3 ms·

"However, at this time, does OS responsiveness matter?" It always matters; I don't want to waste my life away in front of someone's irresponsive, laggy, slow s

"However, at this time, does OS responsiveness matter?" It always matters; I don't want to waste my life away in front of someone's irresponsive, laggy, slow software.

garmaine 8y ago
You’re missing the point. With concurrency handled in user code and (I’d add) reduced latency from SSD storage, do you even want the OS to be excessively preemptive? Doing so has large drawbacks in terms of cache performance, and the difference is no longer noticeable.
- Annatar 8y ago
  I'm not missing the point. I want lightning fast response from software to my actions. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it's when the input loop loses events, which happens very often on Windows and my Linux powered TV. I want to throw them both out of the window, it drives me insane.
  - Baeocystin 8y ago
    I miss the instant-on, straight-to-REPL, ~1 second reset features of my old Commodore 128. And I am not kidding in the least when I say that. Regarding more modern operating systems, BeOS was so nice to use. Here was an OS that had UI/single-user needs baked in to it from the beginning, and it was a breath of fresh air. I'd liken it to the experience I had switching from a 60Hz monitor to a 164Hz one- I didn't really think about it much at the time, other than I wanted a gsync-capable display, and one was one sale. But the smoothness of the scrolling, mouse use, etc was so much more pleasant. And yet I never would have complained about the 60Hz screen until shown the alternative. Venturing in to personal opinion, I'd also say BeOS was developed at the inflection point between engineering running the show, UI be damned, and where we are now, with designers running the show, actual capability be damned. It was a good mix.
    - Annatar 8y ago
      "I miss the instant-on, straight-to-REPL, ~1 second reset features of my old Commodore 128." As a C=128D owner, I hear you loud and clear. It's a slap to the contemporary programmers' faces that a 1 MHz MOS 6510 based system was more responsive than multicore GHz, hardware accelerated systems we have now.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  The one thing that has not changed over the 20 years since BeOS was around is waiting for the computer to respond. We still wait, except now we're often waiting on network rather than OS latency for that button to indent, or do something. I find it very noticeable, not least as in terms of those basics we seem to be stepping backwards for responsiveness. Loading software should be quicker, but no one cares about space and size any more, especially as more and more becomes a front for a browser. Even native software is faintly disappointing. You load a game in seconds from the lightning fast SSD then it takes 2 min to load the save as that's bigger than some OS's. :)
ianai 8y ago
Also, lagginess quickly turns into chaotic behavior. I’ll never forgive outlook for deleting dozens of folders during one of its spasms.

"However, at this time, does OS responsiveness matter?" It always matters; I don't want to waste my life away in front of someone's irresponsive, laggy, slow software.

garmaine 8y ago

You’re missing the point. With concurrency handled in user code and (I’d add) reduced latency from SSD storage, do you even want the OS to be excessively preemptive? Doing so has large drawbacks in terms of cache performance, and the difference is no longer noticeable.

Annatar 8y ago
I'm not missing the point. I want lightning fast response from software to my actions. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it's when the input loop loses events, which happens very often on Windows and my Linux powered TV. I want to throw them both out of the window, it drives me insane.
- Baeocystin 8y ago
  I miss the instant-on, straight-to-REPL, ~1 second reset features of my old Commodore 128. And I am not kidding in the least when I say that. Regarding more modern operating systems, BeOS was so nice to use. Here was an OS that had UI/single-user needs baked in to it from the beginning, and it was a breath of fresh air. I'd liken it to the experience I had switching from a 60Hz monitor to a 164Hz one- I didn't really think about it much at the time, other than I wanted a gsync-capable display, and one was one sale. But the smoothness of the scrolling, mouse use, etc was so much more pleasant. And yet I never would have complained about the 60Hz screen until shown the alternative. Venturing in to personal opinion, I'd also say BeOS was developed at the inflection point between engineering running the show, UI be damned, and where we are now, with designers running the show, actual capability be damned. It was a good mix.
  - Annatar 8y ago
    "I miss the instant-on, straight-to-REPL, ~1 second reset features of my old Commodore 128." As a C=128D owner, I hear you loud and clear. It's a slap to the contemporary programmers' faces that a 1 MHz MOS 6510 based system was more responsive than multicore GHz, hardware accelerated systems we have now.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
The one thing that has not changed over the 20 years since BeOS was around is waiting for the computer to respond. We still wait, except now we're often waiting on network rather than OS latency for that button to indent, or do something. I find it very noticeable, not least as in terms of those basics we seem to be stepping backwards for responsiveness. Loading software should be quicker, but no one cares about space and size any more, especially as more and more becomes a front for a browser. Even native software is faintly disappointing. You load a game in seconds from the lightning fast SSD then it takes 2 min to load the save as that's bigger than some OS's. :)

ianai 8y ago

Also, lagginess quickly turns into chaotic behavior. I’ll never forgive outlook for deleting dozens of folders during one of its spasms.