If Microsoft wants more RAM just to do AI shit on my computer, I'd rather have even less just to make sure they cant.
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Be careful with what you wish for... if they can't do it on your computer, then they'll send your data to the cloud to do it there.
My next OS will be some kind of Linux. I just had to reinstall Windows 11 because it corrupted it's install after some time. I had to uninstall so much crap and regedit so many thinks just to get it back to where I was before. I don't want Bing search in my windows search results. I don't want your stupid widgets and I don't want your browser or 90% of your default apps. And no I don't want office 360 or onedrive. So stop forcing it into my face. When Linux gets Plasma 6 and HDR support there is only holding me back my Nvidia GPUs Linux compatibility. While I hah to install windows 11 again I played a lot of games on my Steam Deck! It's is awesome and only some games with obscure anti cheat don't run. (well some times they don't run on windows too)
nvidia opensourced their drivers because of that lapsus kid.
the community is already building a state of the art open driver for nvidia 2xxxx and above.
only a matter of time, but even then nvidia is pretty usable with the proprietary drivers nowadays.
I love to bash MS, but this feels like an industry-wide trend to /never/ care about optimizing beyond the bar of "typical specs of new devices in rich countries". I'm guessing it's just to limit labor costs, and computers are less-rapidly-improving than the 90s/00s?
Code optimization has pretty much fallen by the way side since ram prices keep going down and cpu performance keeps improving.
Why spend the time if you don't have to?
Browsers are some of the worst culprits.
Just for the sake of a beautiful audited and blazingly fast codebase that tuns qo good that Raspberry Pi user can run your stuff too.
I love optimisation!
Browser canvas is one of the worst culprits: it has to keep a buffer with an uncompressed bitmap several screens in size.
Old browsers used to keep a single screen worth of canvas buffer, then redraw stuff as you scrolled... which made it a horrible experience. You can still find some of that with "clever" web designs where they replace fonts or move things dynamically as you scroll.
Then you have websites with "infinite scroll" that just keep increasing the canvas buffer size more and more and more, to infinity and beyond... and people wonder why their Facebook or Reddit tabs use so much RAM.
premature optimization is the root of all evil - Donald Knuth
which does not excuse a total lack of optimization, but gotta hit those kpi's
I do have 16GB RAM, but that's not because I wanted to run just the OS and without a game.
linux needs like 1gb of ram and some distros even less
Strictly speaking, "Linux" can run on 10MB of RAM or less.
Meanwhile, a single web page may need 100MB or more to build the DOM, run all scripts, and keep a buffer of the canvas.
My new PC has 64g ram. But I'm also not using or plan to use windows. Checkmate M$!
But in all seriousness, 8g is like, the foundational minimum these days. Sad tbh. Browsers are so bloated these days. I'm surprised that browsers haven't become their own OS yet. It kinda feels that way in some environments.
Phones are coming with 12GB and Apple are still only putting 8Gb in their ‘pro’ line.
🙃
Microsoft are such weirdos. It's like they're trying to empower Google, who will lap up all of the users they abandon as they install Chrome OS, because let's be honest, the average Jo seldom just installs Linux, so they'll say, "oh I've heard of Chrome, let me try that"
I may have 128Gb in my current rig (Dell Precision T7610), but if this is the way you’re gonna be bloating Windows 12, imma gonna be running to OpenSUSE or some BSD.
Yes, I use Win10Privacy to lobotomize all of the spyware and cruftware that comes with Windows. But it’s gotta be re-run after every significant Windows update.
Already switched to linux
I have 32 gigs of ram and this shit is going to make me switch to Linux as well.
I do not want an OS that demands half of my processing power just to run in the background. I see absolutely no reason for an OS to demand 2-4 gigs of ram, let alone up to 16
My next Windows PC doesn't need any RAM, because I'm not going to need one.
Jesus Christ, what are they doing? Emulating the OS in fucking Minecraft!?
The article mentions AI. 16gigs feels far too little to run a LLM of respectable size so I wonder what exactly this means? Feels like no one is gonna be happy about a 16gig LLM (high RAM usage and bad AI features)
Of fucking course it's AI, why the hell wouldn't it be AI. For fuck sake, it's like they want their users to switch to Linux.
Don't worry! Eventually, they will find a "cure," such as Windows moving to a cloud-only model where your PC becomes a glorified dumb terminal!
So like Windows 365, but for consumers.
That's probably not the worst option for most consumers. People are horrible about keeping their shit updated.
Most people only use their computers for web browsing anyways, and many people buy systems that are way more powerful than what they actually need. I've had to talk a ton of people out of buying i7 laptops just for Office and the internet.
I've built and maintained Citrix VDI environments for a global company, and once people get over the "this is new" hurdle, they love it.
I will have no next windows PC anyways. I'll go out of my way to get one without a windows license, to put linux onto it :)
Meanwhile, chrome and desktop apps (Electron-based) like Slack, note apps, etc, takes 1GB just to open... Well, tbh I don't know if they really use physical RAM space, but anyway.
Going to need 32 GB of RAM or more plus a GPU with 48 GB of VRAM just to run Win12 w/ AI subsystem so you have enough headroom to run a program or two
RAM is cheap, and even if you're just doing absolute basic shit your current PC will work better with 16GB of RAM (also looking at you here, Apple). If it's not a phone you're buying don't get anything with less than 16GB.
my first computer was a tandy sensation which has 4mb of ram and a 100mb hard drive