23 ms·

Why can Firefox build a browser with 16mb and yet every other app on my phone is 80+mb?

by api_or_ipa 9y ago

27182818284 9y ago
It isn't a priority. Most people are fine with 80mb so it is better to optimize elsewhere.
- itg 9y ago
  Considering how may people still have 8GB/16GB phones, I doubt it. On iOS sometimes you have to delete apps, especially ones that build up large caches like Facebook.
  - bigbugbag 9y ago
    wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB.
    - JadeNB 9y ago
      > wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB. How? Lollipop, the first Google hit for "Android OS size on phone" (https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/118896/how-much-disk-space-gb-does-android-5-0-os-take-up-is-system-memory-the-os#118983 https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/118896/how-much-...), seems to be about 5 GB. (Maybe you don't run Android, or maybe a very old version?)
      - phrh8 9y ago
        What usually happens with these phones is they have something like 8GB or even 16GB, but they are poorly paritioned. It could be something like 5-6GB for /system (the OS) and they somehow only leave 2GB for the /data partition. I've seen a phone like this running Lollipop. The best part is when it decides to auto-update all the built-in (Google) apps, collectively consuming a total of 1-1.5GB of /data, at which point Google Play refuses to let you install any apps because you do not have enough free space available.
        JadeNB 9y ago
        > What usually happens with these phones is they have something like 8GB or even 16GB, but they are poorly paritioned. It could be something like 5-6GB for /system (the OS) and they somehow only leave 2GB for the /data partition. Oh, so you read bigbugbag's comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049992) > > wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB. as saying that it's 2 GB after the system installation? That seems to make it a strange response to itg's comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049947) > > > Considering how may people still have 8GB/16GB phones, I doubt it. On iOS sometimes you have to delete apps, especially ones that build up large caches like Facebook. which is clearly referring to the pre-OS available space.
bigbugbag 9y ago
Could be a variety of reasons, bad design, cross-platform design, ad-supported and tracking you, siphoning your data, lots of graphical element, etc. facebook apps are good examples of this.
notnarb 9y ago
Because Firefox Focus isn't itself a browser, but rather a wrapper around Android and iOS's built in browsers. That is why the underlying engine in blink/webkit and not gecko. I am probably drastically simplifying things but the primary components of the app are just a content blocker and a preferences page.
- kristianp 9y ago
  I would guess that's only true on IOS, because apps are forced to use the operating system's webview?
  - _delirium 9y ago
    It's currently also true on Android, because Gecko doesn't yet provide a WebView style embeddable component, so Firefox Focus uses the default Android WebView instead. There's a bug tracking work to migrate to Gecko though: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/issues/13 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/issues/13 (see also the linked https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322573 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322573)
  - 482794793792894 9y ago
    It is also the case on Android. It's nice, because many people will want to install it alongside a full-blown browser. And it makes browser startup quite a bit quicker, making it very much effective at this one-off search use-case. And it happens to block the vast majority of ads, so Mozilla isn't exactly making friends with webpage owners by supplying this. Had they used Gecko for this, then the percentage of people on Gecko with ads blocked would have risen and that might have resulted in webpage owners spending less time to ensure that their webpage isn't broken on Gecko, therefore effectively dragging down the situation for actual Firefox.

Why can Firefox build a browser with 16mb and yet every other app on my phone is 80+mb?

27182818284 9y ago

It isn't a priority. Most people are fine with 80mb so it is better to optimize elsewhere.

itg 9y ago
Considering how may people still have 8GB/16GB phones, I doubt it. On iOS sometimes you have to delete apps, especially ones that build up large caches like Facebook.
- bigbugbag 9y ago
  wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB.
  - JadeNB 9y ago
    > wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB. How? Lollipop, the first Google hit for "Android OS size on phone" (https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/118896/how-much-disk-space-gb-does-android-5-0-os-take-up-is-system-memory-the-os#118983 https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/118896/how-much-...), seems to be about 5 GB. (Maybe you don't run Android, or maybe a very old version?)
    - phrh8 9y ago
      What usually happens with these phones is they have something like 8GB or even 16GB, but they are poorly paritioned. It could be something like 5-6GB for /system (the OS) and they somehow only leave 2GB for the /data partition. I've seen a phone like this running Lollipop. The best part is when it decides to auto-update all the built-in (Google) apps, collectively consuming a total of 1-1.5GB of /data, at which point Google Play refuses to let you install any apps because you do not have enough free space available.
      - JadeNB 9y ago
        > What usually happens with these phones is they have something like 8GB or even 16GB, but they are poorly paritioned. It could be something like 5-6GB for /system (the OS) and they somehow only leave 2GB for the /data partition. Oh, so you read bigbugbag's comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049992) > > wow those people are lucky and high on consumerism, my phone had 2GB. as saying that it's 2 GB after the system installation? That seems to make it a strange response to itg's comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15049947) > > > Considering how may people still have 8GB/16GB phones, I doubt it. On iOS sometimes you have to delete apps, especially ones that build up large caches like Facebook. which is clearly referring to the pre-OS available space.

bigbugbag 9y ago

Could be a variety of reasons, bad design, cross-platform design, ad-supported and tracking you, siphoning your data, lots of graphical element, etc. facebook apps are good examples of this.

notnarb 9y ago

Because Firefox Focus isn't itself a browser, but rather a wrapper around Android and iOS's built in browsers. That is why the underlying engine in blink/webkit and not gecko. I am probably drastically simplifying things but the primary components of the app are just a content blocker and a preferences page.

kristianp 9y ago
I would guess that's only true on IOS, because apps are forced to use the operating system's webview?
- _delirium 9y ago
  It's currently also true on Android, because Gecko doesn't yet provide a WebView style embeddable component, so Firefox Focus uses the default Android WebView instead. There's a bug tracking work to migrate to Gecko though: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/issues/13 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-android/issues/13 (see also the linked https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322573 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1322573)
- 482794793792894 9y ago
  It is also the case on Android. It's nice, because many people will want to install it alongside a full-blown browser. And it makes browser startup quite a bit quicker, making it very much effective at this one-off search use-case. And it happens to block the vast majority of ads, so Mozilla isn't exactly making friends with webpage owners by supplying this. Had they used Gecko for this, then the percentage of people on Gecko with ads blocked would have risen and that might have resulted in webpage owners spending less time to ensure that their webpage isn't broken on Gecko, therefore effectively dragging down the situation for actual Firefox.