Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use • Hacker News Board

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#311

Post by pragmatic » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 1:34 PM UTC

ozgrakkurt wrote: post #305

newobj wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is historically terrible as a product company (and has succeeded in spite of that) As their technical innovations become less of a moat (we're already there) they won't be able to win on engineering alone (they are no longer winning on engineering alone)

They did build chrome, gmail, docs and search afaik so that is a pretty impressive list imo. I don’t specifically like these but they are much better than microsoft for an example

Yes, two decades ago.

Docs was acquired (writely)

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#312

Post by itsdavesanders » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

pragmatic wrote: post #311

ozgrakkurt wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did build chrome, gmail, docs and search afaik so that is a pretty impressive list imo. I don’t specifically like these but they are much better than microsoft for an example

Yes, two decades ago. Docs was acquired (writely)

And throughout those two decades they also canned a ton of projects, including maybe some good ones.

I’d say they are batting .250 like everyone else.

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#313

Post by hparadiz » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 1:55 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #289

hparadiz wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been at multiple companies where Google Drive and Docs/Sheets are the only thing people use.

That's because the execs force them.

LMAO Why the fuck would I wanna install office on my mac.

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#314

Post by jrochkind1 » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

nathanyz wrote: post #87

jrochkind1 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not going to give Claude access to anything on your machine, why are you using Desktop instead of web chat? (Real question, I don't use these much!) If you are, obviously you need the VM.

I do use Claude Cowork and hence the VM is important, but I also leave the desktop app running all the time since I have many scheduled tasks at different times. The thing is that the VM could shutdown after being idle for some amount of time and then fire back up when you are ready to use it.

Shouldn't it get swapped out of RAM if it's not being used for a long time? My understanding was that modern memory management is very good at this, there's no need to be shutting idle things down and starting them up all the time. I could be wrong.

This whole thing seems kind of silly to me I must admit. It seems obvious that Claude Desktop needs a VM for security for the majority of it's actual real world use. VM's take up memory, yeah. Them's the breaks. If other competitors have managed to provide as good (or ideally better) security scenario with less RAM, that would be interesting, but just complaining about it seems weird and uninformed to me.

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#315

Post by Henchman21 » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 2:48 PM UTC

ozgrakkurt wrote: post #305

newobj wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is historically terrible as a product company (and has succeeded in spite of that) As their technical innovations become less of a moat (we're already there) they won't be able to win on engineering alone (they are no longer winning on engineering alone)

They did build chrome, gmail, docs and search afaik so that is a pretty impressive list imo. I don’t specifically like these but they are much better than microsoft for an example

Could they do it today? Or have they squandered the trust they created?

“Don’t be evil”

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#316

Post by coldtea » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

hparadiz wrote: post #313

coldtea wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because the execs force them.

LMAO Why the fuck would I wanna install office on my mac.

Woosh

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#317

Post by reactordev » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

esseph wrote: post #309

elxr wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in my personal experience. Never been in that situation, and I've worked in full-stack, FE, and BE teams.

How many companies with say 50k+ employees? VDI is pretty standard and often even required by some cyber security insurance.

Every Fortune 500 basically

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#318

Post by Scoundreller » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #136

tom1337 wrote: post #5

I won't understand why Cowork isn't simply opt-in. It also installs a ~10GB vm bundle which you cannot remove https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1rlc71n/claude_de...

RIP, every base model mac from the past 10 years with the <= 256GB SSD. Including the new Neo. When you consider how much of that is eaten up by the system, swap space, caches, reserved space to download OS updates, and apps (2GB a piece is far from uncommon) -- having less than 15GB free is completely unsurprising on that size disk.

I miss the SD slot on my old MacBook Air. Even better when they came out with low profile adapters that held microSD cards basically flush.

At least you can buy usb-c nubs fairly cheaply these days.

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#319

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 3:07 AM UTC

amazingamazing wrote: post #251

newobj wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is historically terrible as a product company (and has succeeded in spite of that) As their technical innovations become less of a moat (we're already there) they won't be able to win on engineering alone (they are no longer winning on engineering alone)

People say this but it is wishful thinking. What are some actual metrics here we can use. Let’s compare google’s products with others.

> Let’s compare google’s products with others.

Gmail: Reliably excellent spam filtering (for most users).

Outlook.com: Reliably excellent at losing validation emails.

that said, Gmail finds lots of other ways to inflict misery (Gemini beat-downs) and I'd rather work in Excel online that Sheets.

Re: Claude Desktop spawns 1.8 GB Hyper-V VM on every launch, even for chat-only use

#320

Post by 7tythr33 » Fri, Jun 12, 2026, 6:51 PM UTC

robotresearcher wrote: post #157

7tythr33 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An email client (Gmail app) that is 500mb? What’s _outstanding_ about that? Almost everything Google makes now is terrible. Try some alternatives.

Honest question: what's a candidate for better? The search needs to be really good, as that was always a strong point for Gmail.

You're probably not going to like my answer — I swapped to Hey shortly after it came out, and I'm very happy with it. I check my choice every now and then; recently taking a look at Tuta and Proton. Tuta just isn't there yet, and Proton is just Gmail but in Switzerland. Meh.