Firefox. Firefox is a free and open source web browser that is not just nice to your RAM, making it run smoothly alongside games or on older machines, but also respects your privacy.
Unlike Chrome, it doesn't track every move you make online and it's not only more customizable, it also doesn't threaten ad-blockers and the free web in general. Check out Firefox with the link below!
I did the same! I’m now given to understand that that was Google’s goal with Chrome - make the easiest-to-use and most lightweight browser to bring everyone in, then ramp up the trackers and bloat. I think I need to export my bookmarks and look into Firefox again…
Diehard Firefox stan since Phoenix days. I also discovered a little social phenomenon. Many (not all) tech people who call it "furryfox" and hate FF for "politics" are actually rightwing leaning or homophobes just silently aligning with the righty political agenda. Do not ask me how I know it. Rightwing SJWs exist en masse silently, and they are among us.
People also forget that most of the actual calculations were done on paper first; the computers were basically just executing precalculated instructions.
These are multiple printouts of the code.
The computer did not only execute precalculated instruction. (This would be a sequencer BTW.). Try it yourself
AGC.
We've had general purpose computers for decades but every year the hardware requirements for general purpose operating systems keep increasing.
I personally don't think there has been a massive spike in productivity using a computer between when PCs usually had 256-512mb to now where you need at least 8gb to have a decent experience.
What has changed are growing protocol specs that are now a bloated mess, poorly optimised programs and bad design decisions.
I personally don’t think there has been a massive spike in productivity using a computer between when PCs usually had 256-512mb to now
For general use/day to day stuff like web browsing, sure, I agree, but what about things like productivity and content creation? Imagine throwing a 4K video at a machine with 512 MiB RAM - it would probably have troubles even playing it, let alone editing/processing.
You don't think you'll ever really use all 32GB at the same time until you're running a virtual machine or two and open task manager to see that you're consistently using over 82% of your RAM, which happened to me today.
Computers haven't become less efficient. They can still crunch numbers like crazy.
It's the software. Why spend a month making something when you can just download some framework that does what you want in one hour. Sure, it used 10 times as much memory and CPU, but that's still only a 1 second delay with a modern computer and the deadline for release is approaching fast.
Repeat that process often enough and you have a ridiculously bloated mess of layers upon layers of software. Just for fun you can start up some old software and play around with it in an emulator to be baffled how quick it all works on a modern system.