Re: Firefox resource utilization (was Re: A case for supporting antiquated hardware, was Re: A hypervisor for a headless server?)

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> With no client-side javascript, it's not possible to change just a part of
> a web page[0]. The server must send the whole web page to be rendered by the
> client. So while it decreases CPU usage in the client, it increases network
> usage. Isn't it unethical to also "steal" more bandwidth than necessary?

Indeed, early uses of client side (Javascript) processing really helped
make web sites more efficient: for the server, the client, and the
network in between.

And then web developers realized that a browser-with-Javascript is just
a sort of VM.  So now we have "web applications" running in that VM,
where the backward/forward buttons make you leave/reenter the
application rather than move through past states of it, and you can't
use bookmarks to refer to the current state any more :-(


        Stefan