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

Posted by BeauHD on from the limited-resources dept.

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.

7 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "more add revenue"

      Surely at least one of those words is redundant. Add means addition or additional, so "more additional" is a strange thing to say. just "more revenue" or "additional revenue" would be sufficient.

      Or maybe you should just fucking learn that the abbreviation for "ADvertisement" is "ad" with one fucking d, dipshit.

  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. Audio and WebSockets defeat this by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    sometimes I'll listen to a podcast/music in a another tab

    Then this does not affect you. From the featured article:

    The good news is that background tabs playing audio or maintaining real-time connections like WebSockets or WebRTC won’t be affected by the 1% CPU usage limit.

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

    making a web app in JavaScript

    But nobody does that. They make ordinary webpages that use 500KB of javascript code to make something that looks (and feels) like a cheap 40KB HTML page based on iframes from back in 1996. Big static posters with HD stock images, 3 lines of text, and a download/email button. Why do these pages need javascript at all? What is javascript for?!

  5. I Like This Change by TranquilVoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    A step in the right direction. Next they'll be limiting chome.exe processes to only 80% of installed RAM!

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

    Ads and trackers