1+++
  2title = "Modern web bloat"
  3date = 2021-04-09
  4[taxonomies]
  5category = ["tech"]
  6tags = ["tips", "vent"]
  7+++
  8
  9This is it. My first blog post; I guess I just became a boomer.
 10
 11Inspiration
 12-----------
 13
 14Some time ago I stumbled upon [this video](https://odysee.com/@Luke:7/a-demonstration-of-modern-web-bloat:f),
 15where the popular Linux influencer [Luke Smith](https://lukesmith.xyz)
 16talked about the effort of looking up a Chicken Parmesan recipe in 2021
 17without having any adblock or privacy extensions enabled.
 18
 19That's because most modern websites take a lot of time to load framework
 20files, ads and trackers. While that's kinda functional, I think we
 21should change our habits and start making simple websites again.
 22
 23In fact, I thought about creating this blog (and article) when I saw
 24[Lonami](https://lonami.dev/)'s minimal website and immediately noticed
 25how fast and clean it feels.
 26
 27Yeah, this looks like a first world problem and it probably is, but it's
 28not as subtle as you think. I'm actually convinced that the internet
 29**could** actually benefit from this way of thinking, and that's what I'm
 30going to talk about. 
 31
 32
 33
 34The problem
 35-----------
 36
 37In the early days of the internet, it was common for webpages to be
 38written using only HTML, so we had very ugly but functional websites.
 39
 40As technology went on, sites needed to get more modern-looking and
 41_interactive_; that's why CSS and JavaScript were introduced into the
 42mix, allowing for dynamic websites that could actually change based
 43on user input.
 44
 45As of nowadays, a lot more stuff went into the mix, to the point where
 46the browser is now the most common program we use in our OS: you can, in
 47fact, use it for doing things that 15+ years ago required external
 48programs, like:
 49
 50* playing music and video,
 51* reading PDF files,
 52* doing office work,
 53* checking e-mail,
 54* cloud storage,
 55* etc...
 56
 57I guess people just find it more comfortable if they can do everything
 58with a single program, and they're not to blame for that. This _is_
 59the easiest approach for unexperienced people: just have a program that
 60does everything, instead of having to learn how to use a bunch of
 61different software.
 62
 63This plethora of uses is possible today because of the existence of
 64various libraries and frameworks that simplify JavaScript and CSS and
 65make them easier to develop complicated websites with.
 66This is good for basic web users who just want functional websites, and
 67great for developers since they can easily code advanced functions
 68inside the browser, which makes them work in every OS.
 69
 70Sadly, this brings us to the problem: any modern website has become a
 71burden for any browser to load, since our browser needs to download and
 72parse through each library and often fill the page content as you
 73scroll through.
 74In his video, Luke Smith found that a simple Chicken Parmesan recipe
 75would take up to _5-10 megabytes_, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it
 76actually is.
 77
 78It's easier to understand it if you think about it with video-games;
 79any game on 16-bit[^gaming-storage] consoles and earlier, including
 80full-fledged 30+ hour adventures like _Final Fantasy 6_ and _Chrono
 81Trigger_, weighs less than one single recipe page.
 82
 83
 84The solution
 85--------
 86
 87Well, I don't think this "problem" is getting solved soon, as new
 88frameworks for web development are constantly being introduced. Sadly,
 89it's a one-way train, but if you're a web-dev you could actually make a
 90difference yourself!
 91
 92I mean, this can not apply to all websites. Some of them just _NEED_ to
 93be as responsive and interactive as they are; most of them actually just
 94became bloated at a certain time period (probably mid-2000s) when having
 95a flashy website was cool and different from what everyone else had.
 96
 97Nowadays you can be different than other websites by using plain HTML
 98and CSS for your website: this ensures your pages will load instantly
 99and be compatible even with the oldest of browsers!
100
101If you like this philosophy, you can check out other projects that aim
102for a simpler and faster web, like these ones:
103* [zola](https://www.getzola.org/), a simple and modern static site
104engine;
105* [based.cooking](https://based.cooking/), a modern recipe website based
106 on collaboration via GitHub;
107* [wiby.me](https://wiby.me/), a search engine that aims to only index
108classic style webpages.
109
110Footnotes
111--------
112
113[^gaming-storage]: As stated in [this article](https://blogs.umass.edu/Techbytes/2014/02/10/history-of-gaming-storage/#attachment_2827).
114
115
116