[mburns]

We use that memory because we do more things faster. Of course we could page to disk whenever we want to use more than 1GB of memory, or render from CPU instead of keeping uncompressed versions in memory to lower footprint... Or we could have faster computers. Consumers prefer the faster computer option.

[joblessjunkie]

Sure, using more RAM to make things faster is a fine thing. But I think you give developers too much credit: many apps use lots of RAM for no other reason than lack of care.

Which of course can also be to the benefit of consumers: better a RAM-hogging release today than a memory-efficient release next month (if ever).