We’ve all noticed that software never seems to get any faster no matter how much faster the hardware gets. This easily-observable fact is usually explained in one of two ways:
- Software devs are lazy, and refuse to optimize more than they absolutely must
- Software devs are ambitious, and use all available CPU cycles / IOPS to do as much as possible–so more cycles/IOPS available == more detailed work delivered
These things are both true, but they aren’t the root cause of the issue–they’re simply how the issue tends to be addressed and/or to expose itself.
The real reason software never gets (visibly) faster unless you install much older operating systems and applications on much newer hardware is because typically, humans aren’t comfortable with “machine-speed” interfaces.
For as long as I’ve been alive, a typical discrete human-visible task performed by a computer–opening an application, saving a file, loading a web page–has tended to take roughly 1,500ms on a typical to slow PC, or 500ms on a fast PC.
1,500ms is about the length of time it takes to say “hey, pass me that screwdriver, would you?” and have a reasonably attentive buddy pass you the screwdriver. 500ms is about the length of time it takes to say “Scalpel,” and have a reasonably attentive, professional surgical assistant slap the scalpel in your hand.
If you’re still on the fence about this, consider “transitions.” When a simple, discrete task like opening an application gets much faster than 500ms despite some devs being lazy and other devs being ambitious… that’s when the visual transitions start to appear.
On macOS, when you open applications or switch focus to them, they “stream” from the lower right-hand corner of the screen up to the upper-left corner of where the window will actually be, and expand out from there into the lower-right until the app is full sized. Windows expands windows upward from the taskbar. Even Linux distributions intended for end-users employ graphical transitions which slow things down. Why?
Because “instantaneous” response is unsettling for most humans, whether they directly understand and can articulate that fact or not.
To be fair, I have seen this general idea–that humans aren’t comfortable with low task latency–occasionally floated around over the decades. But the part I haven’t seen is the direct comparison with the typical task latency a human assistant would provide, and I think that’s a pretty illustrative and convincing point.
If you like this theory and find it useful, feel free to just refer to it as “Screwdriver Theory”–but I wouldn’t be upset if you linked to this page to explain it. =)
I’d be willing to try near instantaneous interfaces.
Nothing’s really stopping you, Doug–just install a much older operating system onto much newer hardware, like when I used to put Windows 3.11 for Workgroups on Packard Bell crapboxes sold with Windows 95 or Windows 98!
The problem is, then you need to find something to *do* with it that makes you really feel like you’re experiencing the difference. I find that most folks these days don’t realize quite HOW dependent they really are on extremely modern Internet browsers and TLS stacks until… for one reason or another, they no longer have an extremely modern browser and TLS stack, and discover that, hey, how about that, turns out I do very, *very* little on a 100% local-only basis these days…
For the most part, though, you can get the experience even without needing to install decades-old operating systems on the bare metal–if you’ve got a reasonably fast computer, 8-bit emulators (eg for the Apple ][ series of computers, or for 1980s-era MS-DOS machines) will generally provide tremendously more processing power than the emulated applications were designed to require, despite how many hardware CPU cycles are being burned on emulating the environments those systems needed.
The same massive overclocking that makes those very old action-based games unplayable without some kind of slowdown utility will *also* impact turn-based games and non-real-time productivity apps–think interactive fiction (particularly the very old ones like Colossal Cave Adventure) on the game side, or eg Lotus 1-2-3 or WordPerfect (5.x or earlier) on the productivity side.
Depending on just *how* much firepower you can bring to bear, you may also be able to get the effect by firing up Windows 3.11 for Workgroups in DOSBox. But due to the emulation/virtualization overheard, that might not necessarily be fast enough for “machine-speed interfaces” if you don’t have a reasonably beefy system; IDK, I haven’t really messed with that too much.
https://www.howtogeek.com/230359/how-to-install-windows-3.1-in-dosbox-set-up-drivers-and-play-16-bit-games/