To be fair to them, it's still not really clear what the answer is. But I think we've established it isn't what we have now.

Really, deciding when to close tabs and what to close is kind of an organic process. I am running ChromeOS on ARM, though, so that may be a bit more optimized for having lots of Chrome tabs open. On x86/64, I'd probably have to use Firefox for that kind of nonsense.

But incidentally, I love ChromeOS on ARM. Very energy-efficient, there are some solid models in that rare and coveted 10-11.6" size range, now it has (beta) Android apps, and in dev mode you can pop a full Linux chroot onto it with an extension that lets you surface X sessions to a Chrome tab. Absolutely fantastic, until you run into a closed-source x86/64 binary.

Also, since I have to sync everything to a repository or cloud storage or physical media fairly frequently to use a more fully-functioned machine, it also means that if I lose it or it breaks or I have to evacuate and leave it behind or something, nbd. Data's still there, and they're only like $2-300 anyways - not bad for a secondary computer.

Hey, Apple - you know that 12" Macbook of yours? The one with a laughable single port? Maybe make an ARM version with a popular hackable core chip; like a newer Allwinner A10 or something. You could charge $400-500, easy.

I think you may have misunderstood Apple's target market ;)

Keyboards that don't bend? What makes do you recommend?

I have the C100 Flip right now, which I like a lot. It has a Cortex-A17 which doesn't have trouble running a bunch of tools I use like KiCAD, Arduino, etc. but I wouldn't use it for 3D modeling or other intensive tasks. The resolution is also a bit low at 1280x800.

Ublock Origin's right-click / Block Element (then optional selection process) is an absolute boon to forever hide these artefacts.

Every now and then I'll try reading something on mobile chrome, or a friend's machine, and realise how annoying much of the web is for many people.

Seems like they use some kind of tracker that "polls" user activity on the page. I suspect that's why Chrome seems to use more CPU/RAM when I've got more Medium pages opened.

Some sites you can easily dismiss and they'll let you browse after (which makes the modal pointless) and other sites won't let you past unless you disable adblocking for that site.

They definitely use your attention and collect as detailed profiles of you as possible. But you also pay with your CPU, RAM, and electricity: they'll gladly use as much of it for their purposes as possible.

What are the downsides I should know about?