Comments on: Page’s Law: Why PCs Get Slower, Not Faster

By: Jim (one of many!)

Jim (one of many!) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:52:16 +0000

This is not a fallacy–it's absolutely true. I am constantly amazed that stupid apps that do almost nothing are 1.5MB. Example: App to scan the hard drive and show folders in order from biggest to smallest, with very basic graphics: 1.4Mb. And that's just the installer package…I dunno if it expands into more than that once installed. WTF?

My 1982 Commodore 64 had a floppy drive that could format a disk on its own without bothering the CPU. Why do I so often have to sit idle, held hostage by an hourglass on the screen, while my PC does something mysterious on the hard drive for 20 seconds? 20 seconds is like 10,000 CPU-years! Yet the OS / apps / I/O drivers can't spare a couple of those bazillion CPU cycles to let me go type some data into my word processor while the hard drive does whatever the hell it's doing? WTF?

My computers were slow in the 80s, but by and large I knew *why* they were slow (loading/saving data, sorting big lists, drawing fancy graphics, etc.). My computers today are often slow, but now I have no idea why. Correction: I do know why–it's because efficiency and optimization are no longer given as much importance. I just don't know why *that* is the case.

By: Condensed Knowledge - May 31, 2009 - Lists - Raoul Pop

Condensed Knowledge - May 31, 2009 - Lists - Raoul Pop — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:30:37 +0000

[...] Page’s Law: Why PCs Get Slower, Not Faster [...]

By: moshez

moshez — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:10:09 +0000

A common fallacy, I'm afraid. The reason software is "slow" is because it does things people need, but could not afford earlier.

By: gargravarr

gargravarr — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:09:44 +0000

I bought a Vic-20 in 1982 as a 12 year old. I joked to someone the other day that my iMac probably doesn’t have any files on it as small as 3.5k. Feature creep is not just a character in a scary movie. Just because you can put in a feature doesn’t make it useful if it slows your work down.

By: Perhaps When a Talking Head Says It They Will Believe ~ Revelations From An Unwashed Brain

Sat, 30 May 2009 04:49:27 +0000

[...] McCracken in Technologizer says – Page’s Law is painfully true. It helps to explain why 2001-era PCs which ran Windows XP [...]

By: Carlos Oliveira

Carlos Oliveira — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:25:17 +0000

You are right that developers don’t care too much about performance nowadays. However, this has the advantage that we are more free to reuse software written by other people, and to employ “slow” techniques such as garbage collection, and dynamic types.

By: Scott Rosenberg

Scott Rosenberg — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:41:52 +0000

Page’s Law is indeed true — but it is not Page’s. Nicklaus Wirth can rightly claim this one. Wirth’s Law said, “Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.”