hnthrowaway2376

> Apple RAM is expensive. Every other kind of RAM is pretty cheap. 32GB DDR4 can be had for under $30, and 16GB DDR4 can be had for about $25.

I'm sure that's pretty cheap for you, yes. Taxes and other fees tend to increase those prices outside the US, by the way.

> I'm not sure who you think has a computer, is developing software, and can't afford that.

There is a market for lightweight code editors, isn't there?

> Too bad if that's you, but "top 1%" is a laughable claim when RAM is so cheap.

That was a bit of hyperbole on my part, but let's not forget that just being an employed SWE in the US easily places you in the top 1% globally.

> I've used VSCode on a computer with 2GB of RAM, and it worked. I expected everything to run slower - and it did run slower, but it ran. And I developed, and contributed to the project I was working on while away from my workstation. This was a cheap $70 Windows 10 tablet. YMMV.

Fair enough. VSCode is hardly the worst offender though - it actually runs quite well for an Electron app.

How does AI democratize visual art? Anyone can pick up a pen and draw. Affording all the expensive hardware to train AI, on the other hand, is limited to a much smaller group of people, unless there's something I'm missing?

> RAM is cheap

RAM is cheap for you.

It's always silly when people bring up their top-of-the-line computer into discussions about performance. Software shouldn't be just for the top 1%.