alt Hacker NewsThe problem is that higher performing devices will still exist. Those engineers will probably keep using performant devices and their managers will certainly keep buying them.
We'll probably end up in an even more bifurcated world where the well off have access to lot of great products and services that most of humanity is increasingly unable to access.
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Can confirm, I'm currently requesting as much RAM as can fit in the chassis and permission to install an OS not too divorced from what we run in prod.
On the bright side, I'm not responsible for the UI abominations people seem to complain about WRT laptop specs.
If "performant" devices are not widespread then telemetry will reveal that the app is performing poorly for most users. If a new festure uses more memory and sugnificantly increases the crash rate, it will be disabled.
Apps are optimized for the install base, not for the engineer's own hardware.
How many "great products and services" even need a lot of RAM, assuming that we can live without graphics-intensive games?
Have the laws of supply and demand been suspended? Capital is gonna pour into memory fabrication over the next year or two, and there will probably be a glut 2-3 years from now, followed by retrenchment and wails that innovation has come to a halt because demand has stalled.