Is it really hard to make a browser which consumes less battery and resources?

1 pointandrewvijay5 comments

Why is that our browsers are sucking RAM and battery like monsters? Especially chrome. How complex or hard is it to write software that is good on resources? How has Microsoft achieved this in their edge browser? Is it because of their tight integration with the OS?

I do low power embedded stuff, but have a friend who used to work on power management for linux for a uP company. I think we'd both agree that the only way you end up with a low resource system is is power and resource consumption has to be go/nogo test that management enforces ruthlessly[1]. Otherwise what you end up with is a pig.

[1] As in

Developer: this module works!

QA: Power usage went up 5%, rejected.

Developer: runs crying to management

Management: Fix or be fired.

But the browsers that we use are open source and the scrutiny has to be placed by the community. May be low power consumption must be a definite requirement like security and not an after thought.

It's also a nightmare to fix power and resource problems after the fact.

Well, it does not help that sites are using so much JS now a days

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