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  • > It has reduced memory overhead across apps and components and has optimized WinUI 3 to make built-in apps use less memory.

    Anyone with developer experience with the WinUI 3 mess, knows that until now this is only marketing that Windows outlets keep repeating out from Microsoft corporate marketing.

    by pjmlp
  • Q: How much of that memory requirement is due to Co-Pilot?
    by mcswell
  • Who can afford that much RAM?

    I'm going back to the days when 640k was all we could ever use.

    by xhkkffbf
  • I just got a decent HP laptop for my mother (browsing/emails/light videos) for <$1k, it has 32GB. Good deals are out there.
    by kylecazar
  • Given all the other phenomena going on around computing, I may soon go back offline.
    by RGamma
  • In 640k we lacked a lot of the abstractions we take for granted today, like processes. But NT4 recommended 32MiB.
    by inigyou
  • They'd have to gave up on huge amount of own bloat to make system work fine again under 8GB. I'm not sure how that can be achieved with Microsoft attitude towards desktop users - they're just a... data cattle for them.
    by pndy
  • Spyware and bloat ain't cheap these days.

    Linux users don't rejoice too much, the Fedoras and Ubuntus were eating so much of my RAM I had to take refuge in Alpine.

    by sunshine-o
  • Debian XFCE is still strong with a low amount RAM, too.
    by fsflover
  • You might consider MX, it has a much lower footprint for eating ram.
    by Molitor5901
  • At least with Linux you have the option to debloat it, because it's your computer.
    by inigyou
  • > ... the Fedoras and Ubuntus were eating so much of my RAM I had to take refuge in Alpine ...

    The name of the bloat you're looking for is called "systemd".

    Even though it's still kinda, sorta, possible to keep a lean Debian install in check (and Debian by default uses systemd), systemd is quite the gigantic kitchen sink. In the Fedoras and Ubuntus it's indeed out of control now.

    The one thing that speeds up a systemd Linux booting (and usage) is removing as much of those systemd (dis)services as possible.

    P.S: main desktop is Debian + Awesome WM (so I do use systemd)

    by TacticalCoder
  • CachyOS was using 3.25gb of ram while streaming video at 4k on my system.

    My Windows work PC is currently using 28.2 gigs to have outlook, teams and 6 browser tabs open.

    by BizarroLand
  • "Linux users" is a pretty big spectrum. My XFCE install uses barely any ram.
    by rjh29
  • My Windows 11 laptop with 32 GB RAM only allows for about 10-12gb user addressable before starting to crash. I do keep a lot of Chrome tabs open so that can easily get to 6-8gb, plus IntelliJ can use another 4-5. Add on VScode, sometimes Firefox or Opera, an email client, some other utilities (or god forbid try opening WSL), and I'm constantly getting crashes. And as I stated, only about 12gb of applications on a 32gb machine. It makes no sense.
    by andy800
  • You need to run memtest.
    by picofarad
  • What kind of crashes? Could you have bad RAM and the crashes start once the bad chip get put into use?
    by kalleboo
  • Meanwhile the MacBook Neo is amazing with just 8 GB of RAM. I just got it for using as a "thin client" for AI but it can handle at least Godot gamedev without hiccups
    by Razengan
  • This recommendation was targeted to gaming, not office work. And even for gaming, MSFT said 16GiB was good enough for most games.

    Sensationalist article which doesn’t belong on HN.

    by 0x1d7
  • Gaming is such a broad category. That said not even modern triple A games recommend 32 gigabyte yet.
    by TitaRusell
  • Wasn't it actually talking about if you were gaming and streaming your gameplay and chatting at the same time?
    by benoau
  • Genuine question, especially here on HN. Why would a developer use Windows in 2026?

    I even develop windows apps. On Linux, built on GitHub actions.

    If I had windows forced on me for corp reasons, like I did once, just full screen a VM

    by awesomeusername
  • > Why would a developer use Windows in 2026?

    To have somewhat working desktop OS with access to one of the most powerful dev environments in a form of Visual Studio?

    by wolvesechoes
  • If you're developing for Windows you should definitely develop on Windows so you can dogfood what your users experience. You don't have to do everything else on Windows.
    by inigyou
  • Game development, all those desktop applications that 70% of the market happens to use?

    Additionally some of us really enjoy Visual Studio with the .NET ecosystem, the C++ tooling able to do hot reloading, REPL, debug release binaries?

    Powershell based tooling.

    by pjmlp
  • Developing apps for platform you are not using is just pointless exercise in frustrating your users. If app fails on Windows, how are you going to support your users? You don't have Windows, so you are unable to replicate the error at a first place.
    by general1465
  • Because the IT department makes them. Windows (and Mac) have an abundance of turn-key MDM solutions. I did the research to avoid having to use Windows at a previous employer, and there weren't many options (and specifically _any_ that covered 100% of what they wanted).
    by zamalek
  • > If I had windows forced on me for corp reasons, like I did once, just full screen a VM

    Ah, the naivete of the innocent. You are vastly underestimating the amount of spyware like Crapstrike Falcon that the IT department will force on you. And you think that shit runs on a VM?

    Consider yourself lucky that you don't suffer Windows at work. I have only a single thought for all Microsoft software: death.

    by yunnpp
  • If you are planning to use vibe coded programs then you better plan for a lot of RAM. Well I say planning when its really being thrust upon you in a lot of cases.

    But be extremely mindful when looking at anything touched by Anthropic or OpenAI.

    These coding agents have terrible feedback cycles for lag and memory leaks. A particularly egregious one is GPU usage which is absurdly high in most of these apps due to terrible design and react render loop issues. Someone needs to make RL enviroments than punish this.

    I will caveat this with saying being wasteful with resources is not new at all. But at this point it seems like no one is doing any amount of basic due diligence.

    by kingstnap
  • The source of the bloat is less vibecoding and more architecture missteps and reliance on using web interfaces for everything.
    by swordsith