> Yes, computers have gotten faster and memory and disks much larger. That doesn't mean we should be wasting it to do the same or even less functionality we had with the machines of 10 or 20 years ago.
If we save developer-cycles, it's not wasted, just saved somewhere else. In the first place we should not go by numbers, because there always will be someone who can complain for a faster solution.
> For example, IM, video/audio calls, and working with email shouldn't take hundreds of MB of RAM, a GHz-level many-core processor, and GBs of disk space. All of that was comfortably possible --- simultaneously --- with 256MB of RAM and a single-core 400MHz Pentium II.
Yes, no. The level of ability and comfort at that time was significant lower. Sure, the base-functionalitify was the same, but the experience was quite different. Today there are a gazillion more little details which make life more comfortable, which you just don't realize there are there. Some of them working in the background, some being so naturally that you can't imagine them not being there since the beginning of everything.
No, an externality is when a cost is passed to a external party (not involved in the transaction), like air pollution or antibiotic resistance. Passing a cost to the user is just a regular business transaction, like IKEA sending you a manual so you can build the furniture yourself.
If we save developer-cycles, it's not wasted, just saved somewhere else. In the first place we should not go by numbers, because there always will be someone who can complain for a faster solution.
> For example, IM, video/audio calls, and working with email shouldn't take hundreds of MB of RAM, a GHz-level many-core processor, and GBs of disk space. All of that was comfortably possible --- simultaneously --- with 256MB of RAM and a single-core 400MHz Pentium II.
Yes, no. The level of ability and comfort at that time was significant lower. Sure, the base-functionalitify was the same, but the experience was quite different. Today there are a gazillion more little details which make life more comfortable, which you just don't realize there are there. Some of them working in the background, some being so naturally that you can't imagine them not being there since the beginning of everything.