From 1c4cca904ed7e7fdd171e26e9ff42aacf1bd6f32 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nico Schottelius Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2019 12:23:34 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] + run your broswer in the cloud --- .../contents.lr | 88 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 88 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/u/blog/how-to-run-your-browser-in-the-cloud/contents.lr diff --git a/content/u/blog/how-to-run-your-browser-in-the-cloud/contents.lr b/content/u/blog/how-to-run-your-browser-in-the-cloud/contents.lr new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acc643e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/u/blog/how-to-run-your-browser-in-the-cloud/contents.lr @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +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).