3 ms·

i think it's a fair concern, but quite frankly right now macos has best-in-class (desktop) memory/swap management

zozbot234 5mo ago
Compared to Windows or Android, sure. Hopefully the Asahi folks will get around to supporting this device so we can run a proper lightweight OS on it.
- Retr0id 5mo ago
  Unfortunately Linux is pretty damn bad under memory pressure, I think you'd get an objectively better experience on macOS. I say this as someone running Asahi right now.
  - ahartmetz 5mo ago
    But then, you don't usually run into memory pressure with 8 GB and Linux unless you do a few specific things (for me with 32-128 GB depending on machine it's C++ builds using all cores and of course local LLMs). I guess a bunch of Electron apps would also do it for 8 GB.
    - kergonath 5mo ago
      > you don't usually run into memory pressure with 8 GB and Linux unless you do a few specific things Like using Chrome…
      - ahartmetz 5mo ago
        Use Firefox then
        kergonath 5mo ago
        Fair enough, Firefox is a bit better. But not that much, a lot of the bloat comes from unoptimised web pages running megabytes of JavaScript. Also, Firefox is close to a rounding error nowadays.
        ahartmetz 5mo ago
        What does it matter how many other people use Firefox if it's the better browser for your situation? FWIW I've never really considered Chrome: First it looked ugly (weird UI and bad font rendering on Linux), then Google gave itself permission to be evil and then they limited ad blockers. They fixed the font rendering at some point.
- edelhans 5mo ago
  Linux is pretty bad at handling out of memory. In my old thinkpad T14 with Mint everything came to a halt when webpack gobbled up my 16GB of ram. Couldnt even move the cursor, stuff just got stuck hard
remix2000 5mo ago
Source…? I see this claim thrown around so much without any backing and my experience with mac os (and other darwin variants) is just terrible. My previous portable was a 2015 mac book pro with 16 (!) gigs of ram (mind-blowing for 2026 standards, I know) and the os just became terribly and unbearably sluggish with all the useless updates (that nb mostly removed features, e.g. ClearType was wiped off the face of the Earth in back in mac os Mojave) caking on, at some point I just gave up on trying to fix it with continuously reinstalling and balancing it. My current portable has quarter the amount of workmem and is just incredibly snappy esp. compared to that mac book. And I don't even use portables for anything too heavy, I have an actual PC for that.
- trvz 5mo ago
  I used a Mac mini M1 with 8GB of RAM for a while. It was fine; much better than Intel Macs or any other setup with low RAM.
  - remix2000 5mo ago
    Two accounts, both lowercase four random letter names respond to me within two minutes time apart, what do I make of it? :P Either way, I find it hard to believe memory management would vary so much between those two CPU architectures on a single-codebase OS.
    - Rexxar 5mo ago
      > four random letter names So probably very old accounts
    - grosswait 5mo ago
      One is a four letter set of characters without a vowel, the other spells a word with 5 letters. And so what? I’ll add on that the change to Apple silicon was an amazing improvement, even in the same OS version. Maybe these anecdotes mean your experience in this regard is dated. (I say this as someone who came reluctantly to Mac, and looks forward to returning to Linux)
    - 5mo ago
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]

Compared to Windows or Android, sure. Hopefully the Asahi folks will get around to supporting this device so we can run a proper lightweight OS on it.

Retr0id 5mo ago
Unfortunately Linux is pretty damn bad under memory pressure, I think you'd get an objectively better experience on macOS. I say this as someone running Asahi right now.
- ahartmetz 5mo ago
  But then, you don't usually run into memory pressure with 8 GB and Linux unless you do a few specific things (for me with 32-128 GB depending on machine it's C++ builds using all cores and of course local LLMs). I guess a bunch of Electron apps would also do it for 8 GB.
  - kergonath 5mo ago
    > you don't usually run into memory pressure with 8 GB and Linux unless you do a few specific things Like using Chrome…
    - ahartmetz 5mo ago
      Use Firefox then
      - kergonath 5mo ago
        Fair enough, Firefox is a bit better. But not that much, a lot of the bloat comes from unoptimised web pages running megabytes of JavaScript. Also, Firefox is close to a rounding error nowadays.
        ahartmetz 5mo ago
        What does it matter how many other people use Firefox if it's the better browser for your situation? FWIW I've never really considered Chrome: First it looked ugly (weird UI and bad font rendering on Linux), then Google gave itself permission to be evil and then they limited ad blockers. They fixed the font rendering at some point.
edelhans 5mo ago
Linux is pretty bad at handling out of memory. In my old thinkpad T14 with Mint everything came to a halt when webpack gobbled up my 16GB of ram. Couldnt even move the cursor, stuff just got stuck hard

remix2000 5mo ago

Source…? I see this claim thrown around so much without any backing and my experience with mac os (and other darwin variants) is just terrible. My previous portable was a 2015 mac book pro with 16 (!) gigs of ram (mind-blowing for 2026 standards, I know) and the os just became terribly and unbearably sluggish with all the useless updates (that nb mostly removed features, e.g. ClearType was wiped off the face of the Earth in back in mac os Mojave) caking on, at some point I just gave up on trying to fix it with continuously reinstalling and balancing it. My current portable has quarter the amount of workmem and is just incredibly snappy esp. compared to that mac book. And I don't even use portables for anything too heavy, I have an actual PC for that.

trvz 5mo ago
I used a Mac mini M1 with 8GB of RAM for a while. It was fine; much better than Intel Macs or any other setup with low RAM.
- remix2000 5mo ago
  Two accounts, both lowercase four random letter names respond to me within two minutes time apart, what do I make of it? :P Either way, I find it hard to believe memory management would vary so much between those two CPU architectures on a single-codebase OS.
  - Rexxar 5mo ago
    > four random letter names So probably very old accounts
  - grosswait 5mo ago
    One is a four letter set of characters without a vowel, the other spells a word with 5 letters. And so what? I’ll add on that the change to Apple silicon was an amazing improvement, even in the same OS version. Maybe these anecdotes mean your experience in this regard is dated. (I say this as someone who came reluctantly to Mac, and looks forward to returning to Linux)
  - 5mo ago

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]