't get it. Sure, it's not dumbed-down and simplistic, but I think it looks great.

So, in this case, I still say "go with what you know". It's not like you have to uninstall Safari. And when the latest and greatest version comes across via Software Updates, you can always take a peek and see if its more suited to your taste. That's pretty much what I do.

Now, the other Mac apps that have solid 3rd party alternatives (like iPhoto) are definitely worth trying to get accustomed to, as they are often best-in-class (IMO).

Good luck and welcome aboard.

^^ Ok useful, but it shouldn't be necessary, should it. And I bet it still won't render my Gif.