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Chrome 57 Limits Background Tabs Usage To 1% Per CPU Core (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Starting with Chrome 57, released last week, Google has put a muzzle on the amount of resources background tabs can use. According to Google engineers, Chrome 57 will temporarily delay a background tab's JavaScript timers if that tab is using more than 1% of a CPU core. Further, all background timers are suspended automatically after five minutes on mobile devices. The delay/suspension will halt resource consumption and cut down on battery usage, something that laptop, tablet, and smartphone owners can all relate. Google hinted in late January that it would limit JavaScript timers in background tabs, but nobody expected it to happen as soon as last week's Chrome release. By 2020, Google hopes to pause JavaScript operations in all background pages.

9 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Blame yourselves.... by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Web developers who write javascript that just keeps chewing up resources are why we have to resort to this.... You have no one to blame but yourselves for abusing the privilege of having active content that just sucks resources to get more add revenue....

    I know some of you developers actually think about such stuff and care about the end user's experience, but there are a few of you out there that are messing stuff up for all of us, so now the browser has to throttle you.. Thank You for nothing (from the rest of us).

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:Blame yourselves.... by Luthair · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its not really site developers for the most part - its f*cking ad networks, content networks, user tracking, etc.

  2. Re:Javascript 2017? by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because making a web app in JavaScript is cheaper than making five native apps, one each for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, iOS, and Android.

  3. Re:Good uses for background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I wish there was manual control on a per-tab basis (or better yet, per site basis).
    And I'd like to be able to set a tab to 0% cpu, just completely halt it, like a SIGSUSP signal.
    Mainly because I do not like web pages to contact the mothership if I am not using them, its a major privacy risk.
    I use a VPN and change my IP address on a regular basis. I can clear cookies, etc. But a web page that phones home with state data will be able to track me across IP addresses. And we all know that if it can be used to violate your privacy, there are 100 companies already doing exactly that.

  4. Re:Good uses for background by ohnocitizen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This feature should allow whitelisting domains to keep javascript fully active. I want my email client to keep running javascript. I don't want some random news page I left open to decide it's time to launch a video ad.

  5. Re: Javascript 2017? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ads and trackers

  6. Re:Javascript 2017? by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the whole internet runs on javascript, just saying

    The web isn't the internet, just saying.

  7. Hooray, now how about memory? by sabbede · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do background tabs really need to eat a quarter-gig?

  8. Re:What happens to notifications? by strikethree · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does this mean I will no longer get noticed when someone messages me?

    If the notifications take more than 1% of a modern processor, then yes, you will not receive timely notifications. It should be noted at this time that fully memory-protected, graphical interface, mostly modernish operating systems used to run with less CPU than even .1% of a modern CPU (Amiga, m68k). I would commit suicide in despair if a notification takes more CPU power than a full operating system. (Why yes, I am preparing the nitrogen bag and morphine now.)

    --
    "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen