[mythtv-users] OT: Browser plugins are evil (was Re: XvMC not working - Nvidia)

[Michael T. Dean]

On 03/26/2007 05:14 PM, R. G. Newbury wrote:
> Well I just tried glxgears here on my Intel 2.4G P4 with nvidia NV44A 
> (Geforce 6200) and got a whacking great 15FPS if I hid the gear window 
> behind the console window and about 8 FPS in the open.
>
> So 'glxgears is not a benchmark' is quite true. This system plays an HD 
> test clip of tennis in xine using about 50% CPU total: about 40% xine 
> and 10% X...
>
> But here is your real problem and a REAL speed up for you.
> Run glxgears and note your FPS.
> Run ps-ae and note if you have any acroread processes running.
> Run killall acroread.
>
> Now re-run glxgears..... Mine jumped to 1275!!!!!  My Via SP13000 board 
> at home has topped out at 796 FPS so 1279 fps  is just right.
>
> If you have suffered from slow screen reactions while in Firefox it may 
> be because the acroread plugin is a cycle stealing piece of crap.
>
> Do 'cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins'
> Then 'mv nppdf.so nppdf.so.old'
> Then open an instance of firefox, open any page you like, pull up a 
> console over that, try glxgears and get 1280 fps!
>   

More proof of my view that browser plugins are evil.

> That fixes the problkem at the expense of not being able to open pdf 
> files natively in a browser window. You will have to select to download 
> the file, and save it or open if with xpdf or gsview etc.
>
> Cost in mouse clicks to do this: 2
> Extra time to do this: 2 seconds
> Effect on computer speed: priceless.

Does anyone _really_ believe that opening a PDF document inside the 
browser window (rather than popping up a new acroread/xpdf/whatever 
window) is a good thing?  I mean, do people really want to take the 
browser's document area--which is some area smaller than the screen size 
due to browser toolbars, status bar, tabs, menus, decorations, etc.--and 
embed an application--with its own toolbars, status bar, ...--within 
that area to display--in an even smaller screen area--the document that 
I presume they wanted to read when they clicked on a link?

Hmmm.  I think my dash key just stopped working after that bit of overuse...

Just because you /can/ do something, Adobe, doesn't mean you should.

(Not going to mention the fact that the "Display PDF in Browser" 
checkbox in Adobe Reader /only/ works with Internet Explorer and does 
not unregister the plugin from Mozilla-based browsers.)

Mike