[ahtihn]

So you have free software that requires 2 GB of RAM and the alternative is $2k per month and you're complaining that the free solution is inefficient? Really?

Why do you expect to be able to replace a 2k/month solution with a $10/month VPS?

[xyzzy_plugh]

Because the fundamental task many of these programs are doing is neither complicated nor resource intensive.

In the age of cheap custom software solutions everyone should at least try to make something themselves that's fit for purpose. It doesn't take much to be a dangerous professional these days, and certainly more than ever before can a dangerous professional be truly dangerous.

[shimman]

Thank you, I get so confused when people think a $5/vps shouldn't be able to do much. We're talking about 99% of small business that might have 5 concurrent users max.

2 gigs of ram should be considered overkill to cover every single business case for a variety of tools (analytics, mailer/newsletter, CRM, socials, e-commerce).

[MoonWalk]

Your criticism contradicts itself.

He's saying that the software seems free, but is so inefficient that it bloats other costs to run it. And he never said he wanted to replace $2K/month with $10/month.

[shimman]

I'm not saying it's so bad I don't recommend it, quite the opposite; but these things can be written in more performant languages. There's no reason why a cron job scheduler requires 500 mb of ram in idle. Same for the analytics. That is just a waste of resources.

Software can be drastically way less resource intensive, there is no excuse outside of wanting to exacerbate the climate crises.

This period of our history in the profession will be seen as a tremendous waste of resources and effort.

[ahtihn]

Dude you're complaining about the efficiency of free software.

Go write the software yourself, no one owes you anything.

Maybe if you had to actually write it yourself, you'd quickly figure out why people prefer "inefficient" languages for these things.

A cron job scheduler does not in fact require 500 MB of memory. You're just being disingenous, that software is doing a lot more than just that.

[shimman]

I am writing software myself and your attitude is just weird. We should always strive for better more efficient software, the climate crisis is a real thing and our industry has done an excellent job exacerbating it with more inefficient tools, libraries, and languages.

People prefer JS because all they know is JS, it's that simple. Please tell me why you think devs choose JS, I'm legitimately curious but your attitude of constant dismissal and disparagement makes it seem you just want to beat people down and not engage.

[semiquaver]

People choose JS because it’s the only first class browser language. Why they choose it on the backend I honestly couldn't tell you.

[shimman]

Dude, the $2k solution is not only worse than postiz they charge an additional thousand for each channel.

It's just garbage software, I brought it up as an example IDK why. Commentators here like knowing snippets about other industries in the profession, I know I do at least.

But to answer your Q, yes I do expect a cron job schedule, analytics, and a CRM not to require 8 gig of ram in order to not barf on itself too hard.

These things are incredibly resource intensive for their actual jobs. The software is incredibly wasteful.

A $5/vps should be enough to host every suite of software a small business needs. To think otherwise is extremely out of touch. We're talking about 3 concurrent users max here, software should not be buckling under such a light load.

[ahtihn]

> A $5/vps should be enough to host every suite of software a small business needs

Where is this weird expectation coming from?

Why should that be the case?

[shimman]

The expectation is that these aren't complicated tools, they should not command that many resources. Why do you think a $5/vps with half a gig of ram can't handle basic CRON/background jobs or management software? 512 mb of ram can do so much if you choose the appropriate tools but if you start with a weak foundation that requires 512 mb of ram to just stay idle it hurts a class of users that could benefit from this software.

These things aren't complicated, but when you choose NodeJS/Javascript they become way more complicated than expected. I say this as someone who has ever worked professionally with JS and nothing else for a 15 year long career.

Writing software that can only be used by the affluent is not the direction I want our industry to go in.