6 ms·

2GB of RAM use for 6 open tabs in Slack is pretty awful, their desktop client has set the bar to compete with Slack on performance very low. This abusive resou

by allana 7y ago

2GB of RAM use for 6 open tabs in Slack is pretty awful, their desktop client has set the bar to compete with Slack on performance very low. This abusive resource usage has created a dislike of Slack among a subset of its users.

timdorr 7y ago
They actually just fixed that in 4.0: https://slackhq.com/introducing-a-more-efficient-slack-desktop-experience https://slackhq.com/introducing-a-more-efficient-slack-deskt... I'm currently sitting at 400MB total usage (including helpers) for 4 workspaces.
- xeromal 7y ago
  Half a gig for IRC + gifs
  - asark 7y ago
    Seriously. Oh, good, now it's only 4-5x as large as it has any right to be, even allowing for modern software bloat...
  - allana 7y ago
    Such is the nature of slightly optimized Electron apps, T-Mobile Digits Desktop app is a similar resource hog. Using the browser based version often is less resource intensive.
    - lugg 7y ago
      Tried that, they actively employ darkpatterns to coerce users onto desktop apps. I even asked them to stop asking for an app install on their links that you open from inside the webapp and they told me to get stuffed and use the desktop app.
      - allana 7y ago
        Yea, I use Matrix integration when I deal with Slack, that way I have my choice of client and there isn't any code of Slack's running on my machine.
      - KORraN 7y ago
        Strange, after declining message about "native" desktop app, I've never seen it again. No other issues as well. Firefox 69 on Windows, one paid and one free workspace.
  - freetobesmart 7y ago
    If we dont support the bloat wear created from silicon valley what will those javascript devs do. All the barista jobs are taken.
- allana 7y ago
  How is CPU and I/O use on the newest version?
  - mh- 7y ago
    About the same, for my usage.
    - allana 7y ago
      Ooof, I'd hope they would have improved CPU use when handling lots of GIFs. Tusky and Mastodon's web frontend handle pausing offscreen GIFs pretty well, my fan doesn't spin up at all (unlike Slack's desktop client last I used it).
- Aaargh20318 7y ago
  400MB for what basically is a client for a proprietary version of IRC is ridiculous. How much memory did BitchX use ?
  - mr__y 7y ago
    while I don't remember how much memory did BitchX use, I do remember that a whopping 8 megs of ram was enough to run mIRC with 20+ channel tabs without serious glitches. And those precious megs were used not only for the irc client but also for the OS itself.
  - bluedino 7y ago
    I have irssi reporting 25232 mem used
- MisterTea 7y ago
  400MB? Not bad for a chat client that sends a few bytes of text.
  - SergeAx 7y ago
    Still 10 times more compared to Telegram) Not to mention transfer speed and bandwith usage.
  - user5994461 7y ago
    Aren't your coworkers sharing 10 MB gifs all day long?
    - qrbLPHiKpiux 7y ago
      The reason I don't like twitter because of all the dumb reaction gifs.
      - dymk 7y ago
        Still can't blame the browser when it consumes a gigabyte of ram, when we ask it to show us a gigabyte of gifs
  - timdorr 7y ago
    This is on my Mac, whose apps aren't exactly known for memory efficiency. Fantastical, a calendaring app, is sitting at 333MB. 1Password is taking up 168MB in the background. Finder, which I don't even have a window open for, is eating 127MB. I'm not saying 400MB is amazing or anything, but it's a significant drop from the gigs of memory wasted by previous versions.
vdfs 7y ago
Their new version seem to use less RAM, it's still Electron but with a lot of lazy-loading's
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
brynjolf 7y ago
Same with MS Teams, and there isn't even a way to disable notifications per channel. So if people ping the channel and you are ini tyou will get a notification. It drives me insane but no progress since August 2018. They did add a way to send unicorns to people though. Priorities...
- firedrakerage 7y ago
  In MS Teams you can click the '...' next to a channel and then click 'channel notifications'. The options allow you to mute 'all new posts' and also to mute 'channel mentions'.
holtalanm 7y ago
as mentioned in another reply -- the slack client memory hog issue was fixed in the latest update.
DangerousPie 7y ago
I can honestly say that I have never checked or cared about how much RAM Slack uses. Or any other software for that matter. It's certainly not an issue that I'd use as the basis for deciding which team communication tool to use.
- IggleSniggle 7y ago
  Yeah see the people that are caring about this are caring because it has used up all of their available RAM, has pushed stuff into Virtual Memory, and it is causing performance problems for their system. Or, if they are IT, it is causing performance problems on their users' systems. This is a pretty reasonable complaint when you're talking about a system with 2gb, and a chat application that uses 1.5gb of memory...or heck, a 16gb system when you have programs that legitimately need as much memory as you can give them and are being starved of it. Nobody would begrudge this usage if it was necessary for the task, but it isn't. Not even close. Edit: Apparently this is better than it used to be, but there have been times when Slack also ate up CPU like crazy. Which, again, no biggie if you have plenty to spare, but when you don't...and even then, if you have plenty to spare, you're still going to be annoyed with Slack if it's eating all of your battery because the CPU is working really really really hard at...um...dunno? If it were mining bitcoin/monero without your knowledge or consent then at least it would be DOING something.
  - allana 7y ago
    CPU nomming is a worse problem IMO, as your fans spin up and battery life shrinks. Other chat clients don't use notable resources, its suprising that Slack hasn't had much pushback over its heavy resource usage thus far.
  - scott_s 7y ago
    "Virtual memory" is not a synonym for swap space: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2937597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2937597
    - MiroF 7y ago
enlyth 7y ago
I'm sitting at 341MB after all day heavy usage, let's not exaggerate here :)
UncleMeat 7y ago
Is it? Memory exists to be used.
- jeltz 7y ago
  Yeah, but I run Firefox, Slack, Skype, Discord and VirtualBox. Together they can peak at like 10 GB when stars align badly and I only have 8 GB RAM.
woodrowbarlow 7y ago
zulip is electron also.

by allana 7y ago

timdorr 7y ago

They actually just fixed that in 4.0: https://slackhq.com/introducing-a-more-efficient-slack-desktop-experience https://slackhq.com/introducing-a-more-efficient-slack-deskt... I'm currently sitting at 400MB total usage (including helpers) for 4 workspaces.

xeromal 7y ago
Half a gig for IRC + gifs
- asark 7y ago
  Seriously. Oh, good, now it's only 4-5x as large as it has any right to be, even allowing for modern software bloat...
- allana 7y ago
  Such is the nature of slightly optimized Electron apps, T-Mobile Digits Desktop app is a similar resource hog. Using the browser based version often is less resource intensive.
  - lugg 7y ago
    Tried that, they actively employ darkpatterns to coerce users onto desktop apps. I even asked them to stop asking for an app install on their links that you open from inside the webapp and they told me to get stuffed and use the desktop app.
    - allana 7y ago
      Yea, I use Matrix integration when I deal with Slack, that way I have my choice of client and there isn't any code of Slack's running on my machine.
    - KORraN 7y ago
      Strange, after declining message about "native" desktop app, I've never seen it again. No other issues as well. Firefox 69 on Windows, one paid and one free workspace.
- freetobesmart 7y ago
  If we dont support the bloat wear created from silicon valley what will those javascript devs do. All the barista jobs are taken.
allana 7y ago
How is CPU and I/O use on the newest version?
- mh- 7y ago
  About the same, for my usage.
  - allana 7y ago
    Ooof, I'd hope they would have improved CPU use when handling lots of GIFs. Tusky and Mastodon's web frontend handle pausing offscreen GIFs pretty well, my fan doesn't spin up at all (unlike Slack's desktop client last I used it).
Aaargh20318 7y ago
400MB for what basically is a client for a proprietary version of IRC is ridiculous. How much memory did BitchX use ?
- mr__y 7y ago
  while I don't remember how much memory did BitchX use, I do remember that a whopping 8 megs of ram was enough to run mIRC with 20+ channel tabs without serious glitches. And those precious megs were used not only for the irc client but also for the OS itself.
- bluedino 7y ago
  I have irssi reporting 25232 mem used
MisterTea 7y ago
400MB? Not bad for a chat client that sends a few bytes of text.
- SergeAx 7y ago
  Still 10 times more compared to Telegram) Not to mention transfer speed and bandwith usage.
- user5994461 7y ago
  Aren't your coworkers sharing 10 MB gifs all day long?
  - qrbLPHiKpiux 7y ago
    The reason I don't like twitter because of all the dumb reaction gifs.
    - dymk 7y ago
      Still can't blame the browser when it consumes a gigabyte of ram, when we ask it to show us a gigabyte of gifs
- timdorr 7y ago
  This is on my Mac, whose apps aren't exactly known for memory efficiency. Fantastical, a calendaring app, is sitting at 333MB. 1Password is taking up 168MB in the background. Finder, which I don't even have a window open for, is eating 127MB. I'm not saying 400MB is amazing or anything, but it's a significant drop from the gigs of memory wasted by previous versions.

vdfs 7y ago

Their new version seem to use less RAM, it's still Electron but with a lot of lazy-loading's

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

brynjolf 7y ago

Same with MS Teams, and there isn't even a way to disable notifications per channel. So if people ping the channel and you are ini tyou will get a notification. It drives me insane but no progress since August 2018. They did add a way to send unicorns to people though. Priorities...

firedrakerage 7y ago
In MS Teams you can click the '...' next to a channel and then click 'channel notifications'. The options allow you to mute 'all new posts' and also to mute 'channel mentions'.

holtalanm 7y ago

as mentioned in another reply -- the slack client memory hog issue was fixed in the latest update.

DangerousPie 7y ago

I can honestly say that I have never checked or cared about how much RAM Slack uses. Or any other software for that matter. It's certainly not an issue that I'd use as the basis for deciding which team communication tool to use.

IggleSniggle 7y ago
Yeah see the people that are caring about this are caring because it has used up all of their available RAM, has pushed stuff into Virtual Memory, and it is causing performance problems for their system. Or, if they are IT, it is causing performance problems on their users' systems. This is a pretty reasonable complaint when you're talking about a system with 2gb, and a chat application that uses 1.5gb of memory...or heck, a 16gb system when you have programs that legitimately need as much memory as you can give them and are being starved of it. Nobody would begrudge this usage if it was necessary for the task, but it isn't. Not even close. Edit: Apparently this is better than it used to be, but there have been times when Slack also ate up CPU like crazy. Which, again, no biggie if you have plenty to spare, but when you don't...and even then, if you have plenty to spare, you're still going to be annoyed with Slack if it's eating all of your battery because the CPU is working really really really hard at...um...dunno? If it were mining bitcoin/monero without your knowledge or consent then at least it would be DOING something.
- allana 7y ago
  CPU nomming is a worse problem IMO, as your fans spin up and battery life shrinks. Other chat clients don't use notable resources, its suprising that Slack hasn't had much pushback over its heavy resource usage thus far.
- scott_s 7y ago
  "Virtual memory" is not a synonym for swap space: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2937597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2937597
  - MiroF 7y ago

enlyth 7y ago

I'm sitting at 341MB after all day heavy usage, let's not exaggerate here :)

UncleMeat 7y ago

Is it? Memory exists to be used.

jeltz 7y ago
Yeah, but I run Firefox, Slack, Skype, Discord and VirtualBox. Together they can peak at like 10 GB when stars align badly and I only have 8 GB RAM.

woodrowbarlow 7y ago

zulip is electron also.