Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Best Small-Footprint Modern Browser?
Annirak writes "I've recently started a paid internship at a company which is expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware. As a consequence, I've been issued a P4 2.4GHz with 512MB of RAM. Currently, I am using Firefox 4, but I find that it eats up far too much of my limited RAM. I'd rather not give up some of the more modern UI features that are offered by the current versions of Firefox and Chrome, but I need a smaller footprint. What other browsers are out there which could help me conserve resources?"
It's not expensive and if you get worth out of the investment it's a good thing all the way around.
Spoken like someone who hasn't looked at DDR1 RAM prices lately.
Don't do this. As illogical as uppity Slashdot "power users" think it is, IT departments hate it when people upgrade their machines without consulting them. Full-time employees, they'd probably be willing to let it slide after a stern talk, but for interns? No guarantees.
As for keeping memory usage down, Opera 9 is a good bet (10 is a little heavier), but no matter what browser you use, you may have to change your browsing habits a little. Loads of tabs open is going to eat up memory no matter what browser you're on, and all of them have memory leaks to some extent (though none quite so bad as Firefox...), so you may want to set your browser to "reopen the tabs I had last" on startup, and just quit-restart every now and then.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
"...expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware" is corporate terms for "..because we are almost broke"
My recommendation, just stay away.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
Whatever. Given how busy it sounds the IT department is, they should have bigger things to worry about than whether an intern added more memory to a machine. That change isn't going to conflict with their prebuilt system images the way that changing a video card would, and this machine is most likely going to the dumpster as soon as his internship is over anyway.
Furthermore, any competent IT department will know that adding unsupported software is a bigger problem than adding unsupported hardware. If they don't care about him installing whatever browser he wants, why would they care about adding more memory.
To the OP:
It is not YOUR computer. YOU should not, under any circumstances, upgrade it. People managed to do "real" work just fine a couple years ago when that computer was mainstream.
It's not ONLY a stick of ram. It's an indicator to your employer that you don't understand boundaries, roles, and responsibilities.
No, a stick of RAM will *NOT* fuck up their ANCIENT piece of shit GARAGE SALE pc.
And *if* on the OUT OF THIS GALAXY chance it did, they have much bigger issues.
If the machine is damaged somehow during installation, then yes, it will tick off IT.
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
Sorry Frosty, but you just don't seem to get that the IT department NEEDS to know what is going on with the equipment, regardless of whether it is a brand new shiny system, or an ancient hunk of crap.
If the OP simply gets permission to add RAM, or is lucky enough to convince the IT department to buy and install it, then everyone wins. If he just buys it, and installs it, then everyone loses.
With permission, the OP gets what he needs to function (as long as it is actually necessary, and the function provided is more than to just be able to watch the latest youtube videos), and the IT department knows about the change, so that if something goes wrong with the PC, they can correct it more easily.
The additional benefit is that the IT department can track the expense of bringing the antiquated garbage to a usable condition, and can justify to the bean counters that they need to bring in more new PC's so that the workers (full time, part time, AND interns) can function properly.
If the OP just acquires an additional stick of RAM, then:
1. He's out the cash for the RAM.
2. If the OP doesn't get the exact correct stick of RAM, then odd issues may arise, generating unnecessary expensive trouble tickets. In addition, if the OP doesn't admit that he/she did this, then there are extra steps introduced because the system is no longer what it is documented as... (It just adds extra unnecessary confusion.)
3. The machine works better, but the cost is not accounted for, and it makes it more difficult to justify replacing it, as there is no cost that can be shown to accounting.
Frankly, it just screws up everything if it doesn't go through the IT department.
Once the precedent is set, then you have opened up a can of worms where every intern (and other person in the establishment) thinks it's okay to change out system parts to suit their fancy. Bob changes out his video card, Sue adds a blue-ray burner, and Elmo decides that he prefers to use Open Office and Firefox, because if they can change the hardware (and drivers), then why can't he change software?
You end up with a difficult to maintain mess, and the bean counters are wondering how come it is so expensive to run the computers...
(This doesn't even begin to touch on security issues)
It's not ONLY a stick of ram. It's an indicator to your employer that you don't understand boundaries, roles, and responsibilities.
Wow, I'm glad I don't work at your company. I've been blessed with a sane IT guy where I work. When I said I needed a Linux desktop, he got me a bare PC, handed it over to me and said, "Your on your own". We get along great.
WTF?
I worked for a community college that didn't have shit for money. I brought in my own printer/scanner, asked IT to load drivers which they were happy to do, and emphasized I didn't need any support and would be delighted to be whatever their idea of a good customer was. (That's a drastic change from the snivelling and venting they usually dealt with.)
IT was happy, my boss was happy (he didn't have a scanner), and I could print without disturbing anyone else. The boss authorized buying ink cartridges since all printing was work-related.
You can get lots of things done by ASKING NICELY. Fucking customer skills aren't rocket science. Offering to give the job free stuff to improve PRODUCTIVITY works fine and shows initiative.
I did the same thing as an NCO in the Air Force. It got shit done, it was cheap (I get more gear than I need for free since I fix PCs on the side), and it lightens the workload for other people.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Nail on the head.
To the OP: If the hardware is *legitimately* too old to support your business needs (not your "slashdot reading" needs), then you should build a case for an upgrade or replacement. To do that, figure out how much they're paying you, and how long you'll be paid for as an intern.
Then calculate how much time you're wasting due to a slow computer. And don't just pull numbers out of your ass. Actually time stuff like bootup/login, load times, etc., and ask a co-worker with a modern system if you can do the same with theirs as a baseline, so you can calculate what portion of that time is actually wasted time due to slow/old/bad hardware.
Then, you make you pitch like so: "I'm spending X minutes per day twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to finish running. You're paying me X dollars an hour. A RAM upgrade would cost X dollars, and reduce my wasted daily time by X%." If the cost of the upgrade is more than the amount of time they're paying you for that's legitimately wasted then no, a RAM upgrade doesn't make sense. If the cost of the upgrade is significantly cheaper than the value of the time they're paying you for that's legitimately wasted, then yes, a RAM upgrade makes a lot of sense.
If you can't get management support, then spending your own money and time is foolish, and is just as likely to be unappreciated & met with hostility as it is to be met with cheers of "Way to take the initiative, old chap!"
Never had a bad stick of RAM? Ever? It can be a bitch to diagnose when you're getting a bluescreen every few days with an error message from a different driver.
Anecdotal evidence if that would have been the company I work for:
1) Some department gets interns, the IT department gets a call the day they arrive that they "need a PC now!!!".
2) No clear classification ever on what they need the PC for.
So of course, we have to pull some junker out from somewhere so that they can have one "now", because it is a very bad idea to have new PCs lying around and getting outdated before someone actually request to have one.
When it becomes evident (perhaps through an e-mail to the person responsible for the intern, CCed to us (IT)) that that person actually needs better hardware to do their job, then that person usually gets it, because having people waste time with not adequate hardware usually costs way more than an upgrade.
Encouraging an intern to approach the corporate world by saying "Hey, since you won't give me the proper tools to do my job, is it okay if I spend my own money (which you're paying me) to purchase my own?" Is doing him no favors. If your company isn't concerned about wasting your time, then you shouldn't be either, and you certainly shouldn't be paying your own money to "help out" your company if they're to cheap to do it themselves.
If you offer it, they will ride you for all you're worth:
"Why don't we just page you using your personal cell phone?" "Great, you can reimburse me a portion of my monthly bill then?" "Oh we can't do that." "Then don't page me on my personal number."
"Why don't you just work from home in the evening?" "Great, will you provide me with the tools and reimburse me for part of my home internet fees?" "Oh we can't do that." "Then I can't work from home."
If you don't set limits on the freeloading your company is allowed to engage in, you're doing yourself a disservice.
Oh man, you have to be trolling, right? Right?
You've obviously never had to troubleshoot issues caused by a bad/mismatched stick of RAM. I feel real bad for the kid in IT who has to investigate why "all of a sudden" this computer is having occasional blue screens, application crashes, or some other symptom which could just as easily be attributed to a dozen different causes. Of course the person who installed the RAM won't own up to it at that point, as the "user" knows what they did is wrong but has probably convinced themselves that installing RAM couldn't possibly have been the cause ... after all the computer turns on, right?
I've seen all this happen just because a kingston dimm didn't want to play nice with a corsair dimm, or vice-versa. Sometimes things that, in theory, should never be an issue end up being the cause of my greatest headaches. Users playing DIY don't make things any easier.
In a good company, the extra that you're willing to do pays off very well in the long run. Working an extra 20 hours a week, unpaid for, unasked for, and filling up half a bookcase with texts I bought myself (no company payback) helped take me from about $45000 a year to $105000 a year in 8 years.
Doing the same in a poor company earned me praise and promises and little else. Know your company. Know yourself.
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