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Comment by ozgrakkurt | Hacker News Reader

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ozgrakkurt

What is the argument here?

Basically every device has a GPU.

Why is it bad on 4K?

Did you measure anything in a real setup?

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>What is the argument here?

it's an incredible waste of resources, especially at high resolutions, to redraw a Gui application like you would a videogame at 60 FPS. These immediate mode UI frameworks were made in particular for that case, to be embedded in real time software, not for a UI where the state is idle or changes only occasionally.

You only redraw when there’s interaction. In exchange you use basically no memory for state retention which frees up the real resource constraint.

Redrawing the whole thing consumes resources. That's power and resources not available to other tasks. There is value in being clever with what you draw.

Yes but it comes at the trade off persistent memory usage. It isn’t just free, and depending on the application in question that may be a lot better trade to make if, say, the app runs in the background or is rarely interacted with.

Moving the mouse is an interaction because there are hover effects.

> Basically every device has a GPU.

Many VMs and remote desktops don't. (Or can't really make use of)

This is an app that connects to your phone and sends messages via the app. I don't think it's that crazy to decide that running on a VM or remote desktop is out of scope.

It doesn't connect to your phone, it just authenticates via the app. I deal with a company where people use thin clients that run WhatsApp on the remote desktop. It's not an unusual case.

Interesting, I apparently skimmed the "Link to your phone" section too quickly (and I guess have a different sense of what that phrase implies than the author of that README, since a "link" that no longer requires the other end to exist anymore doesn't really seem like a link at all).

It is a potentially unsafe app from some random person that can backdoor your computer so it doesn't make sense to run it without a VM.

I mean, sure, that's not wrong, but at that point, why are you letting the random person's app send and receive WhatsApp messages on your behalf at all? I'm pretty sure you'd need to give it network access, at which point being in a VM isn't going to protect your data from getting exfiltrated.

I disagree. First, not every GPU supports Vulkan and other modern standards, and not every GPU even supports executing code. Drivers are often buggy/unsupported. Even if there is a GPU, compiling shaders takes time and CPU must be used in the meantime.

Finally, for app to have access to GPU, it must run on a host unrestricted. Why would you take somebody's code from Internet and run it unrestricted, violating the principle of minimal pivileges? That does not sound smart, especially if you have a crypto wallet on the same computer. Those who do not use VM or sandboxes will sooner or later learn this.

> Did you measure anything in a real setup?

VM is a real setup. Why would I run third-party apps without a sandbox?

Also, today we have an advanced AI that is capable of solving science problems. Should not be difficult to build a GUI that works fast without graphic acceleration, right?

Finally: the modern DDR4 DRAM has approximately 40-50 Gb/s bandwidth. Updating 4K screen at 120 Hz requires 3840 × 2160 × 4 (actually should be 3) × 120 ≈ 4 Gb/s. No problem at all.

The argument is that it's wasteful? Even if I had a GPU, I'd rather use it to do inference for insurance rather than drawing a simple UI?

Why do I have to state the obvious like that?

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