Chrome 57 Limits Background Tabs Usage To 1% Per CPU Core (bleepingcomputer.com) 154
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Starting with Chrome 57, released last week, Google has put a muzzle on the amount of resources background tabs can use. According to Google engineers, Chrome 57 will temporarily delay a background tab's JavaScript timers if that tab is using more than 1% of a CPU core. Further, all background timers are suspended automatically after five minutes on mobile devices. The delay/suspension will halt resource consumption and cut down on battery usage, something that laptop, tablet, and smartphone owners can all relate. Google hinted in late January that it would limit JavaScript timers in background tabs, but nobody expected it to happen as soon as last week's Chrome release. By 2020, Google hopes to pause JavaScript operations in all background pages.
Re:Javascript 2017? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because making a web app in JavaScript is cheaper than making five native apps, one each for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS, and Android.
Re:Javascript 2017? (Score:5, Interesting)
But nobody does that. They make ordinary webpages that use 500KB of javascript code to make something that looks (and feels) like a cheap 40KB HTML page based on iframes from back in 1996. Big static posters with HD stock images, 3 lines of text, and a download/email button. Why do these pages need javascript at all? What is javascript for?!
Re: Javascript 2017? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ads and trackers
Free JS with paywalled native (Score:2)
You get what you pay for.
Or, in the case of a business limited by its finances, what its customers are willing to pay for.
So would it be a good idea to make a web application available without charge but put corresponding native applications behind a paywall?
you know what the joke is? (Score:2)
you know what the joke is?
it's that they keep adding background stuff and webrtc and PUSH notifications that cause js to run and shit.
and then they add this.
is this going to leave the push stuff working? OR is this a ploy to make us enable the bg push stuff? I mean.. just give the option to shut them off with a timer or not.
Re:you know what the beauty is? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Javascript 2017? (Score:4, Insightful)
the whole internet runs on javascript, just saying
The web isn't the internet, just saying.
Re: Javascript 2017? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Lets start this off correctly. MOST of the internet runs on Linux(i can see the windows/osx noobs festering their incorrect responses now) :o
Re: Javascript 2017? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It's funny that "tech nerds" don't realize that http traffic is a rather small portion of the overall Internet. But I guess if you're never on the backside it's hard to tell.
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Too bad we have Drumpf! (Score:2)
Because starting a war with Russia like the other party wanted is a better idea!
Blame yourselves.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Web developers who write javascript that just keeps chewing up resources are why we have to resort to this.... You have no one to blame but yourselves for abusing the privilege of having active content that just sucks resources to get more add revenue....
I know some of you developers actually think about such stuff and care about the end user's experience, but there are a few of you out there that are messing stuff up for all of us, so now the browser has to throttle you.. Thank You for nothing (from the rest of us).
Re:Blame yourselves.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blame yourselves.... (Score:5, Informative)
JavaScript vs. Vagrant (Score:2)
Javascript image transforms are still grossly inefficient compared to any native image tool.
Is it substantially less efficient than running a native image tool in a Vagrant box and using an X server on your machine to view the Vagrant box?
Re: (Score:2)
Ain't it crazy how that stuff just shows up stuck in your page, and there's nothing you can to stop it from being added?
Tripod is still around (Score:2)
Free web hosting services insert advertisements into HTML documents hosted thereon. GeoCities died long ago, but Tripod appears to be still around.
Re:Blame yourselves.... (Score:5, Funny)
"more add revenue"
Surely at least one of those words is redundant. Add means addition or additional, so "more additional" is a strange thing to say. just "more revenue" or "additional revenue" would be sufficient.
Or maybe you should just fucking learn that the abbreviation for "ADvertisement" is "ad" with one fucking d, dipshit.
Re: Blame yourselves.... (Score:2)
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with one fucking d, dipshit.
Time to take your medicine, AC.
Grammar Nazi to the rescue! (Score:3, Informative)
something that laptop, tablet, and smartphone owners can all relate.
Unless you mean that those people will all testify to the aforementioned something, you're missing either a "to" or a "to which" depending on how pedantic you want to be. Those people don't relate it; they relate to it. It is something they can relate to, or if you want to be fancy, it is something to which they can relate.
Re: (Score:2)
Commenter grammar is one thing, editor grammar is another -- and quotes from the article grammar is something else entirely! The latter two categories profess to be increasingly professional writers. Writing is their job. So yeah, when they do it badly, that's shit.
But when ordinary people who aren't professing to be producing writing as a product for money make casual mistakes, who cares, yeah.
Good uses for background (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, slack changes the tab title and icon when an event happens, like a new message. Gmail updates the title to show how many messages you have. These are reasonable use cases.
Re: (Score:2)
And don't forget my epic cookie clicker run, which I've left in some background tab somewhere for well over a year now!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It was a joke, but only barely. As for the "game" itself, you buy upgrades to make cookies for you and eventually there isn't much point in clicking anymore.
Cookie Clicker is an RTS without the combat (Score:3)
And don't forget my epic cookie clicker run, which I've left in some background tab somewhere for well over a year now!
Is that literally just clicking a cookie over and over?
No. Cookie Clicker by Orteil is sort of like a distilled version of an RTS tech tree: you spend cookies to buy buildings and upgrades that produce cookies over time.
Re: (Score:1)
If you like that, check out "Kittens Game", it's been called "The Dark Souls of Idle Games".
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I wish there was manual control on a per-tab basis (or better yet, per site basis).
And I'd like to be able to set a tab to 0% cpu, just completely halt it, like a SIGSUSP signal.
Mainly because I do not like web pages to contact the mothership if I am not using them, its a major privacy risk.
I use a VPN and change my IP address on a regular basis. I can clear cookies, etc. But a web page that phones home with state data will be able to track me across IP addresses. And we all know that if it can be used t
Re:Good uses for background (Score:5, Informative)
Added a comment above .. but don't want you to miss it .. The Great Suspender extension for Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webs... [google.com]
Re:Good uses for background (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Good uses for background (Score:4, Informative)
How much of your quad core 3GHz CPU does the email client need? 1% is still 4x30MHz cores. People used to read email on single core CPUs running under 10MHz, and those cores didn't have advanced features like cache or single cycle multipliers or branch prediction or out-of-order execution.
Re: (Score:2)
This feature should allow whitelisting domains to keep javascript fully active. I want my email client to keep running javascript. I don't want some random news page I left open to decide it's time to launch a video ad.
So use a whitelisting system like ublock origin, adblock plus, or noscript. Problem solved. Why would you want every random site you visit to be able to run code on your computer?
The Great Suspender (Score:3)
I've seen a few comments after something like this:
I use The Great Suspender extension for Chrome. It can kill tabs after a certain period of time and also delays loading them on a Chrome restart (essential for 100+ open tabs) -- you can also whitelist sites.
https://chrome.google.com/webs... [google.com]
Your laptop still draws power (Score:2)
The featured article states that background audio still plays.
A laptop connected to mains power through a transformer still draws power through the transformer, which still counts against your subscription to electric power. In addition, you may want other tasks running on your computer to have priority over ad exchanges' real-time bidding scripts.
Too bad you can't easily stop autoplay videos.... (Score:1)
Has anyone found a simple way to disable autoplay withing post-Chrome 55?
Re: About time (Score:1)
What happens to notifications? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm using facebook and google hangouts to communicate with people. Since I don't want to install applications, I use them as browser tabs. Does this mean I will no longer get noticed when someone messages me?
Re: (Score:1)
No, you will continue to receive notifications. The tab is limited to 1% of CPU which is more than enough to pop a notification. The background Javascript will not be paused until 2020 as per the summary. I believe notifications go through GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) so will still work even if the background javascript is paused on those sites.
Re: (Score:1)
Wat? F*** notifications. Worst feature ever.
The first thing I do is disable notifications.
Re: (Score:1)
It's nice that you don't use them, but lots of people do.
Re: (Score:2)
Why? They are opt in on a per website basis and many websites have a very good reason for using them. So why disable them when you specifically need to enable them for websites in the first place?
Also it's a great feature. Just like the many other features I use in various software packages that you don't understand and don't see a need for.
Re: (Score:2)
Say you have a crappy, low end Chromebook with a 2GHz dual core CPU. Background tabs are limited to 1% per core, so effectively 2x 20MHz cores. Javascript benefits from all the usual optimisations like just-in-time compilation, and the network/rendering stacks are excluded from the limit.
Even limited to 1%, there is more than enough processing power there to deliver timely chat messages.
Re:What happens to notifications? (Score:4, Insightful)
Does this mean I will no longer get noticed when someone messages me?
If the notifications take more than 1% of a modern processor, then yes, you will not receive timely notifications. It should be noted at this time that fully memory-protected, graphical interface, mostly modernish operating systems used to run with less CPU than even .1% of a modern CPU (Amiga, m68k). I would commit suicide in despair if a notification takes more CPU power than a full operating system. (Why yes, I am preparing the nitrogen bag and morphine now.)
Re: (Score:2)
Why would a web-based frontend to chat use more than 1 percent of CPU time on a desktop or full-size laptop? I could see a problem on a compact laptop with an Atom or ARM CPU, which is designed to sip power rather than run fast.
Re: (Score:2)
Good question. It's one of the reasons why I hate slack - the web frontend for it causes Firefox to consume a good 30% CPU! Yes, I've diagnosed it - close the tab, it drops to 0%. Reopen it, back to 30%.
Who knows what crap Slack is running... I gave up and tried their app version, an
Firefox already there (Score:3)
Pretty sure Firefox already does something very similar to this. The mobile version does, anyway.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
True, but in Firefox's case, it is one CPU core per 1%.
Audio and WebSockets defeat this (Score:5, Informative)
sometimes I'll listen to a podcast/music in a another tab
Then this does not affect you. From the featured article:
Won't that just mean (Score:3)
"Silent audio streams do not grant exemptions" (Score:2)
I apologize for not having the domain expertise to follow up on the WebSocket hack, but here's what I have for the other.
The "silent audio" you mention probably won't work. I started chasing links from the featured article, "Background tabs & offscreen frames: further plans" [google.com]:
"here" links to "Background Tabs in Chrome 57" [google.com] stating:
Background as a premium feature (Score:2)
sometimes I'll listen to a podcast/music in a another tab while surfing in the visible table. This is my biggest beef with firefox on android, background tasks are stopped
You can blame that in part on streaming providers' freemium model of requiring a paid subscription for background listening, particularly YouTube.
If this saves battery power... (Score:5, Funny)
Is Microsoft going to stop spamming me with notifications to use Edge on my laptop because my battery will last 30% longer when ever I open Chrome?
Technically, they are right (Score:1)
That explains it... (Score:2)
I Like This Change (Score:5, Funny)
A step in the right direction. Next they'll be limiting chome.exe processes to only 80% of installed RAM!
Re: (Score:1)
As someone who runs LOTS of tabs on desktop I don't understand why the parent post has been scored Funny. I've never had cpu consumption issues with chrome while it eats up most of my ram with tabs that I haven't even looked at in my browsing session.
Re: (Score:1)
Slashdot one of the worst offenders (Score:1)
If you block tracking, you end up blocking ads (Score:2)
I use a different method of blocking ads: Firefox with Tracking Protection enabled globally [mozilla.org]. It blocks only those ad networks and exchanges known to track viewers from one site to another to display interest-based ads, but that's pretty much all of them. Running a tracking blocker rather than an ad blocker also provides plausible deniability against those who claim that ad blockers take food out of writers' children's mouths, as a publisher could in theory instead sell ad space directly to advertisers witho
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Still too generous. (Score:3)
1% is still a huge amount because how absurdly fast our processors have become. Do you know how much you can do with 45MHz? Javascript is being dynamically translated into machine code, so you can still do a LOT. The only thing this addresses is sites that hog the CPU, not any of the nefarious bullshit that sites do to track you every 7 seconds.
Re: (Score:2)
not any of the nefarious bullshit that sites do to track you every 7 seconds
Yes and the group policy password enforcement in Windows does not fix that my printer cartridge is empty.
Like seriously how did you come up with your comment! The answer is "no shit it doesn't as it was never a design goal in the first place".
I just block all of it (Score:2)
I run hundreds of tabs, I use noscript to whitelist all the good stuff. Adservers almost always run stuff on thier own domain so its easy to blacklist. Now I just want this feature for firefox
Re:I just block all of it (Score:4, Informative)
Now I just want this feature for firefox
It's not quite the same, but opening about:config and setting privacy.trackingprotection.enabled to true will blacklist a lot of abusive adtech.
This... (Score:2)
Goodbye emulators (Score:1)
So much for JSMESS, jor1k, v86, em-dosbox and friends...
Hooray, now how about memory? (Score:4, Insightful)
This will break a queued file uploader I made (Score:2)
I once made a file uploader that used a new window/tab as a upload queue so people can queue up files to be uploaded in sequence in order to get a better experience than uploading 10-20-100 files simultaneously. That window/tab is supposed to be left alone in the background to do its thing while you go on the main site to queue up more uploads.
I was moving a "file" element from the main site to the queue window and then just looped and told blueimp/jQuery-File-Upload to upload each file in turn.
With this qu
1% is just stupid (Score:1)
Time (Score:2)
It's about time. I've been whining about this for 2 years now. To hell with winning the fastest script prize when you grind everything to a halt. (This is the fault of terrible testing mags/sites who weight shit wrongly.)
It has reached critical mass -- CNN.com takes forever due to massive advertising overlays and chatty stuff. You click the close box, irritated, and it takes 5s to close.
hierarchy of antique bogoids (Score:2)
AMD-K6 3D (90 bogoids)
<=
Intel Core i7-4771 @ 3.50GHz (9940 bogoids) * 1%
<=
Via C3 Ezra (100 bogoids)
<=
Intel Pentium III Mobile 750MHz (103 bogoids)
<=
AMD Athlon 64 2000+ (116 bogoids)
<=
Intel Pentium 4 1300MHz (119 bogoids)
Wow, a couple of clown chips, and a searing indictment of Passmark, all rolled up together.
You can really see how Passmark should have been properly named Parkay [youtube.com] Malarkey Spinmark.
Parkay Pentium 4, you are so busted.
[*] Cooking instructi
Hope this feature can be turned off... (Score:2)
This will surely break the ability to use things like plex web-app or streaming media without plugins... hope it can be turned off for sites you wish to allow...
Yay (Score:2)
And there was much rejoicing.
Explorer Needs this so Desperately.. (Score:1)
What an incredibly good idea. Explorer so desperately needs this. - I know I'm an idiot for using Explorer - couldn't even really say why I ended up then kept using it. Should switch to Chrome - seems much better now than when I last tried it.. Used Netscape for decades until a year after it finally closed - then used Sea Monkey for a while, then somehow found myself using Explorer - despite all its flaws.
Fixing the resource stealing by malware adds and poorly written web sites would fix most of Explorer