> In our Linux test it opens in under a second and uses about 200 MB of idle RAM

Is it just me or does anyone else feel that 200 MB is a lot for a native chat app written in Rust, that's essentially a remote interface for the WhatsApp on your phone?

I remember back in the day, apps like Miranda IM (and early versions of Trillian) used only digits of RAM, even when you had multiple plugins talking several protocols at the same time, whilst having a ton of advanced features not found in WhatsApp. Yes I get that times have changed and software has become bloated etc, but 200 MB still feels a bit too much.

Almost all of those 200MB will be system libraries for rendering and GPU buffers.

> Is it just me or does anyone else feel that 200 MB is a lot for a native chat app written in Rust, that's essentially a remote interface for the WhatsApp on your phone?

> I remember back in the day, apps like Miranda IM (and early versions of Trillian) used only digits of RAM, even when you had multiple plugins talking several protocols at the same time

I think what's happening in the second one is that because you're using the native OS toolkits a bunch of stuff is shared, whereas with these "self-contained" "native"-y apps you end up having to load up the whole world and aren't sharing things with everything else

I'd love to be proven wrong but I feel like if you use e.g. Qt you're gonna have to hold onto a bunch of stuff that you wouldn't if you were "just" using OS-native stuff (though maybe that gets shared if you're using the exact same version? Is there something that can be done in this space?)

> Is it just me or does anyone else feel that 200 MB is a lot for a native chat app written in Rust ...

That was my first thought. But considering it as a significant improvement from > 1 GB, I guess it is what it is.

> I remember back in the day, apps like Miranda IM (and early versions of Trillian) used only digits of RAM ...

Sadly this was true for many apps.

I just checked with the native WhatsApp client on Windows 11: 650 MB of RAM as it is running, across all its processes. Thus, taking ≈⅓ of RAM is nothing to brag about for a reimplementation that focuses on being lean and fast. Also, "opens in under a second" – back in the days when SSDs where new, programs opened instantaneously (<60 ms)!

Lastly, I still have to be convinced that Rust is a good choice for GUI programs, considering their messy mutable state and ownership.

Looking forward to the 2030s when we get a wave of lightweight actually native software as an alternative to the bloated Rust rewrites ;)

You're welcome to demonstrate otherwise

Hello world in Rust is huge, and every actual program I've looked at installed dozens of packages for basic functionality.

Turns out all those zero cost abstractions add up to a lot!

yeah 200MB is nothing to boast about