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Post by oblio on Nov 18, 2021 2:55:30 GMT
Seems strange that a niche web browser would be the first to introduce this. ... but many Linux computers are still clinging to the earlier part of the 21st century. I wonder if they are just trying to be that bleeding edge browser - get in before mainstream does? "In with the new", sort of? Interesting regardless.
I hadn't really thought of my hardware that way; that's poignant.
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kev392
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Post by kev392 on Nov 18, 2021 5:15:21 GMT
Seems strange that a niche web browser would be the first to introduce this. ... but many Linux computers are still clinging to the earlier part of the 21st century. I wonder if they are just trying to be that bleeding edge browser - get in before mainstream does? "In with the new", sort of? Interesting regardless.
I hadn't really thought of my hardware that way; that's poignant.
Maintaining browsers takes time and effort. Perhaps it will be easier for them to drop support for older technology. Their other 2 offerings may be dropped sooner than later. Classic is still being maintained but with some admitted security holes. G3 will probably follow suit. Chrome is now requiring SSE3 which affected a wide swathe of single core processors. It didn't affect me, but enigma9o7's Pentium 4 is more than likely being left out in the cold.
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enigma9o7
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Post by enigma9o7 on Nov 18, 2021 5:32:08 GMT
The cpu instructions I shared above are from my ~2010 laptop, primary machine. 11 Years old [inxi below]. If using (and requiring) SSE 4.2 can make a modern browser perform better, I'm not surprised some of them will implement it as a requirement. I'm sure we've all heard windows 11 is requiring some TPM thing that is only available on computers from the past few years, and win10 will EOL in 5 more years. [Unrelated, in 5 more years i bet a ton of new people will try linux...] So even if any or all of the "major 3" browsers (edge/firefox/chrome) start requiring sse 4.2 because it makes them perform better on hardware that support it, then sounds like good idea to me. Even tho I use old hardware (see my signature). Because, based on my experience, this kinda change is slow, and there will always be alternatives and forks that can and still work until the point the hardware really isnt worth using anymore. Mozilla still builds official 32-bit SSE2 Firefox. Epiphany (using webkit) sitll works on pentium 3 without sse2, which is worthless hardware today, people throw out pentium 4 and better in first world, and anything less than that in the third world too! So, in my opinion, if next week google chrome starts requiring sse 4.2, it'll be many many years before there isnt a decent browser for your machine with just sse4.1 System: Host: VPCF115FM Kernel: 5.4.0-90-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Enlightenment 0.3.4.17091 Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS Machine: Device: laptop System: Sony product: VPCF115FM v: C604GP5S serial: N/A Mobo: Sony model: VAIO serial: N/A BIOS: American Megatrends v: R0280Y6 date: 05/14/2010 Battery BAT0: charge: 45.9 Wh 99.9% condition: 45.9/57.2 Wh (80%) CPU: Quad core Intel Core i7 Q 720 (-MT-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB clock speeds: max: 1600 MHz 1: 936 MHz 2: 950 MHz 3: 935 MHz 4: 932 MHz 5: 935 MHz 6: 935 MHz 7: 934 MHz 8: 942 MHz Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GT216M [GeForce GT 330M] Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.20.8 ) driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@59.94hz OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GT 330M/PCIe/SSE2 version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 340.108 Audio: Card-1 NVIDIA GT216 HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel Card-2 Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Def. Audio driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k5.4.0-90-generic Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver: ath9k IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: 2c:81:58:f6:55:c1 Card-2: Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: sky2 IF: enp4s0 state: down mac: 00:24:be:c7:36:35 Drives: HDD Total Size: 5481.1GB (62.8% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA size: 480.1GB ID-2: /dev/sdb model: ST5000LM000 size: 5001.0GB Partition: ID-1: / size: 439G used: 345G (83%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-0 RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 50C Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A Info: Processes: 258 Uptime: 7:04 Memory: 3409.2/7943.4MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.56
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kev392
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Post by kev392 on Nov 18, 2021 8:11:53 GMT
There won't be a big move to SSE4.2 until 2025 I think. When Win 10 reaches EOL October 14, 2025 and Win 11 takes over completely, the move to 4.2 might become a hard standard.
Chrome and Firefox don't want to tick off their users. There are still millions of people using old computers. Having Waterfox do it and proving it will be viable gives the big guys time to do it even better with less bugs, and it gets in the public consciousness that it's going to happen at some point.
So I'm thinking 2025 as a transition year.
Same as 2015-2016 when Win 10 was being released and SSE2 requirement for browsers happened around the same time.
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