And Winamp is 4MB (after removing the stock plugins that I don’t need, like modern skins and the long-broken media library internet lookup stuff).

How big is Spotify now?

Spotify is 273MB (on Linux at least), 70MB for the binary and 137MB for Chrome, plus some other bits and bobs.

  $ pacman -Qi spotify
  Name            : spotify
  Version         : 1:1.1.10.546-4
  Description     : A proprietary music streaming service
  Architecture    : x86_64
  ...
  Installed Size  : 272.79 MiB

So at least it's smaller than Slack.

I have a noob question, but how do proprietary apps (IE: Slack) make it onto the AUR without having an official binary?

There’s nothing to really block much on the aur. There are some guidelines in naming and no duplicates, no maliciousness etc that are enforced, but that’s it. But anyone can upload a build script (PKGBUILD) for anything.

If you want to see how it’s done search the package name and AUR and you can see the build script right on the website.

TIL! Thank you :)

Both Slack and Spotify do provide Linux versions, even if not/less supported officially.

Thanks! I hadn't tried Arch yet, but I just saw the pkgbuild script on the site (didn't know it was there) and it makes since now :)

There are many PKGBUILDs on AUR that cactually download rpm / deb packages and unpack the binaries and deps from it.

iTunes, in all its bloated, much-maligned media-managing glory, is a mere 188 megs on my Mac.

ooh I'll have to check out ripcord!

I've found it's great for Discord, and pretty good for Slack (although I've been using Slack in my browser now that it's become critical during WFH).

Unfortunately it's proprietary, but there's another native client called gtkcord3 [0] that seems to be progressing well.

0: https://github.com/diamondburned/gtkcord3

I use it daily. It's OK. It's better than having a full electron app/browser running, but it's fairly incomplete. (For example, in Slack I can't find a way to set my status.) I also have to reauthenticate every Monday morning which means launching Slack in a web browser to grab my credentials. It's a pain.

not saying you have any choice in the matter of using Slack or not, but I can assure you that Slack software is aware of their bloat and inefficiency and they don't care.

The core task Slack is charged with WAS done 2 decades ago with significantly lower resource usage?

Why does this matter? because Slack is not your main productivity app (I HOPE) it's just a background process, effectively, most of the time, a communication channel you keep open and check in with from time to time.

Being able to keep an app open while you run your main productivity suite is a clear win. Slack loses in this respect.

But go on, downvote and flag me some more for speaking truth to power... it's rather obvious, i would say...

First, you say:

> OTOH, if you are using Slack, you probably deserve it :P

then you say:

> not saying you have any choice in the matter of using Slack or not

Now, I don't actually run Slack nowadays. I run Teams, which sounds like it's efficient since it only uses 600 MiB RAM rather than a full gigabyte.

But the choice between Slack, Teams, and any other product we might use is determined not by the user, but by the company we work for. Companies have a tendency to decide what works without respect to empirical data. Business people are unconcerned with mere technical matters; they optimise for purchase processes.

I think you got downvoted for saying we have any choice in the matter. When you made a valid criticism, your comment fared much better.