Comment on Even Apple finally admits that 8GB RAM isn't enough
prole@sh.itjust.works 4 months agoI don’t think anyone anywhere is claiming 8GB RAM is enough for software and AI development. Pretty sure we’re talking about consumer-grade hardware here.
The lede by OP here contains this:
a feature called Predictive Code Completion. Unfortunately, if you bought into Apple’s claim that 8GB of unified memory was enough for base-model Apple silicon Macs, you won’t be able to use it
So either RecluseRamble meant that development with a feature predictive code completion would work on 8 GB of RAM if you were using Linux or his comparison was shit.
That’s absolutely what I’m saying. Apple is just holding back that feature for upselling (as always) and because it’s hardly possible to debloat macOS.
Okay good, thanks for confirming. I remember Kate feeling very nice to use during my studies, more responsive than VS Code or Eclipse. But I also had 16Gigabytes of RAM, so I couldn’t be sure.
I don’t think anyone anywhere is claiming 8GB RAM is enough for software development
I do. GCC doesn’t need much. Vim/emacs work fine with 1GB of RAM. With 2 GB you can run QtCreator instead of vim.
Macbook Pros aren’t really consumer grade hardware. Nor are they priced like consumer grade hardware.
Nor are they priced like consumer grade hardware.
Apple products in general aren’t.
That’s not true at all. Macbook Air starts at $900. You can even find a used M1 Air gor cheaper. Absolutely was a steal compared to the budget thin laptops from Asus, Acer, etc. which start around $700. Once you go below $700 in laptop market, corners are cut. Perhaps Mediatek WiFi chips are used, laptop isn’t thin, touchpad is awful, screen colors are worse. Apple usually puts iPad + keyboard in that market segment instead.
Tl; dr: Apple products are more expensive than budget electronics but priced comparatively to items that compete with it. However, electronic prices in the high end tier are getting hirer.
So it’s more expensive than the competitors which also have real budget options at easily half the price but then “corners are cut”.
You know, I won’t even argue about the quality of Apple products - they are top tier. But calling the pricing “a steal” is just dishonest.
They consistently averaging at 150-200% the price of comparable hardware at least since the 90s. While they may be examples like yours where the gap is smaller, there are plenty of outrageous examples like the infamous monitor stand or some ridiculously priced chargers.
Macbook Pros aren’t really consumer grade hardware.
They are even below that.
monnier@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
My main development machine has 8 GB, for what it’s worth. And most of the software in use nowadays was developped when 8GB was a lot of RAM
abhibeckert@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This. My Mac has 16GB but I use up half of it with a Linux virtual machine, since I use my Mac to write Linux software.
I don’t need to do that - I could totally run that software directly on my Mac, but I like having a dev environment where I can just delete it all and start over without affecting my main OS. I could totally work effectively with 8GB.