Gmail vs Iceweasel vs Icedove vs Epiphany Web Apps

[Danielsan]

Hi Guys,

I always have the problem of big CPU consumption with my Gmail box. I noticed that both Iceweasel and Icedove after an half hour of use are stuck around 27-30% of cpu usage. Icedove has better performance than Iceweasel because this last with other many tabs open the cpu usage can reach an average of 50-60%. Pretty bored and frustrated about this situation I remembered the new Gnome Web (Epiphany for the older friends) can create web app so I thought maybe I could I do a try...

I opened for a short time Iceweasel with 1 tab, Icedove and eventually Gmail Web app. No one other application were running during every tests, so this is the result:

Code: Select all

PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND                                                           
12345 XXXXX    20   0 1429780 488108  88424 S  14,5  8,6   1:58.99 iceweasel
12345 XXXXX    20   0 1120568 335868  86812 S   8,6  5,9   1:07.47 icedove
12345 XXXXX    20   0 2354164 102036  53576 S   1,2  1,8   1:44.54 epiphany       

It seems epiphany won this competition and more it has the clean and easy Gmail interface, I think Icedove is became a little bit messy.

I'll let you know if also Epiphany is going to have any cpu usage issue after a long session!


UPDATING

After starting using normally the web apps this is the current status:

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PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND              
12345 XXXXX    20   0 3648140 479216  86888 R  59,3  8,4   7:09.77 WebKitWebProces
12345 XXXXX    20   0 2642192 104292  53776 S  34,5  1,8   3:25.52 epiphany 

I have to change my opinion in favor of Icedove.

UPDATING 02

I received 4 emails from Indeed.com and I began to have this consumption after reviewed and deleted those emails the cpu usage is returned nice. Where the indeed emails digging in my mailbox with all their crappy trackers?

[geekosupremo]

There is a descent chance it is not trackers. Many HTML emails will grab their images and css from the "mother site" and/or the HTML used is causing a glitch in the rendering engine of the application which could lead to a spike in system resource usage.

This is not a defense of this kind of behavior, simply an explanation. Personally I think this sort of thing is lame, and if a service/site is going to send HTML email they should check it to make sure it doesn't cause problems for the end users.

[Danielsan]

After a couple of days, concerning only the use of gmail, Epiphany Web Apps has revealed the best solution.
I remember another email client, Geary, but as far I saw it was really slow, I have not idea is now is better than the last time I tried it.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

new Gnome Web (Epiphany for the older friends)

You shouldn't use that browser, it is fundamentally insecure.

See http://www.pcworld.com/article/3034014/ ... rable.html & https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ ... r-security

[sgosnell]

You can easily disable html email in icedove, and have it displayed as plain text. I don't like webmail interfaces, and always use an email client. I've tried most of those available, and prefer icedove. But it's really a matter of personal choice.

[Danielsan]

@ Head_on_a_Stick

WOW!!! This is huge!!!
Thanks for your advice, however why did the devs use this component if it is so unsafe? It is spreading everywhere...


@ sgosnell

Sincerely I like the HTML unfortunately Icedove is heavy and quite buggy for me.


So I will try Iceape + Gmail, I'll let you know.

[Danielsan]

Iceape is not anymore in Debian... So I decided to use Chromium for the web mail, and I am going to use Icedove and Claws-mail to read the mailbox offline.

[edbarx]

To Danielsan: To limit what an insecure browser can access, I use firejail. It is in testing and can also be readily built into a package on Stable. To use it for iceweasel run:

Code: Select all

firejail iceweasel

[Danielsan]

Actually Chromium works very well, it's just me that doesn't like google products...
Anyway good to know this package, since the moment I am in a pinned testing I will install it!

[Danielsan]

I tried again Claws Email but it messed up all my emails (probably due the fact I was testing Icedove simultaneously with it) as I far I know, on my Debian, no one of those works correctly with Gmail Imap, this remembers me the same good old behavior of Microsoft. I have to stick with the Webmail or changing email provider.