[josephg]

How much RAM should a few browser tabs and a spreadsheet use? Spreadsheets and webpages were both invented at a time when computers had orders of magnitude less ram than they do today. And yet, Excel and Netscape navigator still worked fine. It seems to me that bigger computers have caused chrome to use more memory.

If 16gb is considered to be a "bare minimum" for RAM, well, how much ram will all those programs use next year? Or in 10 years?

That doesn't help you right now, but 22gb is ridiculous for a few browser tabs and a spreadsheet.

[talldayo]

> If 16gb is considered to be a "bare minimum" for RAM, well, how much ram will all those programs use next year? Or in 10 years?

16gb is the figure for the next 10 years. If you see yourself being content with 8gb of memory shared between your CPU and GPU in 2030, you must have a uniquely passive use-case.

I remember when people said 4gb doesn't need to be the minimum for all Macbooks. Eventually MacOS started consuming 4gb of memory with nothing open. Give Apple a few years to be insecure about the whole AI thing and they'll prove to you why they bumped the minimum spec. Trust me.

[josephg]

I'm not doubting that modern macos, chrome, firefox, spotify, etc are giant memory hogs.

My claim is that the developers should fix their shit, and stop making their laziness something for me to solve by buying more RAM.

[7thpower]

It’s not just for tabs and spreadsheets, I also have an ide, containers, etc.

I do think the memory footprint of many applications has gotten out of hand, but I am more than willing to spend the extra money not to have to think about it.