

Chrome bloat brainstorm - crizCraig
http://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/group/chromium-dev/browse_thread/thread/7b30efc17901bb97

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relix
_The answer to "why" given in that thread is very interesting:_

"Many reasons, but two off the top of my head: 1. We do distribution deals
with Chrome, where we bundle Chrome with other products. These get difficult
when our binary grows. 2. We see increased download failures / install
dropoffs as the binary grows, especially in countries with poor bandwidth like
India. India also happens to be a very good market for Chrome (we have good
market share there and growing), so that's also very problematic."

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JonnieCache
This is a beautiful thing in a world of 600mb printer driver install packages.

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harisenbon
I was recommended a new mapping program for my iphone yesterday, and when I
went to download it, it said that I needed _4.2GB_ of space to install.

Also as a "haha, crappy bandwith!" aside: I found it strange to think of most
people only having -700kbps in the states. I have a 100mbps line for
50USD/month and regularly get around 60mbps. I have to install chrome on
various computers for work, and I've never even noticed more than a few second
delay between downloading the binaries and installation.

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tjarratt
Not all Americans can afford $50 USD / month for a luxury service. There are
also wide swaths of the US that don't have any better options since telecoms
refuse to build more infrastructure.

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bmj
Agreed. My company's offering opened my eyes to two things:

1\. Many people, even in the States, have sloooow connections at home. 2\.
Many people have very poor cell/GSM/GPRS coverage. We still have to provide a
POTS modem for our handheld data collection devices[1].

[1] We just released a new device (smartphone) that supports a POTS modem.
Think of that! A cellphone that transfers data via a dial up modem.

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xtacy
I wonder if it's possible to have a basic browser that is very small and has
most of the functionality with minimum 3rd party libraries like Flash/PDF
plugin. Once the browser starts, the full software installation continues,
just like Chrome's silent software update. Slowly, the users have the entire
browser installed!

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crizCraig
Yeah, I tried to post a similar suggestion on the group. Stuff like developer
tools, native client, gpu, themes, and extensions might be able to get lazy
loaded.

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xtacy
@Software devs: How are modules implemented in softwares that you create? Are
dlopen()s sufficient or are there issues?

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christoph
I hear there's a team at Adobe that everyone loves to hate that consistently
adds features and keeps binary sizes down year after year...

True story.

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nodata
and I heard there's a team that doesn't add that icon you deleted back to your
desktop every time an update is released.

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erikpukinskis
Netscape 2.02 was 3.13 megs, for comparison.

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_delirium
Huh, I hadn't realized Netscape was that big way back in 1996! From that point
of reference, Chrome's 26.2 megs doesn't actually seem huge. If we take 384
kbps DSL to be today's equivalent to a 14.4 kbps modem (low end of the
"normal" internet connection), it's a 3x quicker download as well.

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crizCraig
related: <http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20045776-264.html>

~~~
stanleydrew
There's not really much more information in there beyond what's in the google
groups thread. Pretty good summary though.

