Not likely. I expect the AI bubble will burst before those software optimization gears even start to turn.

It's not just garbage software. So many programs are just electron apps which is about the most inefficient way of making them. If we could start actually making programs again instead of just shipping a webpage and a browser bundled together you'd see resource usage plummet.

In the gaming space even before the RAM shortage I've seen more developers begin doing optimization work again thanks to the prevalence of steam deck and such so the precedent is there and I'm hopeful other developers do start considering lower end hardware.

No, everything will just become subscription based.

🤣 Nah, they'll enforce mandatory cloud computing.

You'll just have a "terminal"

Not when AI is writing the code.

You fool, humans are flexible enough to get used to slow experiences. Even if the average user needs to have discord, slack, 100 chrome tabs, word and any other electron app opened simultaneously, he will just go through his work. He may not be happy with it but still continue without changing his habits.

But to be honest, I goddamn hope you are right!

there is no “shortage” just capitalism testing the limits of various bubbles.

It's a really nice idea, but bad developers are already so deep in the sunk cost fallacy that they'll likely just double down.

Nobody reassesses their dogma just because the justification for it is no longer valid. That's not how people work.

There's plenty of "unbloated" software available. It's just not on Windows.

Found the silver lining guy.

Love the optimism but yeah, the impact on software dev will be minimal, if there even is one.

Naaaah, you are just going to have to run it in the cloud optimised by AI for the low low price of both your kidneys so Bezos, Mark and Elon can continue partying.

Linux Mint Cinnamon is pretty easy to move to.....

The "shortage" is temporary and artificial, so that's a hard NO. The ram shortage doesn't present any incentive to make apps more efficient because the hardware and software that is already in people's homes won't be effected by the shortage and people who currently use the software won't be affected by the shortage. The very small percentage of people that will be affected by the temporary shortage wouldn't justify making changes to software that is currently in development.

There's no incentive for software companies to make their code more efficient until people stop using their software so stop using it and it will get better. Just as an example Adobe reader is crap, just straight up garbage, but people still use it so the app stopped getting improvements many years ago. Then Adobe moved to a subscription based system, and cloud service for selling your data but guess what, it's still the same app that it was 10 years ago, just more expensive.

One of those little truisms folks forget is that optimising software takes a LOT longer than making something that just works.

The RAM shortage will end before any meaningful memory optimizations can be made.

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.

Tbf software is bloated because higher ups who don't use computers besides microsoft excel tell programmers to not optimize.

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

Linux FTW

I'm currently running Fedora Linux with Firefox and YouTube opened up. The whole system uses ~4GB of memory. That's totally fine and I couldn't care less about what Microsoft is doing with their OS.

With that said, I don't think we'll see a lot of optimizations in commercial software. Maybe a few here and there, but a lot of developers nowadays don't even know how to optimize their code. Especially people working in web development or adjacent frameworks. Let's just throw hundreds of npm packages into one project and bundle them up with webpack, here's your 12MB JavaScript - take it or leave it. Projects like this aren't the exception, they are the norm.

Even if the devices that can run that code without running out of memory get more expensive, companies will just pay for those and write them off on the taxes. And if not, more apps will just get pushed into the cloud.

Nah, you'll get 8GB and swap on nvme. Or, you'll get to rent a terminal server slot for just $30 a month.

It still costs more to rewrite all your existing code sooo no.

Wouldn't that be nice! Yeah I think it'll totally work.

Hey, I think I see someone right now, they're switching from writing in Python to writing in assembly! "Hey buddy, don't forget to clear that register! And don't forget you'll need to write this all over from scratch to get it to work on any other platform!"

I was about to post something like that, and hit electron apps and all that. Thanks OP.

No, devs don't optimize unless there is a real incentive. Coding speed, eayse, portability (electron, or whole browser+nodejs packaged as an executable) will do

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).

…and grocery store prices will go back down, too.