Subjectively others view gmail as slow and you view it as fast. Lets make it objective.
On a dual core cpu from 2014 with an ssd running linux I opened first firefox 70 and then chrome 75.
In both cases I was logged into my google account. In both cases I opened and then closed gmail to ensure what could be cached was cached.
In each I then entered mail.google.com and measured the time between hitting enter and seeing what looked like a usable interface. Lets compare that to other local ways of accessing email.
Running mu find maildir:/Gmail/INBOX took 9 ms this is easy to measure as it happens in the terminal.
Creating an emacsclient frame takes about 150ms added to the mu query which takes about 9. Logically there is some time required to render the view but its quite small and challenging to measure so lets say aprox 200ms or 1/5th of a second.
Loading the old school plain interface html interface to gmail took aprox 1.5 seconds.
It took 10 seconds in either browser to load the "modern" javascript gmail view.
For reference this is about 7 times slower than the html view or 50 times slower than mu4e.
> A response time of 100ms is perceived as instantaneous. Response times of 1 second or less are fast enough for users to feel they are interacting freely with the information. Response times greater than 10 seconds completely lose the user’s attention.
This is why the slow loading Gmail interface has a loading screen so it is perceptibly doing something rather than appearing to be frozen. After this the interface is fast enough in the context of web apps wherein the user expects a small delay between actions but not as quick as a desktop app which can trivially be perceptibly instant.
Interestingly the old interface despite using vastly less ram and loading much much quicker initially appears to say load a message slightly slower than the slower loading interface so the optimum web interface would appear to be the slower loading more sophisticated interface if you don't mind keeping that browser tab pinned and always running.
A desktop app is still on the overall the superior option.
Sure. I'm running Core i5 7600 / 16 GB RAM / Samsung SSD 750 EVO / GeForce GTX 1060.
It takes around 3-4 seconds to open for the first time and it takes around 2-3 seconds to open for the second time. For both Chrome and Firefox. I don't consider it slow. After it opened, every interaction is almost instant.
I recorded video to check exact timestamps, so you can check it for yourself: https://youtu.be/F7LPAIe0jhw
I don't know how could you expect ms-time response. I have 70ms ping to mail.google.com. It's just not possible for a web app to 9ms time response, unless you're living at data center. But as a web app, Gmail is amazing and pretty fast. I don't know why it's slow for other people, I'm not Google engineer and I don't have performance insights. I just telling that it's far from slow for me. Definitely not 10 seconds.
Your cpu is probably 4-6x faster than mine and not running in a mode optimized for battery life. You have twice as much ram and faster to boot with a faster ssd.
It's slow for others because a huge range of machines exist and tons have slower cpu, storage, or especially network.
Worldwide the majority is probably using worse machines especially in poorer countries than ours.
On a dual core cpu from 2014 with an ssd running linux I opened first firefox 70 and then chrome 75.
In both cases I was logged into my google account. In both cases I opened and then closed gmail to ensure what could be cached was cached.
In each I then entered mail.google.com and measured the time between hitting enter and seeing what looked like a usable interface. Lets compare that to other local ways of accessing email.
Running mu find maildir:/Gmail/INBOX took 9 ms this is easy to measure as it happens in the terminal.
Creating an emacsclient frame takes about 150ms added to the mu query which takes about 9. Logically there is some time required to render the view but its quite small and challenging to measure so lets say aprox 200ms or 1/5th of a second.
Loading the old school plain interface html interface to gmail took aprox 1.5 seconds.
It took 10 seconds in either browser to load the "modern" javascript gmail view.
For reference this is about 7 times slower than the html view or 50 times slower than mu4e.
Reading
https://www.pubnub.com/blog/how-fast-is-realtime-human-perce...
> A response time of 100ms is perceived as instantaneous. Response times of 1 second or less are fast enough for users to feel they are interacting freely with the information. Response times greater than 10 seconds completely lose the user’s attention.
This is why the slow loading Gmail interface has a loading screen so it is perceptibly doing something rather than appearing to be frozen. After this the interface is fast enough in the context of web apps wherein the user expects a small delay between actions but not as quick as a desktop app which can trivially be perceptibly instant.
Interestingly the old interface despite using vastly less ram and loading much much quicker initially appears to say load a message slightly slower than the slower loading interface so the optimum web interface would appear to be the slower loading more sophisticated interface if you don't mind keeping that browser tab pinned and always running.
A desktop app is still on the overall the superior option.
Is your gmail experience objectively different?