I can run a gba emulator, an llm, a full os and a browser all at the same time with 4gb, so I think Windows is the compromise
Wow. Not too transparent are they? RAM prices go up worldwide. Microsoft - “We need you to buy more RAM to successfully run are mostly unnecessary, bloated crap”.
Ofc if your OS needs just 6-7GB only for running itself and nothing else…
They can fuck right off
In the middle of a RAM pricing crisis? Fuck off microslop.
A RAM pricing crisis they created through OPENAI, no less.
“640KB of memory ought to be enough for anybody.”
- Bill Gates
I have 32 GB RAM in my linux box. Not because I need it (I use 5,7GB currently), but because it was kind of cheap when I build the box. 16 GB or 32 GB were just a few Euros apart.
But with the current RAM crisis? Holy crap, that is kind of a tone deaf statement
Im running Void on a 2013, dual core atom, netbook with 1800MB of ram, THAT is a compromise. No more than 4-5 tabs at a time, only one if I want to watch a video, but it works.
16GB being the minimum for a desktop OS is insane.
God damn I brought an old atom back to life with the leanest distro I could run just a month ago. 1gb ram. It is an absolute paperweight.
The atom processors were garbage when they came out. I hate e waste as much as the next person but that’s a level of masochism I will not subject myself to. Pull the salvageables and refine the rest into a pawn shop puddle.
I suspect part of it is modern web browsers and everything being online. That and “web apps” and such that take up WAY to much resources for what they do. In the name of security and justifiably so, each tab typically has it’s own thread/task which means more memory. They will free up as needed, but don’t do well always. With so many people just keeping tabs open rather than bookmarking them, users have also changed how they use their computers. So 16GB being a minimum and 32GB being recommended seems reasonable for a NEW computer. Remember, software is just going to need more resources in the future.
Existing computers will be fine for a while longer, but will get to that “compromised” state eventually.
My home server is a 2014 Mac mini with 8gb of soldered RAM. Even with that much, I can’t really use even LibreWolf if I want to stand any chance of the services I have installed having any RAM.
Same here, but I put in 64GB because it was cheap. The only app I used (I don’t anymore) that would make use of that much was Photoshop, back when I was still a graphic designer. Even then, I didn’t need it, but it was nice to have.
Microsoft just straight up admitting that they’re not optimising their OS anymore
Ever since Windows 7.
Since the NT kernel.
Why should the OS itself, which is just supposed to facilitate the running of programs, use so much memory?
TL;DR: to spy on you.
I was kind of humbled to see how much less ressources Debian was using.
It needed one GB of memory after install in full memory.Meanwhile Canonical
https://www.techpowerup.com/347967/ubuntu-26-04-lts-raises-recommended-memory-requirement-to-6-gb?cp=2I run Debian on 6GBs. Before that, Windows 10 was close to unusable, but in all fairness I had it on an HDD while Debian is running off a by now two years old SSD.
While Ubuntu recommends 6GB, it still uses much less than that even if you open Chrome lol
If you enable zswap, you could probably live with 4GB
it shouldn’t. the problem really boils down to devs for stuff that aren’t optimizing anything.
For example I’m currently using a basic build Fedora 44 with Niri and a quickshell. I have 32gigs of ram on my current machine and at idle it uses just over 2gigs of memory. to me that’s too much. Niri uses about 160mb but quickshell/noctalia-shell uses about 400mb. too much. I need to stop using it.
I use Foot as my terminal and that AT MOST will use 14mb of ram. that’s it. I point to Foot and say “that’s how things should be”.
then adding something like a Browser and Discord into the mix and just forget about it. suddenly that 32gigs is being eaten alive. even today running a system on 16 is cutting it close because of the bullshit you need to run. I mean even a browser like Qutebrowser which SHOULD be light is going to eat ram because it’s running python and qtwebkit crap. And don’t get me started on Discord and ALL the various “we make discord better” apps that really don’t. vestkop, vencord, eqowhatever, doesn’t matter it’s all electron which treats your ram as an all you can eat buffet.
Fuck Discord
Right?! I have a debian NAS running openmediavault, it has music streaming and samba network shares. it only has 256MB RAM and doesn’t even use all that.
32gb is the new standard they need to run poorly optimized start menus and telemetry in the background while they think no one is paying attention
With 32 GB system RAM, Microsoft believes that the games can have more “breathing room”.
There’s no such thing as “breathing room”, dammit. Once you set up 32 GB as standard, shitty / assumptive developers are going to say “well, we assooooome users have 32 GB. It would be a waste to design the game to use less than that lol lmao”. Specially devs doing the same as Microslop, and using AI shitty code to pump out code faster than humans can desloppify.
Not at these prices it ain’t. Back to 8 it is.
Why not Linux?
Linux at home yes. But corporate has insisted the price increases dont matter at my work as my bonus is engulfed.
In reality, if software used the native UI toolkits instead of Electron, even 12 GB could be reliably used for gaming, HEAVY gaming.
Indeed. Now we’re starting up a whole new OS sandbox for every damn app. It’s ridiculous.
“Bully tells nerd to come to school with more lunch money next time” ass bullshit.
Slop code and CSS kids need that space!
