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This is a great technical solution to a problem that is really about users not understanding how their use of a computer really affects performance, and compani

This is a great technical solution to a problem that is really about users not understanding how their use of a computer really affects performance, and companies under-spec'ing the machines they give people. 4GB of RAM in a MacBook Air is not enough for your average knowledge-worker living in their web browser. 8GB is probably fine for most, but if you're a designer using Figma? Maybe not. Also I suspect that while most users know that lots of tabs makes their computer slow, I think most users also have a fairly fuzzy idea of what's a slow computer, what's slow internet, what else might be slowing their computer down, etc. If you're here on HN you're probably not one of these users, but they're not uncommon. While I applaud the technical solution here, I think a lot of companies should be seeing their logos on this page as a sign that they have failed to create accessible software. If your target market is considering renting cloud compute to run your webapp, maybe that's something you need to fix.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
> This is a great technical solution to a problem that is really about users not understanding how their use of a computer really affects performance, and companies under-spec'ing the machines they give people. Let's not forget developers and site owners stuffing webpages with tons of fluff, especially megabytes of JS that is mostly tracking code.
- danpalmer 6y ago
  Agreed, addressed this in my last paragraph.
yongjik 6y ago
I'm not sure the business case makes sense? A web browser is something most employees would need to be running throughout their working day. So, something like 8 hr/day. Even assuming that their claim of "16-core Xeon per browser" is slightly embellished, these machines aren't exactly cheap. I can see €64.26/mo (~$77) from Hetzner for a Ryzen 3700X octa-core box, so assuming a box can be shared by three users (maybe from different time zones), that's still ~$25/mo per user just to pay the cloud provider.
- gpm 6y ago
  25/mo = 300/year... if you figure that box is equivalent to a 1200$ laptop = 4 years... except you don't have to pay up front and you get to upgrade to more modern hardware as it comes out. The flip side is you need a fast internet connection and a relatively cheap endpoint laptop. I don't know, doesn't seem like a good deal to me, but it's not a ridiculous idea. Being able to timeshare the expensive hardware would be a good thing.
  - fastball 6y ago
    Financing expensive computers is pretty cheap, especially with a corporate account. I mean I get 12-24 mo, 0% financing on all Apple products with my Apple Card.
    - gpm 6y ago
      When you're financing a computer, you're still stuck with it if you stop wanting it. Not paying up front here means you can cancel your service at any time and not have to continue paying, you can upgrade to the new faster computer the second it comes available for the same price. Etc.
seoaeu 6y ago
> I think a lot of companies should be seeing their logos on this page as a sign that they have failed to create accessible software. If your target market is considering renting cloud compute to run your webapp, maybe that's something you need to fix. The goal of a company isn't to create software that's runnable on as many computers as possible. It is to create a product that is valuable to their customers. If those customers are willing to spend loads of extra money running your product that is a strong signal that you are doing something right.
- kitsunesoba 6y ago
  Alternatively, it can mean that customers don't have any other better options. Take work chat for instance, in which all of the available options are heavyweight web/electron apps. In fact for that category specifically it's a common gripe that all the options are bad and one has to select based on which is the least-bad for their particular situation.
PragmaticPulp 6y ago
> 4GB of RAM in a MacBook Air is not enough for your average knowledge-worker living in their web browser. You can't even spec a MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM any more. Base configuration MBA has 8GB of RAM. You can even finance it for $83/month for 12 months, which isn't much more than a $50/month Mighty service. But you get to keep the laptop at the end of the 12 months if you finance it. > 8GB is probably fine for most, but if you're a designer using Figma? Maybe not Doing anything interactive, I'd be more concerned about latency. If I had an extra 100-200ms round-trip latency on anything I do in the browser, design work would become a lot more frustrating.

dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago

> This is a great technical solution to a problem that is really about users not understanding how their use of a computer really affects performance, and companies under-spec'ing the machines they give people. Let's not forget developers and site owners stuffing webpages with tons of fluff, especially megabytes of JS that is mostly tracking code.

danpalmer 6y ago
Agreed, addressed this in my last paragraph.

yongjik 6y ago

I'm not sure the business case makes sense? A web browser is something most employees would need to be running throughout their working day. So, something like 8 hr/day. Even assuming that their claim of "16-core Xeon per browser" is slightly embellished, these machines aren't exactly cheap. I can see €64.26/mo (~$77) from Hetzner for a Ryzen 3700X octa-core box, so assuming a box can be shared by three users (maybe from different time zones), that's still ~$25/mo per user just to pay the cloud provider.

gpm 6y ago
25/mo = 300/year... if you figure that box is equivalent to a 1200$ laptop = 4 years... except you don't have to pay up front and you get to upgrade to more modern hardware as it comes out. The flip side is you need a fast internet connection and a relatively cheap endpoint laptop. I don't know, doesn't seem like a good deal to me, but it's not a ridiculous idea. Being able to timeshare the expensive hardware would be a good thing.
- fastball 6y ago
  Financing expensive computers is pretty cheap, especially with a corporate account. I mean I get 12-24 mo, 0% financing on all Apple products with my Apple Card.
  - gpm 6y ago
    When you're financing a computer, you're still stuck with it if you stop wanting it. Not paying up front here means you can cancel your service at any time and not have to continue paying, you can upgrade to the new faster computer the second it comes available for the same price. Etc.

seoaeu 6y ago

> I think a lot of companies should be seeing their logos on this page as a sign that they have failed to create accessible software. If your target market is considering renting cloud compute to run your webapp, maybe that's something you need to fix. The goal of a company isn't to create software that's runnable on as many computers as possible. It is to create a product that is valuable to their customers. If those customers are willing to spend loads of extra money running your product that is a strong signal that you are doing something right.

kitsunesoba 6y ago
Alternatively, it can mean that customers don't have any other better options. Take work chat for instance, in which all of the available options are heavyweight web/electron apps. In fact for that category specifically it's a common gripe that all the options are bad and one has to select based on which is the least-bad for their particular situation.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

> 4GB of RAM in a MacBook Air is not enough for your average knowledge-worker living in their web browser. You can't even spec a MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM any more. Base configuration MBA has 8GB of RAM. You can even finance it for $83/month for 12 months, which isn't much more than a $50/month Mighty service. But you get to keep the laptop at the end of the 12 months if you finance it. > 8GB is probably fine for most, but if you're a designer using Figma? Maybe not Doing anything interactive, I'd be more concerned about latency. If I had an extra 100-200ms round-trip latency on anything I do in the browser, design work would become a lot more frustrating.