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