+ run your broswer in the cloud

content/u/blog/how-to-run-your-browser-in-the-cloud/contents.lr

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+title: How to run your browser in the cloud
+---
+pub_date: 2019-11-18
+---
+author: Nico Schottelius
+---
+twitter_handle: NicoSchottelius
+---
+_hidden: no
+---
+_discoverable: yes
+---
+abstract:
+Finally, freeing my notebook from memory and CPU pressure
+---
+body:
+
+So I have this problem: no matter which notebook I buy, some
+applications are always to "heavy" for it. Notably running two
+browsers has so far exhausted the available RAM on my notebook.
+
+## The Pros and Cons of the cloud
+
+For many years I have the strict policy to be able to work
+autonomously with my notebook. So moving parts of what I use to the
+cloud was rarely an option, to be able to work offline.
+
+However this comes with a drawback that switching the notebook can be
+a bit cumbersome, so I migrated to a git + nextcloud + imap
+based setup in which all "small files" (notes, source code, etc.)
+reside in git repositories and "big files" (photos, videos, etc.)
+reside in Nextcloud.
+
+One thing I always want to have locally, are my emails, which I read
+in [emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/)
+(using [mu4e](https://www.djcbsoftware.nl/code/mu/mu4e.html)).
+Using mbsync / isync this problem has also been solved - my mails are
+local and remote.
+
+## The browser
+
+While you can make a joke about emacs consuming all my memory (it
+stands for "[Eight Megabytes And Constantly
+Swapping](https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/gnuemacs.acro.exp.html)",
+doesn't it?), the real problem are actually browsers. It was a problem
+on my 256MB RAM notebook in 1998 with Netscape Navigator, it is still
+a problem with firefox and chromium and 16GB RAM in 2019.
+
+Even if you are crazy and upgrade to a 32GB RAM notebook, like I did,
+you finally become CPU bound! Yes, indeed, the tabs of my browser
+consume all CPU cores - while it is idling.
+
+There is an important discussion around whether and why browsers use
+so many resources, however this is not the focus of this post...
+
+
+## The browser in the cloud
+
+Working at [ungleich](https://ungleich.ch), literally less than
+50 meters away from the [Data Center
+Light](https://datacenterlight.ch), I was wondering whether or not I
+can actually use one of our VMs to outsource my browser.
+
+First check: does it make sense? I use the browser, to browse the web
+and it is rarely of use in an offline scenario. So it is a possible
+candidate for moving out of my notebook.
+
+Second check: how would I access it? I potentially want to be able to
+access it from anywhere, even without my notebook. Luckily we have
+recently gained some knowledge about
+[Apache Guacamole](https://guacamole.apache.org/), which lets me
+access VNC, RDP and even SSH via the web. Guacamole also supports 2FA,
+which is a nice add-on.
+
+Sanity check: So... I can use a browser (!) to access my browser (!)
+in the cloud. Does that actually make sense? And the answer for me is
+"yes", because instead of running many tabs, I only have to run 1 tab
+locally and can outsource the rest.
+
+## More in the cloud
+
+Actually, what happens behind the scenes is that the VM is running
+VNC, so I have actually full access to a remote Linux desktop via
+browser and can even run applications like libreoffice.
+
+Because I think it's a cool thing to have, our team at ungleich added
+it as an offer to our [Black IPv6 Friday
+Crowdfunding](https://swiss-crowdfunder.com/campaigns/black-ipv6-friday?locale=en).