Nolan
The year is 2023. Every program on your computer is now an Electron app, running vulnerable out-of-date versions of Chromium and consuming 500MB of memory each
Apr 25, 2017 at 5:24pmWeb
Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
Distantly you recall something called a "web browser" with "tabs" that you could switch between. Your left hand involuntarily twitches towards the Ctrl and Tab keys, driven by a deep longing for a past joy which you can no longer name
Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
Tears spring to your eyes, but you fight them back. "No," you say to yourself. "I simply must buy more RAM." You'll do it, right after you pay off this Ukrainian ransomware
Show threadsten0 ✅ Apr 25, 2017

@nolan "Oh wait," you say.... "I'll just go download moar. What a time to be alive!"

http://downloadmoreram.com/

Show threadSam Clark ⁉️Apr 25, 2017
@nolan there's still not enough ram in your laptop to support that....even though it's 2023...
Show threadmulanderApr 25, 2017
@nolan can you backport that memory optimization from the future? I hardly see ones beelow 1 GB.
Show threadChrisApr 25, 2017
@nolan Then those apps are run in containers in containers in containers.
Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
@chris come at me bro, I'm behind 5 walls of containers
Show threadsungo_enothereApr 25, 2017
@nolan @chris As long as one of those is docker, there's a vector.
Show threadlaughingpineApr 26, 2017
@chris @nolan we have to go deeper.
Show threadRam LmnApr 25, 2017

@nolan More like 2GB of memory each and maybe with baked in bug, acting as a backdoor, which then installs a worm, which is a ransomware.

And then you start to think how to buy new RAM.

*looks at computer*

Oh, there's no more RAM slots left.

🤔

Show threadAndrew H – № 2025Apr 25, 2017
@nolan the twist: YOU are an electron app #spoilers
Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
@booc0mtaco is this a Black Mirror episode
Show threadPusscatApr 25, 2017

@nolan s/2023/2017/g

*fixed.

Show threadAirDur.eu 🔥Apr 25, 2017
@nolan then... what can we do ?
Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
@AirDur Build for the web instead: https://whatwebcando.today/ 😉
Show threadAirDur.eu 🔥Apr 25, 2017

@nolan Firefox tooks a lot of RAM too. And for what I want to do, a lot of feature isn't available yet.

But I need to end my school before. I hope browsers will improve. :)

Show threadNolanApr 25, 2017
@AirDur At the very least browsers are getting really good at throttling background tabs (https://github.com/WICG/interventions/issues/34) and about not spinning up a ton of resources for every single website. But yeah a lot of webapps are not super heavily optimized (I've been looking at improving the Mastodon codebase for instance; it's not bad but could use some improvements: https://gist.github.com/nolanlawson/d8541c6e818c8eb6e440d6a25c02987e)
Show threadSamuele (surveyor3) MIGRATEDApr 25, 2017
@nolan isn't that chrome Os?
Show threadJens ReuterbergApr 25, 2017
@nolan thank christ for that gazillion gig RAM though
Show threadNolanApr 26, 2017
@ohyran in 2023 you're gonna need it
Show threadmykola 🙃🌎🤘Apr 26, 2017
@nolan lol at the innocence and optimism of expecting RAM use to be constrained 500mb ;)
Show threadDoug 🖥Apr 26, 2017
@nolan Do you think browsers are close to adding the missing native pieces to make electron unnecessary?
Show threadNolanApr 26, 2017
@d Absolutely: https://whatwebcando.today/ That's not to say there aren't missing pieces (e.g. we need true desktop PWAs to give webapps Cmd-Tab/Alt-Tab), but I also think the value of the web as "our install process is just clicking a link" can't be overstated. :)
Show threadDustin KrysakApr 26, 2017
@nolan that's ok, because we all have 128gb of ram. I mean, who would ever need more??
Show threadAmericanIdiotApr 30, 2017
@nolan That's okay. They'll all be running as Snaps in Docker and chrooted. Perfectly safe.