Memory is running out, and so are excuses for software bloat

17 pointsposted 9 hours ago
by pjmlp
(theregister.com)

15 Comments

Telaneo

6 hours ago

A good start would be to have all the Electron apps turned into something more standalone. You shouldn't have to drag a whole-ass browser with you for simple messaging. DiscordMessenger[1] proves that. It doesn't have all the features implemented, but it's pretty good and a good proof of concept.

I get why devs do it. It's very convenient to make your app in Electron because then it can also work on the web, and you get free cross-platform compatibility. But for something like the software for your mouse or keyboard (looking at you Logitech!), it really shouldn't be necessary to pull in a whole browser just to tune some settings.

[1] https://github.com/DiscordMessenger/dm

coldtea

9 hours ago

As if the industry needs excuses. They have enshitified all aspects of software with impunity, who will they have to answer to? The same public that accepted regression after regression in software quality?

user____name

8 hours ago

Not only RAM. I've recently been thinking about how much better things could be if ISP had data limits again. No doomscrolling, no multigigabyte patches, less slop, less spyware, less datacenters, less clickbait. All those things would become less profitable when transfers are limited.

bheadmaster

8 hours ago

Yeah, and obesity would be solved if we had government-sanctioned food rations.

But I deeply dislike that solution. Personal responsibility beats authoritarive control in almost all cases.

bgun

7 hours ago

Isn’t “paying for what you use” the ultimate expression of personal responsibility, though? Is unlimited high-speed internet a basic human right? (I’d argue _access_ is, given its necessity in participation in modern society, but not unlimited data).

The point may end up being moot, however, since the dark patterns feeding the social media-data harvesting pipeline are driven by keeping most people hooked on algorithmic infinitely scrolling feeds, and that attention-selling system will fight any attempt to rein it in, whether cultural or governmental.

Telaneo

6 hours ago

> Isn’t “paying for what you use” the ultimate expression of personal responsibility, though?

The value of bandwidth is negligible until you start to work with 100s of TBs. Bandwidth is basically free on a consumer scale. It's the infrastructure you're paying for, but once purchased, it has minimal upkeep compared to how much use you get out of it. It'd be one thing if bandwidth were subsidised; then we could raise pricing up to where you're actually paying for what you use. We're already at that point though. Raising pricing further, either directly or through rationing, is just rent-seeking.

Responsibility is not inherently good. Imposed responsibility for no good reason is in fact bad.

general1465

6 hours ago

ISP limiting bandwidth would effectively be killer for streaming services like Netflix.

Telaneo

6 hours ago

The only one of those that would potentially disappear would be the 100 GB patches and games. Tiktok and Facebooks still works with 360p video, so doomscrolling would likely continue. Same goes for clickbait. The slop is what's being doomscrolled though in many cases, and all the slop that isn't in video form barely takes any bandwidth to begin with. Spyware doesn't take up much bandwidth, neither when first downloaded, nor during usage.

squibonpig

8 hours ago

I mean that would also massively blow

logicprog

9 hours ago

Obvious AI slop.

DamonHD

9 hours ago

That's been elReg's normal human-powered house style for ~30Y years, albeit slightly calmer recently and with en_US spelling. I know because I have written for it and pushed my style that way to do so - again entirely human powered because LLMs did not exist then, even though I have an ancient AI degree.

logicprog

6 hours ago

My bad then, it just really read like that to me.

throw-the-towel

8 hours ago

What, El Reg has abandoned the King's English? Truly, the dark times are upon us.