With DDR5 RAM prices skyrocketing, some mid-range laptops could soon ship with budget-level specs. TrendForce expects companies like Dell and Lenovo to stock more notebooks with 8GB of memory. These reasonably priced options may no longer handle intense office and gaming tasks.
Does midrange being at 8GB mean that entry level will be 4GB? because I know corpos are gonna be corpos.
(I don’t think windows even run at 4GB lmfao)
Edit: Also, this RAM shortage might force people to use Linux 😁
Seems to me like there will be a split. A lot of critical thinkers that are frugal will move to Linux and up its market-share, but there will also be a lot of deals that companies make with cloud computing platforms as well for their employees instead of purchasing new laptops (which will probably also allow them to cut back on their IT staff).
Those that are still lost when it comes to tech from 20 years ago will also buy into cloud compute platforms just because they use it at work and can’t be arsed to learn something slightly different.
Yeah, this could spell the end for local installs of Microsoft office. Gdocs and o365 for everyone. Not sure if thats a win or loss.
I see it wholly as a loss, because it advances the idea of subscriptions for anything and everything, and Microsoft will be right there on the front lines taking advantage of the new revenue stream (so losing local installs won’t hurt them at all and is what they’re going for).
Windows 11 can run on 4GB. That’s the minimum for the listed requirements, and the other day, I saw Best Buy selling a 4GB model, and I see some systems for sale online. I would imagine that it’s not ideal.
Even on an 8gb or 16gb system Windows uses over 4gb on a fresh boot. At 4gb it’s going to be swapping to fish non-stop. The disk will be thrashed and be dead in a year of use.
Im really surprised Microsoft hasn’t already come out with a chrome-os like neutered version of windows specifically for this.
‘entry level’ specs have been 4gb ram for over a decade, and they’re still selling shit-tier laptops with only that today.