Why computers are ridiculous now — EnbySpacePerson
There's nothing fundamental that most of us are doing on a computer in the year 2024 that requires 16GB of RAM or a brand new processor. Why has it become the new default? Why does your computer that runs fine today require a replacement to run Windows 11? There's not one answer but several.
My goal with these articles is to be informative for people who don't know as much about computers. Don't feel the need to read the footnotes. They're a form of Craig Maloney statement.
Computer makers know that “more is better” when it comes to advertising. This used to be easy because in terms of speed, we could “just” talk about the speed of the processor and the bigger number would obviously be better. Even back then, it was more complex than that but most people didn't need to care about it one way or the other. They just needed the bigger number.
Hardware used to be more expensive even before you adjust for inflation. Once you adjust for inflation, it becomes really clear that hardware was like “wowza 💸 💰 🤑”. Giving hardware manufacturers of the time the benefit of the doubt, economies of scale hadn't hit. Only a few companies did custom chip manufacturing. Those few companies were able to charge whatever they wanted to for their products. That means the computers those parts went into were expensive.
