2 ms·

This is a bit off topic I guess, but I don't think the goal of fixing a slow Web can be achieved by building a faster Web browser. Developers will build and tes

This is a bit off topic I guess, but I don't think the goal of fixing a slow Web can be achieved by building a faster Web browser. Developers will build and test (or not test) things on their powerful Macbooks, and usually ship things that aren't noticeably slow for them, then a user with a $300 Windows laptop from Walmart will struggle to click on things. This is the nature of web dev. Increasing the speed of the browser just means web devs will accept that code is fast enough when they use it, regardless of whether or not its fast enough when a user on a less powerful machine uses it. Essentially, web pages will always expand to fill the available resources of the dev's machine and if you use their code on a less powerful computer you're out of luck. If we want a faster web we need to get web devs to test on slower browsers and more realistic target devices. (I can actually think of an alternative solution that browser vendors could do ... Browsers could just display a blank screen whenever a web site falls below 60fps. Websites would get a lot faster pretty quickly if Chrome did that.) EDIT: Actually... This is possible. Chrome should display a blank screen when a website falls below 60fps when devtools is open. That would have no impact on users, but would push web developers to fix their slow pages. I'm genuinely tempted to find the time to make a PR...

deleted 5y ago
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dotancohen 5y ago
I'll make the PR if you don't have the time. It's a great feature and aligns perfectly with Chrome's (original, stated) reason to exist: to make the web better.
mynameismon 5y ago
Another trick to deal with heavy web requests is artificially limiting bandwidth. By simulating a slow 3G connection using devtools (yes, its a feature!), developers should see how much time does it take to load. Personally, I would love to see the slow 3G speed the default
- onion2k 5y ago
  I think it would be great if devtools had a very prominent and easy to enable "test mode" that switched on a few settings like network and CPU throttling. It should be a top level tab like Elements and Recorder.
  - bityard 5y ago
    If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages, which would in turn reduce the aggregate costs to run servers, backbone links, and last-mile connections in developing countries and the rural US. Maybe as a nice bonus, we'd get fewer auto-play videos on websites that the browser authors somehow still haven't figured out how to prevent. Anyway, it would be far from the first time the web browsers have thrown their weight around to effect changes across the whole Internet...
    - onion2k 5y ago
      If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages... I wish that was true. The truth is that a lot of developers don't know how to do that work, or that don't care, or (very weirdly in my opinion) are actually proud of the fact they build a huge and bloated app. Moreover though, sometimes those large apps are actually relevant. Having a background video on a brochure site isn't automatically a bad thing - those features can and do drive sales. You might disagree with that about some feature you don't like, but chances are there's some other feature you do like that other people would happily limit because they don't need it. We should be wary of imposing limits on everything because we would lose some things that are actually good for some users. To use a lovely British idiom, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

dotancohen 5y ago

I'll make the PR if you don't have the time. It's a great feature and aligns perfectly with Chrome's (original, stated) reason to exist: to make the web better.

mynameismon 5y ago

Another trick to deal with heavy web requests is artificially limiting bandwidth. By simulating a slow 3G connection using devtools (yes, its a feature!), developers should see how much time does it take to load. Personally, I would love to see the slow 3G speed the default

onion2k 5y ago
I think it would be great if devtools had a very prominent and easy to enable "test mode" that switched on a few settings like network and CPU throttling. It should be a top level tab like Elements and Recorder.
- bityard 5y ago
  If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages, which would in turn reduce the aggregate costs to run servers, backbone links, and last-mile connections in developing countries and the rural US. Maybe as a nice bonus, we'd get fewer auto-play videos on websites that the browser authors somehow still haven't figured out how to prevent. Anyway, it would be far from the first time the web browsers have thrown their weight around to effect changes across the whole Internet...
  - onion2k 5y ago
    If browsers were to artificially limit network speeds, it would force web page authors to slim down their pages... I wish that was true. The truth is that a lot of developers don't know how to do that work, or that don't care, or (very weirdly in my opinion) are actually proud of the fact they build a huge and bloated app. Moreover though, sometimes those large apps are actually relevant. Having a background video on a brochure site isn't automatically a bad thing - those features can and do drive sales. You might disagree with that about some feature you don't like, but chances are there's some other feature you do like that other people would happily limit because they don't need it. We should be wary of imposing limits on everything because we would lose some things that are actually good for some users. To use a lovely British idiom, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.