• Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Topic: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

I am using my little acer netbook more and more. Quite frequently I have many browser tabs opened, one of them always gmail, which I control with keyboard shortcuts.

Now my question: I find that sometimes the above solution gets terrible slow. Therefor I'd like to change workflow to something more efficient. Today I tried  to run icedove alongside my broeser - but that felt very ineffcient. So now I am wondering if the "gmail-inside-browser" is actually the best/fastest/lightest solution?

Other ideas could be:
Seamonky stand alone: The great web reports that this is a least more efficient then thunderbird/icedove+browser.

OR maybe go to the terminal: with a gui-browser + mutt/alpine in terminal.

What would you think is the most ressource efficient setup (in terms of consumed RAM and CPU)

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

You could change browsers. Currently I use Chromium and I have Gmail in a pinned tab so its always available.

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

Thanks Anonymous. I would be more then willing to change browsers - if gmail in a browser is snappier then a seperate app. I take it this is your experience?

BTW: I use chrome quit a lot. I only have two small gripes with it. 1) It's "one job pr. tab" philosophy is good - but when ram is scarce it can become a problem quite fast.  2) I really miss an "mouseless browsing extension" like the one firefox has.

  • benj1
  • Wiki Wizard
  • Offline
  • From: Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2009-09-05
  • Posts: 1,084

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

you could always set something up to check gmail for new emails and notify you, so you don't need to keep a tab open, of course it depends how often you are sending/receiving emails.

from a cpu / ram saving perspective, your biggest saving is going to come from using a lighter browser, the marginal cost of an extra tab in iceweasel/firefox isnt that high so potential savings from replacing it with a separate app are low at best.

- - - - - - - - Wiki Pages - - - - - - -
#! install guide           *autostart programs, modify the menu & keybindings
configuring Conky       *installing scripts
  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

achristoffersen wrote:

2) I really miss an "mouseless browsing extension" like the one firefox has.

Look at this thread:

http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … -chromium/

Although there may not be equivalent to Firefox's Mouseless Browsing addon, you could try vimium.

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

@Benj1 - Thanks - I guess you are right about absolute ressources being minimum with a webinterface. On the other hand - I am not sure that it will always be the most responsive.  I often find that gmail is not as fast as I'd like. If for nothing else, then simple because of datatransfer through the web (going from message to message) being slow.

@anonymous. Had seen that thread - but NOT noticed vimium. I am trying it out right now. From my perspective it is not as nice as MLB but it's a lot better then nothing :-) - Thanks for the tip!

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

@achristoffersen - you could try Gmail's basic HTML interface instead of the standard one. Just look at the bottom of the page for the links.

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • gareim
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: Chicago
  • Registered: 2009-11-11
  • Posts: 154

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

@achristoffersen

Have you tried using the gmail extension for Chrome? Then you wouldn't have to keep a tab open just for gmail, and still know when you have a new email.

  • From: Cumbria / UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-06
  • Posts: 262

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

Why not Opera? It has a built-in e-mail client, very easily usable with Gmail accounts, and you can select the frequency at which your IMAP boxes are checked.
There even is a low-bandwith mode for e-mail checking!
It's fast, customizable, and doesn't use tons of CPU.

#Linux user 482038, eeepc 1000H and 901
  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

oupsemma wrote:

Why not Opera? It has a built-in e-mail client, very easily usable with Gmail accounts, and you can select the frequency at which your IMAP boxes are checked.
There even is a low-bandwith mode for e-mail checking!
It's fast, customizable, and doesn't use tons of CPU.

Thats a good idea. I newer used the built in mail-client in opera - but I like the browser a lot. Only thing: No lastpass extension, no mouseless. But I will certainly fire up Opera 10.6 and see where it takes me. Thanks.

  • From: Cumbria / UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-06
  • Posts: 262

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

Using Opera without a mouse is working very well (that's why I like it, using keys only); you'll find the related page there, with shortcuts lists:
http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/nomouse/

For LastPass, there's a bookmarklet working in Opera:
http://forums.lastpass.com/viewtopic.ph … amp;t=9719
http://blog.lastpass.com/2009/01/opera- … opera.html

To get rid of ads, there's :
http://fanboy.co.nz/adblock/opera/
http://cg.smir.de/

Tamil has a lot of tips for Opera:
http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/toggle-r … tClickMenu

You can also emulate GreaseMonkey:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/28550
Userscripts for Opera:
http://userscripts.org/tags/opera

Here, you've got the equivalents Firefox-Opera:
http://files.myopera.com/Rijk/blog/extensions.html

And I've not been talking about the built-in Notes features, nor the built-in IRC, nor the Opera Link that helps synchronizing all your different instances of Opera (and Mini) and other browsers.

Bonus, an Opera bookmarks pipemenu for Openbox:
http://www.gsmblog.net/openbox-opera-pipe-menu    big_smile

Last edited by oupsemma (2010-08-05 04:21:42)

#Linux user 482038, eeepc 1000H and 901
  • From: Limuru, Kenya
  • Registered: 2010-07-13
  • Posts: 26

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

Thanks oupsemma for your tips about Opera. I'm using it for some time and find it very satisfactory, though didn't try its mail component.

Regarding email clients I like claws / sylpheed they are rather small and efficient (for my small needs) and I like the simple Mail directory (format?) which is very clean and portable.
Also trying to get to know a little about mutt (am being fascinated with terminal apps big_smile )

  • Registered: 2009-03-23
  • Posts: 354

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

Thanks oupsemma. Kool links - very much appreciated. But - and please correct me if I am wrong - with opera there is no way I can jump directly to a link - I have to browse through them with shift+arrow, right? This is a deal-breaker for me. E.g. to get to the "new post" link on this topic from the "active topics" page, I had to browse through 15 links. With vimium i pres "f" and e.g "fa". With MLB and firefox I simple pres something like "36"+enter. - This is much much easier and faster. If the norvegian guys could offer something like vimium / MLB I'd be happy to go all the way :-)

Thanks again though!

  • From: Cumbria / UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-06
  • Posts: 262

Re: your experiences with ressource-efficient browsing + email?

No feature like that; the thing that approaches it is Snap Links, but I don't know whether you will like it or not:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/to … ?id=206662

PS: But why getting through the 15 links, when you can use Fn + Down to reach the end of the page where you know the last posts are going to be?

#Linux user 482038, eeepc 1000H and 901