Have any of you NetNewsWire users found NNW to be intolerably slow on any operations involving WebKit after installing Mac OS X 10.4.3? When I open a tab in NetNewsWire to view the link from an item, it takes forever to switch to that tab, and closing tabs and switching back is incredibly slow as well. I have no idea if the updates to WebKit are to blame, but that’s where I’m pointing the finger right now. To fix the problem for now I’ve told NNW to just open links in my default browser rather than using the internal browser.
On a related note, I’ve switched from Bloglines to NetNewsWire. I was a dedicated Bloglines user, mainly because I appreciated having the ability to view my feeds on any computer, but I’ve actually appreciated using a real desktop application as opposed to a Web application lately, mainly because it’s easy to leave NetNewsWire without reading everything and pick up where I left off whenever I want to. I generally opened lots of feeds at once in Bloglines, and found it difficult to avoid having several browser windows open at the same time, all pointing to Bloglines, or accidentally closing the browser and losing track of what I’d already read. The only reason this surprises me is that I had felt like I was on a one way trip away from desktop applications and toward browser-based applications. Apparently that’s not the case, yet.
November 4, 2005 at 11:56 am
I’m working on some performance enhancements regarding tabs right now. If you’re interested in helping test once they’re ready, send me private email.
In the meantime, it might be something else causing problems. Some things to try:
Try deleting the WebKit cache for NetNewsWire. (Quit NetNewsWire; delete ~/Library/Caches/NetNewsWire/; launch NetNewsWire.)
Disable Java, JavaScript, and plugins for web pages in NetNewsWire. (Open Preferences, click Appearance, click on the Web Pages tab.)
Cut down on the number of tabs you have open in NetNewsWire.
See the following article (and comments) on speeding up Safari. It applies to all WebKit apps, not just Safari.
http://scottstuff.net/blog/articles/2005/04/07/speeding-up-safari
P.S. You can think of NetNewsWire as a specialized type of web browser — in which case you’re still using a browser-based application. 😉
November 4, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Hey Rafe,
For whatever it’s worth, I’m using 10.3.4 and NetNewsWire 2.0.1 right now (I’m actually posting this comment through it), and am not seeing the slowdown you describe.
Good luck in figuring out what’s going on here…
-Jamais
November 4, 2005 at 12:03 pm
I mean 10.4.3, obviously.
November 4, 2005 at 1:31 pm
At first blush, it looks like deleting the cache has solved the problem. (I already had Java, JavaScript, and plugins disabled, and I rarely use more than two or three tabs at any time.)
November 4, 2005 at 2:15 pm
I haven’t seen any performance degradations in Netnewswire in 10.4.3, but I normally open tabs in Safari.
I read my Bloglines feeds through NNW now; it’s a little slower sometimes, but it’s more flexible in letting me use NNW at home and Bloglines abroad.