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I use a mac with 8gb of ram for professional development — I use it in intensive ways with at least 15 windows open, many of them electron processes. With the n

I use a mac with 8gb of ram for professional development — I use it in intensive ways with at least 15 windows open, many of them electron processes. With the notable exception that I must restart my computer about once a week, the system performs flawlessly. 8gb of RAM is fine, and I am not[0] an Apple fanboy. I'd be more angry if I was on the pro model and still only getting 8gb, but that would just be anger out of the principle of it. Edit: currently I have 20 browser tabs, 3 vscode windows, 2 development servers (and services like postgres and colima to support them) postico 2, spotify, slack, discord, mail, messages, calendar, and a handful of background apps like shottr, raycast, rcmd, rectangle and lunar open. The computer isn't even hot. Its swapping aggressively I'm sure, but its not noticeable. [0]: https://boehs.org/node/private-apis https://boehs.org/node/private-apis

talldayo 2y ago
Do you use Docker? I had a 16gb Mac a while ago and I had to debug half our code on a metered EC2 because my Docker VM would OOM every time I tried running it, even with everything else closed. When I hear the "professional development on 8gb Mac" line I typically imagine SaaS webdev or Swift/Applescript writing. Trying to imagine the monorepos I've worked on running on a base Macbook Air... unless you're using it as an SSH frontend I don't think you'd be very productive.
- internetter 2y ago
  I edited this comment to say colima. Colima is running a few containers that replicates our prod. We do use slim images, but why wouldn't we. > Swift/Applescript writing You dramatically underestimate the resources required to run Swift. I'm also developer license holder, and XCode brings the laptop to its knees. It is usable, but "XCode developers" are one of the small groups of people for who I'd recommend a ram upgrade.
superkuh 2y ago
Exactly, you know IT. I'm glad you can make it work. You aren't installing the crapware that comes with your logitech mouse, or running adobe suite, etc, etc. You know how to keep your computer clean and you only run what you need. You probably have a NAS set up for storage to avoid the fragile external drives and never fill your tiny 256GB storage accidentally. Whereas all the not professional IT normal-people I see are having serious problems. Then again, I don't see them if they aren't having problems. Kind of selection bias. But when I need to fix these problems saying "We'll don't use that software." isn't acceptable. For PCs you just install more ram or upgrade to a new storage drive. For the modern macs? Buy a new one. It's pathetic.
- internetter 2y ago
  So, theres a problem, but instead of addressing the root of the problem you just... install more RAM?
  - Dalewyn 2y ago
    The reason I have 64GB of RAM in my daily driver Windows desktop is because all software are bloated and leaky pieces of shit to varying degrees, yes.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    The solution presented is to not use your computer, kind of defeats the purpose though.
  - superkuh 2y ago
    I'm sorry. I cannot fix the bloat in the software that people chose to use. I can't make Adobe Photoshop a real application anymore like it was up to CS2.
reisse 2y ago
8gb ram is not fine because it's really a 10$, maybe less, production cost upgrade for 1000$ laptop. Even if it improves quality of life when using the laptop 10%, it still brings like 100$ of value to you. The only reason Apple didn't put more RAM is to carve out the market for Pro models and squish money from consumers like you and me. There is no reason to defend corporation wishing to take more from a customer.
- internetter 2y ago
  I agree. I just want to see people calling it out for what it is. 8gb of RAM is still perfectly usable. Saying it isn't is lying. Instead, say that Apple is gorging its customers, because that isn't a lie.

talldayo 2y ago

Do you use Docker? I had a 16gb Mac a while ago and I had to debug half our code on a metered EC2 because my Docker VM would OOM every time I tried running it, even with everything else closed. When I hear the "professional development on 8gb Mac" line I typically imagine SaaS webdev or Swift/Applescript writing. Trying to imagine the monorepos I've worked on running on a base Macbook Air... unless you're using it as an SSH frontend I don't think you'd be very productive.

internetter 2y ago
I edited this comment to say colima. Colima is running a few containers that replicates our prod. We do use slim images, but why wouldn't we. > Swift/Applescript writing You dramatically underestimate the resources required to run Swift. I'm also developer license holder, and XCode brings the laptop to its knees. It is usable, but "XCode developers" are one of the small groups of people for who I'd recommend a ram upgrade.

superkuh 2y ago

Exactly, you know IT. I'm glad you can make it work. You aren't installing the crapware that comes with your logitech mouse, or running adobe suite, etc, etc. You know how to keep your computer clean and you only run what you need. You probably have a NAS set up for storage to avoid the fragile external drives and never fill your tiny 256GB storage accidentally. Whereas all the not professional IT normal-people I see are having serious problems. Then again, I don't see them if they aren't having problems. Kind of selection bias. But when I need to fix these problems saying "We'll don't use that software." isn't acceptable. For PCs you just install more ram or upgrade to a new storage drive. For the modern macs? Buy a new one. It's pathetic.

internetter 2y ago
So, theres a problem, but instead of addressing the root of the problem you just... install more RAM?
- Dalewyn 2y ago
  The reason I have 64GB of RAM in my daily driver Windows desktop is because all software are bloated and leaky pieces of shit to varying degrees, yes.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  The solution presented is to not use your computer, kind of defeats the purpose though.
- superkuh 2y ago
  I'm sorry. I cannot fix the bloat in the software that people chose to use. I can't make Adobe Photoshop a real application anymore like it was up to CS2.

reisse 2y ago

8gb ram is not fine because it's really a 10$, maybe less, production cost upgrade for 1000$ laptop. Even if it improves quality of life when using the laptop 10%, it still brings like 100$ of value to you. The only reason Apple didn't put more RAM is to carve out the market for Pro models and squish money from consumers like you and me. There is no reason to defend corporation wishing to take more from a customer.

internetter 2y ago
I agree. I just want to see people calling it out for what it is. 8gb of RAM is still perfectly usable. Saying it isn't is lying. Instead, say that Apple is gorging its customers, because that isn't a lie.