Put your own RAM in.
I used to have to upgrade my own machines. For years. Monitors and RAM. I haven't had a place that gave me anything less than 16G for years now, though.
Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. Around 2.8Ghz core and 16GB ram are standard for us. Occasionally we have to settle for 8GB if that is what all that is available in Apple refurbs.
I don't care about CPU speed very much, but yeah, 16GB at least for a dev machine. You need something you can run a database on, perhaps an http server + framework, etc.
Virtual machines are a killer too. We are primarily web but end up doing more than our fair share of legacy WinForm app updates and that requires a lot of ram if you're going to have at least somewhat of a pleasant experience in VS inside the VM.
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#13Laughable. 4 gig was adequate in 2008, maybe.
This hits home. I'm working on a 2008 macbook that was (I guess) upgraded from 4gb to 8gb RAM when I bought it off of some guy.
It works for me to develop on though. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#14You'd be surprised what a single, well-scheduled CPU can put up with. Don't want to add too many and deal with CPU Ready, where the hypervisor is trying to schedule all those cores on the host. Smaller VMs are easier to schedule and thus have less opportunity to be forced into idleness.
But yeah you need twice that RAM, minimum.
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#15Put your own RAM in. I used to have to upgrade my own machines. For years. Monitors and RAM. I haven't had a place that gave me anything less than 16G for years now, though.
It's VDI. Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure. Good luck accessing the datacenter.
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#17Sounds like a shortsighted company led by sales people. If there is this amount of penny-fucking at your company, maybe it is best to interview at other places and leave asap.
Things will not get better, as management has costs to cut. Your work equipment is one of those costs. If it was up to them, you'd be shoveling with 3 spoons instead of a shovel, since "it works for most", meaning "we only assign shovels on a 1-1 basis so that we wouldn't need to spend bigger amount now." What are your salary raise prospects at such a company?
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#18Oh dear! Can you BYO laptop?
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#19Run
Re: Ask HN: Our lead architect says 4GB is enough for a developer machine
#20I'd recommend breaking down the time lost due to the slower machine, and spelling out how that equates to dollars down the drain. Here's an example (with arbitrary numbers):
"With a 16GB machine, it takes my test suite 5 minutes to run. With 4GB, that suite runs in 20 minutes. I need to run it on average, 10 times a day. So by giving me the 4GB machine, you're having me sit idle for an unnecessary 15 minutes, 10 times a day. So that's 2.5 hours per day that you're paying me to spin around in my chair and surf HackerNews. That's X wasted dollars every day, which is significantly more than the cost of the upgrade from 4GB to 16GB. So you'll save money by giving me a faster machine".
If there's a way to speak dollars-and-cents to the bureaucrats in your org, then there's a better chance of them approving your request.