5 ms·

I worked in e-commerce SaaS in 2011~ and this was true then but I find it less true these days. Are you sure that you’re not the driving force behind those met

by dijit 10mo ago

I worked in e-commerce SaaS in 2011~ and this was true then but I find it less true these days. Are you sure that you’re not the driving force behind those metrics; or that you’re not self-selecting for like-minded individuals? I find it really difficult to convince myself that even large players (Discord) are measuring startup time. Every time I start the thing I’m greeted by a 25s wait and a `RAND()%9` number of updates that each take about 5-10s.

jama211 10mo ago
Discord’s user base is 99% people who leave it running 100% of the time, it’s not a typical situation
- dijit 10mo ago
  I think that they make the startup so horrible that people are more likely to leave it running.
  - hexer292 10mo ago
    As a discord user, it's the kind of platform that I would want to have running to receive notifications, sort of like the SMS of gaming. A large part of my friend group use discord as the primary method of communication, even in an in person context (was at a festival a few months ago with a friend, and we would send texts over discord if we got split up) so maybe its not a common use case.
  - jama211 10mo ago
    I strongly doubt that!
    - jama211 10mo ago
      Hikacking my own comment to mention that the normal thing on forums when a reasonable person reads an unreasonable comment is they move on, which can make the comment stand unopposed which gives it credence it doesn’t deserve. I believe if more of us actually showed our disagreement out loud as I have here, it could change things sometimes.
  - solarkraft 10mo ago
    It leads to me dreading having to start it (or accidentally starting it - remember IE?) and opting for the browser instead.
drob518 10mo ago
Yep, indeed. Which is the main reason I don’t run Discord.
- jama211 10mo ago
  I strongly doubt that. The main reason you don’t run it is likely because you don’t have strong motivation to do so, or you’d push through the odd start up time.
  - oceanplexian 10mo ago
    Just going to throw out an anecdote that I don’t use it for the same reason. It’s closed unless I get a DM on my phone and then I suffer the 2-3 minute startup/failed update process and quit it again. Not a fan of leaving their broken, resource hogging app running at all times.
    - esseph 10mo ago
      It would fail to auto update as a system installed package, because that requires a system level package install. It would not fail to update if installed as a user installed flatpak. Many apps are this way now.
    - jama211 10mo ago
      Why not just respond to the dm on your phone?
  - Flere-Imsaho 10mo ago
    For me, I really dislike the fact Discord is completely closed off to the wider internet, and Discord, the company, has absolute control: from a privacy and freedom of speech point of view. This goes against the core ideas of a free and open internet. I'll admit that the Discord service is really good from a UX point of view.
spockz 10mo ago
I have the same experience on windows. On the other hand, starting up discord on my cachyos install is virtually instant. So maybe there is also a difference between the platform the developers use and that their users use.
godelski 10mo ago
I have plenty of responses to an angry comment I made several months ago that supports your point. I made a slight at Word taking like 10 seconds to start and some people came back saying it only takes 2, as if that still isn't 2s too long. Then again, look at how Microsoft is handling slow File Explorer speeds... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944352 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944352
- saagarjha 10mo ago
  I never said that 2s wasn’t too long. I just said your environment was broken if it took 10.
  - yndoendo 10mo ago
    There is a high chance the extra nuts and bolts added to Windows, which slow it down, are IT required softwoods, settings, and security enhancements. Took me almost a year to get a separate laptop laptop for office and development. Their Enhanced Security prevented me from testing administrative code features and broke Visual Studios bug submission system, which Microsoft requires you to use for posting software bugs. By the way, I can brake Windows simply by running their PowerShell utilities to configure NICs. Windows is not the stable product people think it is.
    - saagarjha 10mo ago
      This was on macOS
  - godelski 10mo ago
    Wild. How'd you even find me
    - saagarjha 10mo ago
      I read the comments on this post

by dijit 10mo ago

jama211 10mo ago

Discord’s user base is 99% people who leave it running 100% of the time, it’s not a typical situation

dijit 10mo ago
I think that they make the startup so horrible that people are more likely to leave it running.
- hexer292 10mo ago
  As a discord user, it's the kind of platform that I would want to have running to receive notifications, sort of like the SMS of gaming. A large part of my friend group use discord as the primary method of communication, even in an in person context (was at a festival a few months ago with a friend, and we would send texts over discord if we got split up) so maybe its not a common use case.
- jama211 10mo ago
  I strongly doubt that!
  - jama211 10mo ago
    Hikacking my own comment to mention that the normal thing on forums when a reasonable person reads an unreasonable comment is they move on, which can make the comment stand unopposed which gives it credence it doesn’t deserve. I believe if more of us actually showed our disagreement out loud as I have here, it could change things sometimes.
- solarkraft 10mo ago
  It leads to me dreading having to start it (or accidentally starting it - remember IE?) and opting for the browser instead.

drob518 10mo ago

Yep, indeed. Which is the main reason I don’t run Discord.

jama211 10mo ago
I strongly doubt that. The main reason you don’t run it is likely because you don’t have strong motivation to do so, or you’d push through the odd start up time.
- oceanplexian 10mo ago
  Just going to throw out an anecdote that I don’t use it for the same reason. It’s closed unless I get a DM on my phone and then I suffer the 2-3 minute startup/failed update process and quit it again. Not a fan of leaving their broken, resource hogging app running at all times.
  - esseph 10mo ago
    It would fail to auto update as a system installed package, because that requires a system level package install. It would not fail to update if installed as a user installed flatpak. Many apps are this way now.
  - jama211 10mo ago
    Why not just respond to the dm on your phone?
- Flere-Imsaho 10mo ago
  For me, I really dislike the fact Discord is completely closed off to the wider internet, and Discord, the company, has absolute control: from a privacy and freedom of speech point of view. This goes against the core ideas of a free and open internet. I'll admit that the Discord service is really good from a UX point of view.

spockz 10mo ago

I have the same experience on windows. On the other hand, starting up discord on my cachyos install is virtually instant. So maybe there is also a difference between the platform the developers use and that their users use.

godelski 10mo ago

I have plenty of responses to an angry comment I made several months ago that supports your point. I made a slight at Word taking like 10 seconds to start and some people came back saying it only takes 2, as if that still isn't 2s too long. Then again, look at how Microsoft is handling slow File Explorer speeds... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944352 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44944352

saagarjha 10mo ago
I never said that 2s wasn’t too long. I just said your environment was broken if it took 10.
- yndoendo 10mo ago
  There is a high chance the extra nuts and bolts added to Windows, which slow it down, are IT required softwoods, settings, and security enhancements. Took me almost a year to get a separate laptop laptop for office and development. Their Enhanced Security prevented me from testing administrative code features and broke Visual Studios bug submission system, which Microsoft requires you to use for posting software bugs. By the way, I can brake Windows simply by running their PowerShell utilities to configure NICs. Windows is not the stable product people think it is.
  - saagarjha 10mo ago
    This was on macOS
- godelski 10mo ago
  Wild. How'd you even find me
  - saagarjha 10mo ago
    I read the comments on this post