Pete wrote:
>
> <snip>
> > Trouble with IE and Netscape is their slowness, and then image-laden Web sites
> > add to the World Wide Wait. ZDNet is Lynx-only for me, Lynx flies while Arachne
> > or Netscape crawls. About is nearly Lynx-only. Those overcomplex Web designs
> > make me wish they'd scrap the WWW in favor of Gopher. I want information, not
> > glitz, and I'd guess many other Internet users feel the same way. Shockwave
> > just adds to the bloat needed to view some Web sites, and the way things are
> > going, more bloatware is in the future.
> Hmmm... I find that IE4 (16bit) and A166 run at roughly the same speed,
> given similiar tasks. IE's ability to handle JavaScript doesn't slow its
> rendering of AQC, home.arachne, &c.
Hi Pete;
I can't say anything about IE4 but Arachne runs _about_ the same speed as
NS2 on some things and is slower on local operations like page scrolling and
reloading from cache. This is not a promotional message for NS because there
are other matters involved. On something faster than this 33Mhz '486, Arachne
is my my first choice. It's a bit of a shame that it doesn't perform better on
the more limited boxes. This could change.
The original message mentioned bloat. Bloat all by itself is offensive to me
whether the software works or not. How fat is IE and all it's required support
compared to Arachne ?
It may be true that the ability to handle js doesn't appreciably slow down IE
on non js laden sites, but that is VERY far from the point.
The very existence of a world full of js capable computers slows the web down
for EVERYONE. Compare the size and load time of a typical js laden page (try
home.arachne for a start) with the same page containing only html. And then
go one step further and strip it down to its' information content and transmit
THAT in text format.
There's the rub. We know what it could be like. Imagine everyone on the planet
having a 1MEGAbyte/sec connection. That's what we could have RIGHT NOW without
all this crap. You could still get images, movies, music.
Their download times won't be improved nearly as much as their access times,
but it would be like you were the only one using the web. <G>
> What's the problem? This IE version/computer *are* rather slow with
> Java-laden pages, but at least I am able to access them!
Direct your energy towards the PROBLEM. JS and the other crap. I KNOW you
want to go to those sites. But you aren't drawn there because of this crap
are you ? I am fortunate in that I can usually sit back here in the stone age
and do without anything a site like that may offer me.
But sometimes it does bother me that I can't get technical information from
semiconductor manufacturers because of the access barriers they unknowingly
put up, so I grit my teeth and make the phones calls and harrass THEM !
I make them do some work in the hope that their internal complaints may lower
those barriers.
As a last resort, I dream of the class action suit that we could all bring
against M$ and their spawn if we got together instead of giving up. Think
of the health risks associated with running into these crappy sites. The
dramatic rise in blood pressure when you find some ahole is deliberately
preventing you from accessing your bank account or stock portfolio.
This isn't about tilting at windmills, it's about herding sheep.
- Clarence Verge
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