MacBook getting slower?

[benderunit]

Yes it was, since I explained to you what's going on.

And closing a program, and QUITTING a program on a Mac are 2 different things. I skimmed the posts and saw you use the word "close" and answered based on that. Oh well, sorry for "not being helpful at all." You don't even deserve help, and yet here we are --- helping you. Funny how it works, isn't it?

Well, that's what I suspected after reading your answer - that you'd just skimmed through everything said so far and felt like adding your two cents without reading again thoroughly whether something like this had already been said. Don't take me wrong, I very much appreciate any effort that people make to help, but sometimes, it might be more helpful to say nothing at all. After all, it was already suggested in the thread that I might had confused CLOSING applications with QUITTING them and I had already denied that this was the case. So I'm really sorry but I'll have to stick with the opinion that your post wasn't helpful, at least for me.

And now, instead of reading what was said already, you seem to insist on your helpfulness and post even more of this newbie-explanation stuff about how RAM is used in a computer and how it is so much faster than a hard disk. Well thanks a lot, but I've been using computers since about ten years. Just because I'm new to Macs doesn't have to mean I don't have a clue about how computers work!

It's not 2001 anymore. Computers need at least 512 MB of RAM, if not more. If he had a MBP with 512MB of RAM, I'm sure it'd run better than his MB with 512MB. I mean, 512MB for all his apps + Rosetta simulating a PPC environment + integrated graphics that takes up 80 MB?

Well, actually, the OS and the apps need the RAM
And that you need that much says who? Well Apple sells the computers complete with the software, so you should expect to get a bundle that works without having to run to the next store to upgrade it, right?

So I'm going to repeat to you my issue, in short. The MacBook ran just fine the way I got it, with 512MB. Just after a few weeks of use I started to experience big performance hits sometimes. And yet I was using the MacBook pretty much the same way I had done before, WITHOUT performance problems. So like IJ Reilly pointed out, something CHANGED, so the solution should be to find out what changed instead of what stayed the same, which is the RAM, in this case.

You don't need to repair permissions, but it sure does help. In Unix, you need to repair permissions. Same with Linux. However, you need to repair permissions if you install applications. I mean a "real" install.....not just drag and drop into the Applications folder. Applications where you only have to drag the application into the Apps folder are great......... you don't need to repair permissions. However, if you're installing an application that has it's own install file, then repairing permissions can occasionally fix some problems.

Just repair and see what happens, although I doubt it'll fix the problem if his problem seems to go away at startup.

Ok, this is getting a bit offtopic, but I've been using Linux for more than five years (and quite extensively). I never ever had to "repair permissions" there. Tell me what I've missed?
And BTW, if you'd really tried to be helpful here, you could have told me how this "reparing permissions" thing works on Macs. Since I was asking HOW to do it and HOW it would help me, not WHY to do it.

Have a problem with Safari? Have you tried Camino or Firefox? Maybe that'll solve the problem? Camino is one of the best browsers anyway. It's not a step backwards or anything.

Ok, completely OT now, oh well. Yes, have tried both (+Shiira +Opera), but haven't been too impressed with any of them. I mean I LOVE Firefox and I've been using with great pleasure (started when it was still called Phoenix!). On Windows or Linux, this is absolutely my browser of choice, especially since there's so many cool extensions available. But on OSX, I don't know, it just doesn't feel right. Doesn't really blend in with the rest of the OS. And for Camino, well, it's all great, except one thing: you can't install Firefox extensions. If you could I'd start using it immediately but right now I don't see any advantages over Safari.

Ok, sorry if that was too much to read but I had to write it