[leptons]

Apple RAM is expensive. Every other kind of RAM is pretty cheap. 32GB DDR4 can be had for under $30, and 16GB DDR4 can be had for about $25. I'm not sure who you think has a computer, is developing software, and can't afford that. Maybe someone in India, I guess. Too bad if that's you, but "top 1%" is a laughable claim when RAM is so cheap. 16GB of RAM is nowhere near "top of the line". You're just trolling here, "hnthrowaway2376".

Let's say I spent $50 on 32GB of RAM. Over the lifetime of the computer that upgrade would cost ~$0.02 per day. Two pennies a day. And that's US prices, it can be less expensive elsewhere.

I've used VSCode on a computer with 2GB of RAM, and it worked. I expected everything to run slower - and it did run slower, but it ran. And I developed, and contributed to the project I was working on while away from my workstation. This was a cheap $70 Windows 10 tablet. YMMV.

[hnthrowaway2376]

> Apple RAM is expensive. Every other kind of RAM is pretty cheap. 32GB DDR4 can be had for under $30, and 16GB DDR4 can be had for about $25.

I'm sure that's pretty cheap for you, yes. Taxes and other fees tend to increase those prices outside the US, by the way.

> I'm not sure who you think has a computer, is developing software, and can't afford that.

There is a market for lightweight code editors, isn't there?

> Too bad if that's you, but "top 1%" is a laughable claim when RAM is so cheap.

That was a bit of hyperbole on my part, but let's not forget that just being an employed SWE in the US easily places you in the top 1% globally.

> I've used VSCode on a computer with 2GB of RAM, and it worked. I expected everything to run slower - and it did run slower, but it ran. And I developed, and contributed to the project I was working on while away from my workstation. This was a cheap $70 Windows 10 tablet. YMMV.

Fair enough. VSCode is hardly the worst offender though - it actually runs quite well for an Electron app.

[leptons]

> but let's not forget that just being an employed SWE in the US easily places you in the top 1% globally.

And not being able to afford $30 as a developer for a decent amount of RAM puts you in the bottom 1% of developers globally. Yes, I made that up just as you are making up your own numbers. But as I explained, you don't need 128GB of RAM, you don't need 64GB of RAM, you don't even need 8GB of RAM, you can still develop with VSCode with 2GB of RAM. Nobody is handing out free RAM, so if you need more, save your rupees, or pennies, or euros, or whatever. The daily cost of it spread over time is miniscule for anyone on the planet, and you will get back the investment in saved time.

[pjmlp]

Not when it is soldered on a mobile phone, tablet or laptop, and getting more implies throwing away an otherwise perfectly working device.

[niutech]

Not everybody can upgrade RAM due to warranty seal/lack of slot or simply doesn't know how to do it. Software should use as little resources as it could.