So my little daughter loves playing Build-A-Bear-Ville and Webkinz on the Macbook Air, the flash usage goes through the roof and kills battery life even with the flash beta. Should I be using Safari or Chrome when she wants to play these games?
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Best browser for Flash games?
- Thread starter A Macbook Pro
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In all honesty, it won't make much difference, as Flash is Flash, but running in Chrome will allow you to avoid installing Flash on your system wholesale, sandboxing the app in one program.
It's what I do.
YMMV.
I'm not sure why there is this huge fear of Flash among so many Apple users, like your computers are going to self destruct at the first sign of a Flash applet. Sure it can be a resource hog, but only when it's being used. Simply having it installed isn't going to kill your battery.
Chrome does a trashy job of handling Flash on Mac. Actually, all of them do rather poorly as far as I'm concerned. Firefox seems to be the best Mac browser for Flash but I don't really have complaints with Safari. Chrome is the only one that has given me unusual headaches.
(The sandboxing is nice when using multiple tabs at once, though).
(The sandboxing is nice when using multiple tabs at once, though).
I don't blame people for wanting to avoid it. When browsing the web, generally speaking, it amounts to little more than an advertisement delivery tool, contributes to instability, and a reduction of battery life. I'm personally happy to leave it installed system wide and use Click2Flash so it is available when I want it (e.g. a video, or when viewing some Flash-laden website like a movie page) and out of the way for everything else.
Just seems like a bit of over-reaction when it comes to flash around here. I've used flash for years and never had any serious issues that seem to strike fear into peoples eyes so much. It's like folks took what Steve Jobs says about flash on the iPhone and applied it to, well... Everything.
In a sense you're probably correct. Flash has become one of the centerpieces of the iOS vs. Android... thing (I don't wish to give it respect by calling it a 'debate'). Not to mention the comments other platforms level against Apple. I'm at a loss as to who should be genuinely offended by Apple's position, though, aside from Adobe employees and Flash developers.
So it seems like some Apple users overreact against it, making it out to be Satan's balled fist, waiting to punch them in the jewels the moment it appears on a web page. Folks on the other side of the discussion love to portray it as their holy savior, delivering unto them an unearthly sense of happiness every time a Flash animation is renderedalmost as if a chorus of angels had just peed in their mouth. The truth is probably somewhere in between: offering the choice to iOS customers would be better for those customers who want it, but it does make sense to have it disabled by default (it truly is still an immature mobile technology). It isn't a devil and choice is rarely a bad thing (as long as people know what they're getting themselves into), but on the flip-side I really don't understand why people are content to act like it is a thing of beauty on, say, Android, despite the crashes, slowdowns, incompatibilities, battery drain, and the other problems associated with it.
FWIW - I have switched almost entirely over to Camino, which has been a revelation.
I don't have an MBA, but do have a 3 and a 1/2 year old Macbook with rubbish GMA x3100 graphics and a very old battery that only lasts a couple of hours on a good day - so I need all the help I can to minimise battery usage.
Camino works really well - I have absolutely no compatibility issues, when running flash heavy sites it taxes the processor 5-10% less than Firefox, has a lower memory footprint and has built in flash blocking to boot. This means that I haven't had to install click to flash if I want to turn it on or off.
I've been really pleased so I'd recommend giving it a try - doesn't cost anything after all!
I don't have an MBA, but do have a 3 and a 1/2 year old Macbook with rubbish GMA x3100 graphics and a very old battery that only lasts a couple of hours on a good day - so I need all the help I can to minimise battery usage.
Camino works really well - I have absolutely no compatibility issues, when running flash heavy sites it taxes the processor 5-10% less than Firefox, has a lower memory footprint and has built in flash blocking to boot. This means that I haven't had to install click to flash if I want to turn it on or off.
I've been really pleased so I'd recommend giving it a try - doesn't cost anything after all!