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> I think what operating systems should do is to allow users set per app/website quotas and use sensible defaults. I can't see how this would work. What would

> I think what operating systems should do is to allow users set per app/website quotas and use sensible defaults. I can't see how this would work. What would the sensible default be for a computer game? A text editor? An IDE? A video editor? This kind of thing is way over common users heads to set their own quotas as well. How would you avoid "This app wants to use more resources than the default. Allow?" popups with low defaults?

fauigerzigerk 9y ago
The defaults would be set according to some simple statistics. If an app or website wants to use more it must ask for permission, but it can only ask a limited number of times within a given period. Of course it's easy to imagine an implementation of this idea that is annoying and confusing. But I can imagine this working very well and provide an incentive for developers to not waste resources.
- seanwilson 9y ago
  What statistics would you use though? My point was a high-end game is going to use close to 100% CPU all the time and lots of memory, a video editor is going to be idle sometimes and then try to use 100% CPU to make edits fast, text editors will be more modest etc. All apps have different resource usage profiles. I can't see how you could make this work without user interaction or a review process for apps.
  - sacado2 9y ago
    "app XYZ seems to be using a lot of resources. Do you want to stop it ? Yes/No", with a "don't ask me again" checkbox.
  - fauigerzigerk 9y ago
    On second thought, I wouldn't actually use statistics at all. I would simply set all defaults to a low value in the single digits percentage range on average over a period of one minute or so. The overwhelming number of apps need next to no CPU (on average that is. Spikes are OK) during normal operation, and that includes text editors. Other applications, such as games, need all the juice they can possibly get. Users usually know why that is the case and will be happy to grant them that permission. There needs to be a way for an app to request a temporary suspension of resource limits, e.g. for running batch job that should finish as quickly as possible. Each website should be treated as a separate application and needs to compete for resources with the ads it runs. So there would be an incentive for website owners to keep the resource usage of ads in check.

fauigerzigerk 9y ago

The defaults would be set according to some simple statistics. If an app or website wants to use more it must ask for permission, but it can only ask a limited number of times within a given period. Of course it's easy to imagine an implementation of this idea that is annoying and confusing. But I can imagine this working very well and provide an incentive for developers to not waste resources.

seanwilson 9y ago
What statistics would you use though? My point was a high-end game is going to use close to 100% CPU all the time and lots of memory, a video editor is going to be idle sometimes and then try to use 100% CPU to make edits fast, text editors will be more modest etc. All apps have different resource usage profiles. I can't see how you could make this work without user interaction or a review process for apps.
- sacado2 9y ago
  "app XYZ seems to be using a lot of resources. Do you want to stop it ? Yes/No", with a "don't ask me again" checkbox.
- fauigerzigerk 9y ago
  On second thought, I wouldn't actually use statistics at all. I would simply set all defaults to a low value in the single digits percentage range on average over a period of one minute or so. The overwhelming number of apps need next to no CPU (on average that is. Spikes are OK) during normal operation, and that includes text editors. Other applications, such as games, need all the juice they can possibly get. Users usually know why that is the case and will be happy to grant them that permission. There needs to be a way for an app to request a temporary suspension of resource limits, e.g. for running batch job that should finish as quickly as possible. Each website should be treated as a separate application and needs to compete for resources with the ads it runs. So there would be an incentive for website owners to keep the resource usage of ads in check.