I'm not sure what the fuss is about; I'm still playing on a ZX81 with 1KB memory pack plugged into the back. Everything is fine - I just have to make sure I don't get too excited and wobble the table when I'm about to checkmate. :-)
Playing chess online was an easy thing 20 years ago, on a Pentium 1, or on a 486, with a modem, not dsl.
Actually I have often wondered why today on my not sooo old hardware of today i feel like my little machine is too slow for playing on lichess.
Imho there is something not quite "perfect" about that.
Maybe the interface is not so fast, modern and well designed as the develloper(s) think(s)?!
Of course It is overall great, and I want to add my thank you, of course, but this is still somethin that bothers me from time to time.
Actually I have often wondered why today on my not sooo old hardware of today i feel like my little machine is too slow for playing on lichess.
Imho there is something not quite "perfect" about that.
Maybe the interface is not so fast, modern and well designed as the develloper(s) think(s)?!
Of course It is overall great, and I want to add my thank you, of course, but this is still somethin that bothers me from time to time.
@pacolito I can't explain why it your PC feels slow, as it'll be many times faster than your old 486. It will have been running locally, not running as a website served up from a box in (probably) a different country. And it would have been playing a very weak game compared to the latest Stockfish.
It's hard/boring to explain to non-developers but web development is something of a moving target and it's just boring to have to cope with multiple browsers. You need to either use a framework or two to handle the differences, or cope with them yourself manually. Things are better now but in the older browsers (the ones being dropped, for instance) the standards were often just ignored so you needed to do tricks to determine what browser you had, what version, the screen resolution etc and them compensate for them not rendering the page correctly. It's this sort of nonsense you get away from with newer browsers which are a lot more compliant. It's not that it's not as well designed as "the develloper(s) (sic) thing" - just that it's a pain in the ****. I don't know how old your pc is but one of my machines is a 10 year old linux box with the latest Firefox and it runs Lichess just fine. Perhaps your PC is even older, or maybe it's running Windows. Who knows, if you have the double whammy of Windows and an old, unsupported browser your PC is probably working flat out as node in a botnet, mining bitcoins or encrypting your MP3s!
It's hard/boring to explain to non-developers but web development is something of a moving target and it's just boring to have to cope with multiple browsers. You need to either use a framework or two to handle the differences, or cope with them yourself manually. Things are better now but in the older browsers (the ones being dropped, for instance) the standards were often just ignored so you needed to do tricks to determine what browser you had, what version, the screen resolution etc and them compensate for them not rendering the page correctly. It's this sort of nonsense you get away from with newer browsers which are a lot more compliant. It's not that it's not as well designed as "the develloper(s) (sic) thing" - just that it's a pain in the ****. I don't know how old your pc is but one of my machines is a 10 year old linux box with the latest Firefox and it runs Lichess just fine. Perhaps your PC is even older, or maybe it's running Windows. Who knows, if you have the double whammy of Windows and an old, unsupported browser your PC is probably working flat out as node in a botnet, mining bitcoins or encrypting your MP3s!
@Fates2
Chess.com is a for-profit business. Lichess is coded in people's spare time as far as I can tell. The Lichess developers don't have to answer to anyone. It's an open source project. Chess.com risk losing paying subscribers with change. So they lose a few users.
I don't see many people stopping playing as a result of this change. A lot more people are going to be able to use the site, especially the studies/practice/forums, which are inaccessible (essentially) to mobile users and people without a larger screen device. In developing countries, for instance. India's on fire right now:
twitter.com/TarjeiJS/status/1119222700080357376
Chess.com is a for-profit business. Lichess is coded in people's spare time as far as I can tell. The Lichess developers don't have to answer to anyone. It's an open source project. Chess.com risk losing paying subscribers with change. So they lose a few users.
I don't see many people stopping playing as a result of this change. A lot more people are going to be able to use the site, especially the studies/practice/forums, which are inaccessible (essentially) to mobile users and people without a larger screen device. In developing countries, for instance. India's on fire right now:
twitter.com/TarjeiJS/status/1119222700080357376
@Doofenshmirtz
You make some good points indeed: Why not a desktop application instead of an interface that relies on modern browsers only: As far as I can see exactly these modern browsers are the main problem, as they are ridiculously heavy and eat memory like Pacman in its best times. btw, I remember browser - based chess interfaces from almost 20 years ago, for example a site like "Pogo", not anything serious, they worked well on a machine with 16 MB RAM. Today on my weak machine with 4 GB I run the risk of running out of memory with some tabs open.
And if you consider using Win 10 a "whammy", well, I kind of agree with you, but you won't get a large userbase with the 2% Linux users only. Android is a toy, not a serious OS. And yes, there are some Apple users, don't know much about that. Have fun developing for them, then.
You make some good points indeed: Why not a desktop application instead of an interface that relies on modern browsers only: As far as I can see exactly these modern browsers are the main problem, as they are ridiculously heavy and eat memory like Pacman in its best times. btw, I remember browser - based chess interfaces from almost 20 years ago, for example a site like "Pogo", not anything serious, they worked well on a machine with 16 MB RAM. Today on my weak machine with 4 GB I run the risk of running out of memory with some tabs open.
And if you consider using Win 10 a "whammy", well, I kind of agree with you, but you won't get a large userbase with the 2% Linux users only. Android is a toy, not a serious OS. And yes, there are some Apple users, don't know much about that. Have fun developing for them, then.
A big change like this is bound to upset some individuals. I can sympathize with those who can't play something that used to be available all the time.
However, even if someone were to host a Lichess v1 server, most users are going to use the v2 site. Meaning you won't have nearly as many people playing and longer wait times for matchmaking.
On a side note, I have a cheap-o BLU smartphone I got for $50 usd and I'm able to use most apps I throw at it. I don't know your income situation but I find it hard to believe that upgrading/replacing your computer is out of the question.
However, even if someone were to host a Lichess v1 server, most users are going to use the v2 site. Meaning you won't have nearly as many people playing and longer wait times for matchmaking.
On a side note, I have a cheap-o BLU smartphone I got for $50 usd and I'm able to use most apps I throw at it. I don't know your income situation but I find it hard to believe that upgrading/replacing your computer is out of the question.
Based on the OP's whining, I'd assume he is no more than 12 years old. I'm sure if he explains the issue to his parents they will update the browser for him.
You DON'T need a better browser.
But this site DOES need a programmer that's not
on magic mushrooms. Who doesn't claim the
new site was "thoroughly tested".
Have you seen the number of threads and posts on
Lichess Feedback lately? No "better browser" is
going to fix all those bugs.
Who are they kidding?
But this site DOES need a programmer that's not
on magic mushrooms. Who doesn't claim the
new site was "thoroughly tested".
Have you seen the number of threads and posts on
Lichess Feedback lately? No "better browser" is
going to fix all those bugs.
Who are they kidding?
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