Re: Who's Afraid of a Hard Page Load?

Alexander Petros on Unplanned Obsolescence on 2024-07-16:

Every day I ride the New York City Subway. For my carrier, most of the stops have cell service, and most of the tunnels between stops do not. When I read web pages while riding, I am keenly aware that if I click a link while I don’t have service, not only will the page fail to load, I will probably also lose access to the one I’m currently reading. Everyone who uses a web browser understands this behavior on some level. So I avoid clicking links until I’m at a stop.

I use the subway as an example to highlight that managing unreliable internet is a daily occurrence even in the most urban environments. Naturally, this concern is magnified in rural areas, which is why I'm deeply skeptical of the claim that SPAs somehow benefit people with slow or unstable internet connections.

As someone who just got back from vacation in rural Maine, where the satelite internet fell over when it rained and it felt like the cell signal gets caught in the trees, yes. I take a little joy in knowing my statically-generated website can be this kind of solid for readers.