Re: "Low-end == 2 Gb"
The belief that because of moores law, no care is taken regarding well optimised code as machines will just get quicker.
That's no longer really the case: compilers are producing pretty efficient code. We do demand more from our software in ways we don't think matter so much but most of the time the code is doing nothing waiting for us to stimulate it.
Programs use more memory because there is more of it and more memory is usually the easiest way to speed things up. Try opening up a modern spreadsheet on an older machine. RAM, storage and bandwidth now seem limitless so why not use them?
That said, it still amazes me quite how big some software updates turn out to be. Each part of an MS Office for Mac update weighs in at around 1GB. I'm sure MS could distribute smaller binary diffs if they really put their minds to it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
