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I am dreaming of a solution to bloat where all mainstream browsers would be throttling per-tab CPU/memory/bandwith usage to Pentium III-on-DSL-circa-2001 levels

I am dreaming of a solution to bloat where all mainstream browsers would be throttling per-tab CPU/memory/bandwith usage to Pentium III-on-DSL-circa-2001 levels by default. (The "full speed" option should be there to keep power user from switching, but it should not be obvious to, say, 50% of users). This should be pushed as a feature: now your browser helps make your computer work faster; any slowness in page loading is to be blamed on the websites. This will not affects sites like Hackernews, but will bring a lot of websites to a standstill - and will force them to slim down.

amiga-workbench 8y ago
I've always wanted something similar as a devtool. I can throttle a pages bandwidth in chrome, but I can't easily put limits on how much CPU time it is allocated, and I can't constrain its memory usage or simulate swapping to disk. Most designers and web developers chuck their stuff together on a brand new 27" iMac and it runs (and looks like) like trash on a computer an average person would own.
- rictic 8y ago
  Chrome devtools now has CPU performance throttling. Go to the performance panel and click the red gear in the top right. There's both network and CPU throttling options.
  - amiga-workbench 8y ago
    I'll be making heavy use of that, its a shame its a relative slowdown though. I realise throttling consistently down to an absolute performance level would be difficult to implement, but it would be handy.
matt4077 8y ago
So you think slow websites are such a terrible problem that you are willing to sacrifice (other) peoples' perfomance, just to teach someone a lesson? Your idea alone disproves the problem: You are upset that nobody is actually hurt by these transgressions against your esthetic sensibilities. So you want to force some actual harm onto the public until they indulge your special little fight for justice (and bandwith).
- dang 8y ago
  Please be civil. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
agentdrtran 8y ago
this is completely insane and would break huge swaths of the web.
- majewsky 8y ago
  Exactly.
- jodrellblank 8y ago
  that's the point. that's what it's supposed to do.
PinkMilkshake 8y ago
I had a similar idea but I couldn't work out how to resolve all the issues that would cause. For example, things that naturally need more performance, like 3D games. I don't think playing games in your web browser would put you in the category of power user.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  The key would be a permission prompt like browsers now have for camera access, notifications, geolocation, pop ups, etc. If a page uses too much CPU it will get throttled and ask the user if they want to unthrottle it. Website owners currently assume they’re entitled to as much of my processor time and battery life as they want, just as they once assumed they were entitled to display popup ads just because they could. If this behavior is going to change, it will only happen because browsers stop letting them and instead say “No, this is the user’s CPU time, not yours.”
qwertay 8y ago
The first browser to do this everyone would leave because the others are faster.
- romwell 8y ago
  That's why it's but a dream. If all browsers did this at once, though...
sbr464 8y ago
You can hack this now by limiting CPU per process, Not ideal, I realize, https://medium.com/@sbr464/limit-dropbox-and-others-on-macos-from-taking-100-cpu-877266df104d https://medium.com/@sbr464/limit-dropbox-and-others-on-macos...
cesarb 8y ago
A perhaps more workable solution would be to have per-tab indicators of total bytes downloaded, peak memory used, and total CPU time used (the first one already exists as part of the developer tools, but it's hidden by default). People on fast computers and fast networks do not feel the weight of bloated pages; making it visible to everyone provides an incentive to reduce it.
- caf 8y ago
  Perhaps summarised as "the percentage of your battery this tab has consumed".
  - ericst 8y ago
    I really think that you are onto something there. Or maybe a bloat index calculating the ratio between user content and downloaded content. Like 1kB of text but with 2 MB of JavaScript/CSS etc would give you an index of 2000 whereas if you only had 23 kB of JavaScript/CSS etc, it would 23.
- jraph 8y ago
  With an indicator like "better / worse than X% web pages".

amiga-workbench 8y ago

I've always wanted something similar as a devtool. I can throttle a pages bandwidth in chrome, but I can't easily put limits on how much CPU time it is allocated, and I can't constrain its memory usage or simulate swapping to disk. Most designers and web developers chuck their stuff together on a brand new 27" iMac and it runs (and looks like) like trash on a computer an average person would own.

rictic 8y ago
Chrome devtools now has CPU performance throttling. Go to the performance panel and click the red gear in the top right. There's both network and CPU throttling options.
- amiga-workbench 8y ago
  I'll be making heavy use of that, its a shame its a relative slowdown though. I realise throttling consistently down to an absolute performance level would be difficult to implement, but it would be handy.

matt4077 8y ago

So you think slow websites are such a terrible problem that you are willing to sacrifice (other) peoples' perfomance, just to teach someone a lesson? Your idea alone disproves the problem: You are upset that nobody is actually hurt by these transgressions against your esthetic sensibilities. So you want to force some actual harm onto the public until they indulge your special little fight for justice (and bandwith).

dang 8y ago
Please be civil. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

agentdrtran 8y ago

this is completely insane and would break huge swaths of the web.

majewsky 8y ago
Exactly.
jodrellblank 8y ago
that's the point. that's what it's supposed to do.

PinkMilkshake 8y ago

I had a similar idea but I couldn't work out how to resolve all the issues that would cause. For example, things that naturally need more performance, like 3D games. I don't think playing games in your web browser would put you in the category of power user.

wlesieutre 8y ago
The key would be a permission prompt like browsers now have for camera access, notifications, geolocation, pop ups, etc. If a page uses too much CPU it will get throttled and ask the user if they want to unthrottle it. Website owners currently assume they’re entitled to as much of my processor time and battery life as they want, just as they once assumed they were entitled to display popup ads just because they could. If this behavior is going to change, it will only happen because browsers stop letting them and instead say “No, this is the user’s CPU time, not yours.”

qwertay 8y ago

The first browser to do this everyone would leave because the others are faster.

romwell 8y ago
That's why it's but a dream. If all browsers did this at once, though...

sbr464 8y ago

You can hack this now by limiting CPU per process, Not ideal, I realize, https://medium.com/@sbr464/limit-dropbox-and-others-on-macos-from-taking-100-cpu-877266df104d https://medium.com/@sbr464/limit-dropbox-and-others-on-macos...

cesarb 8y ago

A perhaps more workable solution would be to have per-tab indicators of total bytes downloaded, peak memory used, and total CPU time used (the first one already exists as part of the developer tools, but it's hidden by default). People on fast computers and fast networks do not feel the weight of bloated pages; making it visible to everyone provides an incentive to reduce it.

caf 8y ago
Perhaps summarised as "the percentage of your battery this tab has consumed".
- ericst 8y ago
  I really think that you are onto something there. Or maybe a bloat index calculating the ratio between user content and downloaded content. Like 1kB of text but with 2 MB of JavaScript/CSS etc would give you an index of 2000 whereas if you only had 23 kB of JavaScript/CSS etc, it would 23.
jraph 8y ago
With an indicator like "better / worse than X% web pages".