4 GB was fine on my previous 2011 MacBook air except when I started up my VMware Windows XP machine - then I had to shut down a few other applications. Other

4 GB was fine on my previous 2011 MacBook air except when I started up my VMware Windows XP machine - then I had to shut down a few other applications. Other than that - the basic 20 apps that I usually have running, including Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, Mail.app, Safari, Google Earth, and even a few custom ones, like GNS3/Dynamips, a Cisco Router Hypervisor/Simulator that I would run networks with 8-10 Cisco 7206 routers on, all ran just fine on 4 GB - and, once again, I have never, under any scenario, had memory pressure on my Mid 2013 8 GB MacBook Air. What I've noticed, is that some apps, when left on my Windows 7 system, Like google earth, seem to eat a lot of memory, and then when I come back to them - I'm either getting a "Low memory warning", or I have to wait for everything to swap back in. For whatever reason, under OS X 10.8.x, this has never been an issue. Honestly though - a lot (most?) of it probably has to do with flash drives - they make everything feel just so much more nimble.