Safari 4.0 beta

Mikuro

Mikuro

Crotchety UI Nitpicker
Apple released the first beta of Safari 4 today.

http://www.apple.com/safari/
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15675/apple-safari

I figured I might as well give Safari 4 a spin, since I use Camino primarily these days and don't rely on Safari.

I had a bad experience. The installer required a restart, and after restarting almost every application crashed on launch. TextEdit, Terminal, Console, TextWrangler and of course Safari all crashed on launch repeatedly. Activity Monitor and the Finder worked normally, but that was about it.

I quickly removed all SIMBL plugins I had installed, which had no effect. I removed SIMBL itself, also to no effect.

So I uninstalled Safari 4 (they include an uninstaller, fortunately) without ever having used it. After that, a couple apps still kept crashing, but after a second restart that fixed itself.

I'm a little confused about the whole thing. Why Safari should have had such far-reaching effects is a mystery to me. Why some apps would keep crashing for a little while (and only a little while) after I uninstalled it is also a mystery. So, I have to admit that it's possible it's a coincidence.

I've attached a screenshot of the list of files the Safari 4 beta installer package contains, as reported by the Suspicious Package QuickLook plugin. Apparently it installs a number of system-wide libraries.

If anyone's daring enough to try the beta, post your experiences.
 

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I'm running it right now, reading this. Started right up with only one caveat. I have (had) KeyWurl installed and it told me it wouldn't load it as a precaution (I think it mentioned SIMBL in the message).

Otherwise it's running flawlessly. I was expecting problems after reading the Ars article but nope, none.

Interestingly, WebKit now looks just like Safari 4. I usually run WebKit and Minefield, not Safari but I thought I'd give it a shot. It's pretty nice.

safari4.png
 
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simbalala said:
I have (had) KeyWurl installed and it told me it wouldn't load it as a precaution (I think it mentioned SIMBL in the message).
Click to expand...

Most SIMBL plugins are set with a maximum version of Safari that they'll work with. You can usually fix this yourself by opening /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/<whatever plugin>/Contents/Info.plist and changing the "MaxBundleVersion" value to "*".

Of course, you run the risk of Bad Things happening if the plugin really isn't compatible. More complex plugins like PithHelmet are more likely to be incompatible.
 
Mikuro said:
Most SIMBL plugins are set with a maximum version of Safari that they'll work with. You can usually fix this yourself by opening /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/<whatever plugin>/Contents/Info.plist and changing the "MaxBundleVersion" value to "*".

Of course, you run the risk of Bad Things happening if the plugin really isn't compatible. More complex plugins like PithHelmet are more likely to be incompatible.
Click to expand...
Sure enough, that works.

I stay away from dodgy plugins because I run enough things that I don't want problems with plug-ins I don't really need. I was a little concerned because the Ars article mentions Google Gears and I was not sure if I still had that installed or not. Now I'm pretty sure that I installed it, couldn't see much use for it and uninstalled it 15 - 20 minutes later. Same reason... I don't install things that don't provide real value to me.

But Keywurl is pretty simple, harmless and useful.

I'll say this about Safari 4. It starts up really fast, I had to quit it to see if Keywurl would load and I was surprised how at fast it started up.

Edit: It runs really quick as well. Editing this post and saving is almost instantaneous.
 
It is really quick. I run Minefield (the pre-release version of Firefox) and I thought that was the fastest browser on this machine. Now it looks like Safari may hold that position. The rendering is very fast.
 
I think it is really good too. So far I have found no bugs and it runs faster than Google Chrome (I'm running Safari on my PC). Tomorrow I think I will install it on my iBook. The only weird thing is that the PC installer took a long time and during the installation it installed files then uninstalled the same ones :confused:.
 
I really like it's top sites thing for the new tab. Unfortunately it still can't view some sites that Firefox can.
I'm not sure I like the tabs at the top.
 
I'm running WebKit now and it's Safari 4 with the WebKit engine so I don't have to switch from my established routine and shortcuts.

I was never (and still am not) quite sure where WebKit takes over, how much of Safari it uses but I know more now.
 
For a moment I thought I found something I didn't like. Zooming zoomed everything, images et al, like Opera. I don't like that so I went to prefs to see if there was an option for the alternative - zoom text only. It wasn't there but I found it in the View menu.

I have F16 and F17 set to reduce or enlarge text in every app via QuickKeys shortcuts and I use them *ALL THE TIME*.
 
Sadly, it only comes in English only, and that kinda mixes up my Macintosh experience. Hope they'll release a beta with localisations soon.

I've tried setting MaxBundleVersion to "*", but keywurl still isn't loaded. :/ ... Do I have to set anything else?

Edit: Had keywurl installed in two locations. ;) ... Safari crashes often, when I activate it with the *-trick. Had to remove Keywurl for now. :/ Safari 4's really fast. Loving the speed, hating the tabs-in-the-titlebar. :/ Quite a bit harder to move tabs around, because you can only grab them on one little spot.

Edit2: Apparently, you can revert to the old tab-view like this:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO
 
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fryke said:
hating the tabs-in-the-titlebar. :/ Quite a bit harder to move tabs around, because you can only grab them on one little spot.
Click to expand...

I don't know. In a way it's more intuitive that you have a specific spot to grab if you want to drag the tabs around. I prefer it, less ambiguous, just different than before.
 
I haven't installed it yet, but I got to see some of the screenshots over at Ars Technica. Glad that Apple decided to use a native UI for the Windows folks. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that Chrome-like tab view. It looks as though M. C. Escher designed this application. :p

I'll give it a run on my iMac and on a Windows PC at work once it's final.
 
so far, so good !

Just fast and reliable. My only issue is with Lotus webmail where the only solution is still Firefox.
 
The installer didn't erase those. They should be saved in Keychain. They were for me.
 
They took out a couple of things I liked.
First they took out the fluid progress bar, now there is none at all.
Second they put the refresh button in an annoying spot.....
 
You can fix both!

To turn on the Progress Meter again, just run these 2 commands in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool NO
Click to expand...
and then
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool NO
Click to expand...

Then restart Safari. To get the old Stop/Reload button, just right click an empty pixel in the toolbar and choose "Customize Toolbar" and Boom! There it is waitin to get dragged back into place. Where it belongs.


EDIT 1: Come to think of it, just choosing "Uninstall Safari 4" from the installer DMG would do this in one fewer steps. ;)
 
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