Yeah I agree with the GP. Most $400 laptops come pre-loaded with all sorts of janky crap that make that 10th gen intel CPU run like a wounded animal.
Most users have no idea how to remove any of it. Or, worse, they'll enable all of the preinstalled antivirus programs because they want their computer to be safe. And it gets worse. I visited my parents once and noticed something weird on my dad's macbook air. Turned out he'd gone out and bought Norton antivirus to install on it (!?). Norton installed a chrome extension which replaced the banner ads on every website he visited with their own ads. I manually deleted the extension from chrome, but norton put it right back again after chrome restarted.
If you don't believe me, use performance counters and measure it. Your website runs way slower on your users' computer than you think it does.
Oh I know, but that situation has become less common over the years. Fewer users are buying AV and most AV is getting better so people don’t complain. Users using outdated versions of Windows with IE has a much larger impact (because IE’s JS engine is incredibly awful)
But the point I was making was that the average computer has actually gotten pretty good. Most users use near-latest chrome, most laptops have gotten much quicker.
And that’s before noting that the average cell phone in the US has BETTER js performance than the average computer. Most US mobile users have a modern iPhone that is faster in single core performance than some 10th gen laptops.
Most users have no idea how to remove any of it. Or, worse, they'll enable all of the preinstalled antivirus programs because they want their computer to be safe. And it gets worse. I visited my parents once and noticed something weird on my dad's macbook air. Turned out he'd gone out and bought Norton antivirus to install on it (!?). Norton installed a chrome extension which replaced the banner ads on every website he visited with their own ads. I manually deleted the extension from chrome, but norton put it right back again after chrome restarted.
If you don't believe me, use performance counters and measure it. Your website runs way slower on your users' computer than you think it does.