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What kind of development are you doing? 16gb is OK for my needs at home running linux, but on the odd occasion I wish I had more. At work I find 32Gb is barel

What kind of development are you doing? 16gb is OK for my needs at home running linux, but on the odd occasion I wish I had more. At work I find 32Gb is barely enough.

ogre_codes 6y ago
I would turn that around. What kind of development are you doing where you feel 32GB is "Barely enough"? Right now I primarily work on a very complex react based app. I've also done Java, Ruby, Elixir, and Python development and my primary machine has never had 32GB. More RAM is definitely better, but when I hear phrases like "32GB is barely enough", I have to wonder what in the hell people are working on. Even running K8s with multiple VMs at my previous job I didn't run into any kind of hard stops with 16GB of RAM.
- thom 6y ago
  If you do machine learning or simulations with big datasets and lots of parameters it does become an issue, but I will admit I could just as easily run these things on a server. I don’t think I’ve ever maxed out 32gb doing anything normal.
- bronson 6y ago
  One data point: when I was consulting a year ago, I had to run two fully virtualized desktops just to use the client's awful VPNs and enterprise software. Those VMs, plus a regular developer workload, made my 16GB laptop unusable. Upgrading to 32GB fixed it completely.
  - mixmastamyk 6y ago
    Desktops can use less memory than folks many folks think. I have a VM of Windows 10 in 3.5 GB running a VPN, Firefox, Java DB app, and ssh/git. For single use, memory could be decreased. I think the art of reducing the memory footprint has been lost. Whenever I configure a VM for example, I disable/remove all the unused services and telemetry as the first step. This approaches an XP memory footprint.
  - imtringued 6y ago
    That's not what this discussion is about. 16GB is definitively limiting if you run VMs but 32GB should be plenty. If you need more then either you are running very specialized applications which means your own preferences are out of touch with the average developer or you are wasting all of the RAM on random crap.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
mixmastamyk 6y ago
> What kind of development are you doing? Sounds like folks never want to close an app. It could be a productivity booster if you want to spend the money and electricity, but is rarely a requirement.

What kind of development are you doing? 16gb is OK for my needs at home running linux, but on the odd occasion I wish I had more. At work I find 32Gb is barely enough.

ogre_codes 6y ago

I would turn that around. What kind of development are you doing where you feel 32GB is "Barely enough"? Right now I primarily work on a very complex react based app. I've also done Java, Ruby, Elixir, and Python development and my primary machine has never had 32GB. More RAM is definitely better, but when I hear phrases like "32GB is barely enough", I have to wonder what in the hell people are working on. Even running K8s with multiple VMs at my previous job I didn't run into any kind of hard stops with 16GB of RAM.

thom 6y ago
If you do machine learning or simulations with big datasets and lots of parameters it does become an issue, but I will admit I could just as easily run these things on a server. I don’t think I’ve ever maxed out 32gb doing anything normal.
bronson 6y ago
One data point: when I was consulting a year ago, I had to run two fully virtualized desktops just to use the client's awful VPNs and enterprise software. Those VMs, plus a regular developer workload, made my 16GB laptop unusable. Upgrading to 32GB fixed it completely.
- mixmastamyk 6y ago
  Desktops can use less memory than folks many folks think. I have a VM of Windows 10 in 3.5 GB running a VPN, Firefox, Java DB app, and ssh/git. For single use, memory could be decreased. I think the art of reducing the memory footprint has been lost. Whenever I configure a VM for example, I disable/remove all the unused services and telemetry as the first step. This approaches an XP memory footprint.
- imtringued 6y ago
  That's not what this discussion is about. 16GB is definitively limiting if you run VMs but 32GB should be plenty. If you need more then either you are running very specialized applications which means your own preferences are out of touch with the average developer or you are wasting all of the RAM on random crap.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

mixmastamyk 6y ago

> What kind of development are you doing? Sounds like folks never want to close an app. It could be a productivity booster if you want to spend the money and electricity, but is rarely a requirement.