jesus X wrote:
>...
> I agree that optimizations need to be made, we all know that. But to
> what level should we drop to support wise? How slow a machine do we
> really need to code for? If we want to code for slow Pentiums with
> 32MB of RAM, why not 486's with 16?
Besides Internet Explorer 5.0, the main browser of choice on Mac OS
right now is iCab <http://www.icab.de/>. iCab has full HTML 4.0 and
ECMAScript support, is highly configurable, loads pages faster than
Mozilla (in my experience), and has image and cookie blocking abilities
which are second to none. (CSS support is being worked on.)
Here are iCab's minimum system requirements:
* a 68020, 68030 or 68040 processor (just for reference, these are the
same processors that late-model Amigas were being shipped with in the
early '90s);
* 4 Mb RAM;
* System 7.0.1 (released 1991), with a couple of extra extensions
installed, or System 7.5 (released 1994).
> I just think it's time to cut
> loose the stragglers, as is always done after a period of time. Would
> you try to run office 2000 with 32MB of RAM?
Some people don't have a choice about the speed of the computer they
use. If you cut out the stragglers, you cut out me.
Also remember Metcalfe's Law
<http://www.mgt.smsu.edu/mgt487/mgtissue/newstrat/metcalfe.htm>, that
the usefulness of a network is proportional to the square of the number
of people using the network. Every time you raise the platform
requirements for using Mozilla, you are decreasing the usefulness of the
Internet more than you think.
The good thing about Mozilla being free software is that eventually, as
the project attracts volunteers who are good at optimizing code, lots of
patches can be accepted which perform minor optimizations that it would
not have been worth paid contributors spending time on.
It would also be beneficial to split Mozilla up into its component
applications, and within those applications to make subsidiary parts
(like MathML and SVG) optional in the same way that plugins are. That
would help to decrease memory usage.
--
Matthew `mpt' Thomas, Mozilla user interface QA
