no, they don't care about users or if they're literally cooking ram, they'll keep it bloated, and probably make it more bloated
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
286 points (95.5% liked)
Showerthoughts
38827 readers
737 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The RAM shortage will end before any meaningful memory optimizations can be made.
Naw it's easy:
void* malloc(size_t size) {
return std::malloc(size/2);
}
Is that what happened after COVID with chip shortage?
Dealing with memory usage will likely require significant rewrites and architectural changes. It will take years.
The ”memory optimizations” we’ll see is the removal of features but charge the same price. Software shrinkflation. Will require same amount of memory though.
For the most part, the answer seems to be yes. Some products did also ship with missing or reduced feature sets for a time, too.
I opened Photoshop, and I left it open with no document open. Just the main window. It started at 11 GB of RAM and went up to 28 gb without me doing anything.
If there was anything that was as good as Photoshop, I’d have switched years ago. But I’ve tried the alternatives, and they’re just is nothing like it. Same for InDesign. Affinity photo is really really close, but it’s just not the same.
I’ve been using Photoshop for over 30 years. Even when the time comes, making the switch will be very difficult.
edit: I just tried opening PS again and letting it sit. it's hovering around 3-3.5GB of ram usage. I think that last attempt was a fluke.
I’ve been using Photoshop for over 30 years. Even when the time comes
It's not coming. Not for you, anyway.
lol, eat me hahaha
Just curious-- what would you say are the main ways in which modern GIMP doesn't live up to PS?
@pantherina@feddit.org,
Windows 11 often requires new hardware.
This was true in my case, but it was also true that I'd been using a 10yr old machine, which is pretty ridiculous. Win10 was creaking along, and Firefox wasn't helping. So, ahead of the deadline, I got myself a ~US$350 mini-computer with modern AMD processor and 16gb. It's been flying.
So it was a comparatively tiny investment to stay with a modern machine, and also helpful in maintaining a chain of redundancy. (i.e. if this one has a problem for whatever reason, I have a temporary backup machine) So in a way, the Win11 jump actually helped me out a lot.
Checking just now, the computer has gone up US$50 since then.
I've been running Linux on a 14 year old Asus laptop with 4Gb of ram ,works fine
load more comments
(1 replies)
I started out using PS but when they decided to be a subscription model, I started using GIMP.
I can't stand trying to use photoshop anymore, and while I would love the user experience to be improved and the interface to be a little more intuitive, I've never been able to not do something I needed to do on gimp.
Maybe my needs are more simple than a lot of people here, I'm definitely not a photographer so if you're using it often enough, I suppose it could be better to use photoshop.
load more comments
(3 replies)
interesting you should mention your old machine. I recently upgraded my 2016 MacBook Pro to a M4 Pro MBP. Photoshop ran fine on the old one. Great, actually. The only difference I noticed was that PS launches faster and opens files faster, buuuut.... that's about it. PS already ran fine on my 9 y/o MBP. the new machine didn't improve much, other than the RAM, which allows me to have more large docs open at once.
my last machine only had 16GB of ram, whereas this new one has 48GB (the max for the MBP). still, the performance is pretty close-- although my old machine would probably struggle if I had a bunch of large PSDs open.
as an investment, I didn't really have a choice-- my old MBP died (ssd fried). I love this new machine, tho. it's very fast.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I guess GIMP has worse auto-selection and general algorithmic things. But never tried PS
load more comments
(2 replies)
Is there something specific you do? I hated Gimp for eternity, but PhotoGimp plugin paired with the newest (v3) Gimp isn’t that bad. I do enjoy the experience, mostly. Perhaps I just got used to it, but it’s quite usable for me.
I do a few different types of graphic design and photo editing for some different clients, but it's more about the workflows I've worked out in PS. GiMP does things very differently, and I think that's why a lot of PS users hate it. I sure do. it took me years to master PS. I don't want to have to go through all of that again, and I certainly don't have the time.
I will check out the plugin you mentioned. I've heard of it, but didn't think much of it before.
I think I have something same, I absolutely hate Gimp for many years. The plugin does not change much, so do not expect miracles. Yet, it helps me tolerate the pain of an absolutely awful UX. Yet, you still need to relearn. Also, check out Krita, it’s good, and is similar to Photoshop in many regards. What I do, is simply edit some images for web development. So it’s not much, and that’s how I can tolerate Gimp.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Just like the early days of programming when you really had to manage your memory, often down to the last bit. Those were the days when programming was more difficult. Now it's mostly just point and click for middle-schoolers.
load more comments
(6 replies)
I suspect companies behind needlessly memory-intensive software would rather push (harder) towards cloud services, or ignore the problem entirely - I'm sure they'll find a way to enshittify their products in a way that solves the problem for them, or see lower profits and learn absolutely nothing.
If the software in question is something people need for their job, those companies can absolutely just decide that it's not their problem and that you'll just have to face the shortage head-on.
I recall listening to half of a video from SumitoMedia, where his answer to your question is, quote, "do you hear how fucking stupid you sound?" (you can probably guess why I didn't watch the rest of it).
Well, if they still use Electron crap that is already too much overhead
…and grocery store prices will go back down, too.
Do people really use that much Ram with normal use? Like I rarely even fill my 16gb, even with gaming, etc. I mean I just don’t leave 16 tabs open in a browser because that feels really disorganized. And I turn my computer off every night and start fresh every day
Yes. 16GB is the bare minimum for regular usage on Windows. On Linux, it is a minimum for "regular to advanced" usage (i.e. more than 5 more complex programs open, Flatpak, Electron apps)
Oh. See I don’t use a lot of web apps or electron. No streaming/cloud services.
Recommended minimum for Win 11 is 4 GB.
The system does not need to use RAM to run multiple programs, it can use secondary memory.
Misaligned incentives. The people making bloated software are not the people buying the Ram. In theory the people buying the ram are the same people buying the software and so might put pressure on the people making the software to make it more efficient, but that is a very loose feedback loop and I wouldn't hold my breath.
OP is the optimistic type