Comment by flerchin
1 day ago
Users will generally balk at 2000MB though. ie, there's a cutoff point somewhere between 200MB and 2000MB, and every engineering decision that adds to the package size gets you closer to it.
1 day ago
Users will generally balk at 2000MB though. ie, there's a cutoff point somewhere between 200MB and 2000MB, and every engineering decision that adds to the package size gets you closer to it.
For an installed desktop app... vast majority of folks aren't going to batt an eye at 2G.
Hell - the most exposure the average person gets to installing software is game downloads, sadly (100G+). After that it's the stuff like MSOffice (~5-10G).
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I want to be clear, I definitely agree there are cases where "performance is the feature". That said, package size is a bad example.
Disk is SO incredibly cheap that users are being conditioned to not even consider it on mobile systems. And networks are good enough I can pull a multi-gig file down with just my phone's tethering bandwidth in minutes basically across the country.
When I want performance as a user, it's for an action I have to do multiple times repeatedly. I want the app itself to be fast, I want buttons to respond quickly, I want pages to show up without loaders, I want search to keep up with my keystrokes.
Use as much disk and ram as you can to get that level of performance. Don't optimize for computer nerd stats like package size (or the ram usage harpies...) when even semi-technical folks can't tell you the difference between kb/mb/gb, and have no idea what ram does.
Users care about performance in the same way that users buy cars. Most don't give a fuck about the numbers, they want to like the way it drives.
Your tech stack can definitely influence that, but you still have to make the right value decisions. Unless your audience is literally "software developers" like that file explorer, lay off the "software developer stats".
> Ms office
Everyone gets these preloaded in their laptops, and for people that need it it's a non-negotiable
> Games
Continuing the same point, people aren't going to be willing to put the same effort into trying some free app as they would into a game they just paid a bunch of money for.
> Disk so cheap
Cost per GB is irrelevant if the iPhone comes with a fixed amount of un-upgradable space the majority of which is taken by media. People routinely "free up" space on their phones by deleting apps that show up at the top of the settings -> storage page. Do you want that to be your app?
> 2GB
I think this is too high for a desktop app. Few hundred MB is probably the limit I'd guess.