3 ms·

Looking at this, as an old fart who works in the kernel, I just can't help but wonder: How is it possible that we have arrived at something this painfully slow

Looking at this, as an old fart who works in the kernel, I just can't help but wonder: How is it possible that we have arrived at something this painfully slow? What are we getting from all these zillion resources a page is loading to make it worth the 3-6 second wait? The static web of the 90s over dialup was faster than this. I want my 28800 modem, pentium pro running netscape on FreeBSD 2.x, and static pages back. It was faster (with images disabled at least) than today's web with a 1Gb/s symmetric fiber connection, FF/Chrome on a MBP, even with ads blocked.

GordonS 7y ago
While I take your point about bloated web pages, I think you have a serious case of nostalgia viewed through rose-tinted glasses. I recall the days of a 14k modem, and they were not pleasant, even for just text. And when you added images to the mix, it was just painful. Let's not even discuss videos...
- knodi123 7y ago
  He took it too far, granted, but overall there's a valid point. By coincidence, I'm writing an applicant tracking tool in rails+react now, and I also wrote one in perl about 16 years ago. The modern app uses so many javascript libraries, 3rd party fonts, and is generally just so... ouch. I remember demoing the perl app internally at my first job, and in many cases our page could render the page about as fast as it took to click. Our boss thought it was a static html demo just based on how fast it was.
  - GordonS 7y ago
    I've had similar experiences, except it used to be PHP for me back in the day, rather than perl - I recall a servicedesk system, as well as a purchase order approval system, amongst many others. Not a single line of JS in sight! But some of us never abandoned server-side rendering - I work a lot with ASP.NET Core MVC, and it's great; I'm very productive with it. But I do add Javascript on top here and there, where it adds value.
rawoke083600 7y ago
The internet was also just that little bit nicer then :) I miss those days ! :/
thedance 7y ago
Those charts are using “3gslow” mode, simulating a ludicrously slow and lossy mobile connection. Also note that these fonts are loaded lazily and don’t have to block the page painting.
- shakna 7y ago
  > Those charts are using “3gslow” mode, simulating a ludicrously slow and lossy mobile connection. "3gslow" mode, unfortunately, accurately reflects the day-to-day connectivity most people see in non-capital cities around my country. It might be ludicrous, but it isn't necessarily far from the norm.

GordonS 7y ago

While I take your point about bloated web pages, I think you have a serious case of nostalgia viewed through rose-tinted glasses. I recall the days of a 14k modem, and they were not pleasant, even for just text. And when you added images to the mix, it was just painful. Let's not even discuss videos...

knodi123 7y ago
He took it too far, granted, but overall there's a valid point. By coincidence, I'm writing an applicant tracking tool in rails+react now, and I also wrote one in perl about 16 years ago. The modern app uses so many javascript libraries, 3rd party fonts, and is generally just so... ouch. I remember demoing the perl app internally at my first job, and in many cases our page could render the page about as fast as it took to click. Our boss thought it was a static html demo just based on how fast it was.
- GordonS 7y ago
  I've had similar experiences, except it used to be PHP for me back in the day, rather than perl - I recall a servicedesk system, as well as a purchase order approval system, amongst many others. Not a single line of JS in sight! But some of us never abandoned server-side rendering - I work a lot with ASP.NET Core MVC, and it's great; I'm very productive with it. But I do add Javascript on top here and there, where it adds value.

rawoke083600 7y ago

The internet was also just that little bit nicer then :) I miss those days ! :/

thedance 7y ago

Those charts are using “3gslow” mode, simulating a ludicrously slow and lossy mobile connection. Also note that these fonts are loaded lazily and don’t have to block the page painting.

shakna 7y ago
> Those charts are using “3gslow” mode, simulating a ludicrously slow and lossy mobile connection. "3gslow" mode, unfortunately, accurately reflects the day-to-day connectivity most people see in non-capital cities around my country. It might be ludicrous, but it isn't necessarily far from the norm.