[rplnt]

The random numbers were just that, random numbers. Startup times are noticeably slower. Even with fast SSDs, many multi-GB apps that run in background can get swapped out, and that's still slower than RAM decades ago.

> Chrome spawns a million processes so if a tab crashes it doesn't end your browsing session

This one is funny, because

1) before Chrome pages didn't seem to crash (js could, but not the whole "page")

2) Chrome still crashes completely loads of times

(also it's not really related; Chrome is a fast application written relatively effectively)

But I get your point, and you are not wrong. I just wouldn't discount "cheap development" to be the primary reason.