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Comment by em3rgent0rdr | Hacker News Reader

It's remarkable how much better software feels when the software was developed on a slow machine.

Unfortunately devs invest in the fastest equiplent, so they don't experience how their code runs on the average end user who doesn't upgrade every couple years.

In can be useful to test your code in a VM that is deliberately slowed down, so can get a feel for user experience on a slower machine. Then you'll know what parts need to be optimized.

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> Unfortunately devs invest in the fastest equiplent, so they don't experience how their code runs on the average end user who doesn't upgrade every couple years.

As someone who doesn't spend much on computer upgrades, I notice this everywhere. Especially when it comes to web development, where everything is optimized for chrome on mac. Don't have a laptop made in the last year? Enjoy a janky-scrolling slow-loading hard-to-read mess.

Also, the web devs have no idea how slow the connections in even the western world can be. At least I think so, if they had to experience a 4 Mbit/s connection more often they wouldn't push for Angular and such.

4Mbit/s is slow nowadays?

Unfortunately devs aren't given any time to optimise it to run on slow machines. It is not a priority.

You don't necessarily need to specifically optimize for it: just do your development on a slower machine. If you're using a compiled language, you can offload compilation with something like distcc for productivity's sake, but all your testing should be on the slow machine.

It'll be pretty clear if some change you've made is going to impact people on older hardware, because you'll notice the moment you make the change. And if it's unbearably slow for you, it will be for a good chunk of your users as well.

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