I recently switched to Safari for similar reasons.
Safari is much faster than it used to be. It's also tightly integrated with my phone, including password management functionality (similar to LastPass) that works on all my devices. You can also get AdBlock for Safari now, which wasn't always the case. It also has a snazzy built-in RSS reader and just looks better than Chrome.
Exactly, Safari handles 90% of web needs and doesn't clog up my memory the way Chrome does. It handles my battery exponentially better then Chrome as well. Then with adblock plus, lastpass and pocket I'm all set on extensions.
What exactly is "clogging up memory" that everyone here complains about? I can understand if Chrome is using 6 / 8gb of your ram and you are simultaneously running photoshop and it can't grab any memory due to Chrome, but is this the case?
Shouldn't Chrome use as much RAM as it can to ensure speedy performance provided its not starving out any other applications?
I have little experience in writing desktop applications & memory management in an environment of this nature. Genuinely curious what the normal practice is.
Edit: To clarify, I am assuming the memory growth is not due to any sort of leaks :)
Ah could point! I could even imagine scenarios about pre-fecthing content (say loading the next page that may never be viewed) and throwing it in RAM. Definitely would not be good for battery life.
I have seen my battery life improve from 3 hours while using Chrome to 5 hours while browsing the same content using Safari on my MacBook pro.
One downside I've experienced with Safari is that it does not reclaim the memory a tab uses after it is closed, which leads to a crash once a day.
My biggest issue with Safari over firefox is location bar - it's simply cumbersome and stupid compared to the Firefox Awesomebar. I like being able to type two distinct parts of a URL or title and that Firefox just groks it.
I used to love Safari but they've lost me with the direction their UI has taken the last few years. There's something about not showing the full URL by default that bugs me.
Safari is much faster than it used to be. It's also tightly integrated with my phone, including password management functionality (similar to LastPass) that works on all my devices. You can also get AdBlock for Safari now, which wasn't always the case. It also has a snazzy built-in RSS reader and just looks better than Chrome.