4 ms·

A faster network is going to have a marginal effect on software getting slower. There are a lot of factors at play: network speed, cpu power, local caches, etc

A faster network is going to have a marginal effect on software getting slower. There are a lot of factors at play: network speed, cpu power, local caches, etc. The speed of the network driver is one factor among many and I'd be surprised if were the most common bottleneck. The operators of websites that derive most of their revenue from advertising are going to run their sites at whatever level users will tolerate. Where network drivers are faster they'll either cram in more ad tracking, or won't bother optimizing their existing trackers. If users stop accessing sites because they're too slow to load, operators will either cut down on ad tracking, or more likely, put some effort into optimizing the performance of their ad trackers. Rust is itself something of an architectural revolution. I believe network drivers in userspace is already a thing, and eBPF may also have a role here. All of this is worth exploring. This is what progress in Linux looks like.

dijit 4y ago
> A faster network is going to have a marginal effect on software getting slower. I don't mean to be glib but: citation needed? One of the slowest moving hardware improvements (compared to CPU/Memory speeds) is networking. It's going to take some serious convincing to tell me that we should just fork off performance; when software is already getting slower and slower. It's not fair to blame advertisers exclusively, we also have electron and the hundreds of JS frameworks, that's before we get down to the low level abstractions that hook into basic programs.
- tjoff 4y ago
  The network stack isn't written in javascript. The slowness of the web will not get any worse by moving the network stack to userspace. Guaranteed.
  - dijit 4y ago
    You have the entire body of computer science research around microkernels against you here. What has changed?
    - cogman10 4y ago
      CPUs got faster, memory got larger, compilers got better. Microkernels aren't a dead idea and they are even making their way into consumer electronics. (see Zircon). In fact, even newer oses are backing into microkernels. Windows adopted similar microkernel concepts in Vista with the HAL. Android adopted a HAL with project treble in android P. The steady march of modern OSes has been moving driver logic out of kernel space and into user space.

dijit 4y ago

> A faster network is going to have a marginal effect on software getting slower. I don't mean to be glib but: citation needed? One of the slowest moving hardware improvements (compared to CPU/Memory speeds) is networking. It's going to take some serious convincing to tell me that we should just fork off performance; when software is already getting slower and slower. It's not fair to blame advertisers exclusively, we also have electron and the hundreds of JS frameworks, that's before we get down to the low level abstractions that hook into basic programs.

tjoff 4y ago
The network stack isn't written in javascript. The slowness of the web will not get any worse by moving the network stack to userspace. Guaranteed.
- dijit 4y ago
  You have the entire body of computer science research around microkernels against you here. What has changed?
  - cogman10 4y ago
    CPUs got faster, memory got larger, compilers got better. Microkernels aren't a dead idea and they are even making their way into consumer electronics. (see Zircon). In fact, even newer oses are backing into microkernels. Windows adopted similar microkernel concepts in Vista with the HAL. Android adopted a HAL with project treble in android P. The steady march of modern OSes has been moving driver logic out of kernel space and into user space.