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

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

#131

Post by 7tythr33 »

BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #121
spott wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which products are outstanding in their categories? Gmail isn't outstanding, search isn't outstanding, maps isn't outstanding. They are all pretty par for the course. Google used to be outstanding... but I'm not sure of a single product they have that is outstanding (def: significantly better than the competition) anymore. On the other hand I rarely use any google products these days, so maybe I'm not the one to be j…

> Gmail isn't outstanding, search isn't outstanding, maps isn't outstanding They were at the time.

Time moves on …

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

#132

Post by otikik »

jstummbillig wrote: post #108
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)

How are Google products anything but outstanding in their categories? What are you comparing to?

Maybe you are not counting the products they kill.

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

#133

Post by 7tythr33 »

jstummbillig wrote: post #108
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)

How are Google products anything but outstanding in their categories? What are you comparing to?

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

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

#134

Post by BeetleB »

spott wrote: post #114
jstummbillig wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are Google products anything but outstanding in their categories? What are you comparing to?

Which products are outstanding in their categories? Gmail isn't outstanding, search isn't outstanding, maps isn't outstanding. They are all pretty par for the course. Google used to be outstanding... but I'm not sure of a single product they have that is outstanding (def: significantly better than the competition) anymore. On the other hand I rarely use any google products these days, so maybe I'm not the one to be j…

What's wrong with Maps?

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

#135

Post by snarfy »

z2 wrote: post #14

This all feels like a race where the model companies try to solve doing work locally in a way that doesn't suck, before the major operating systems companies figure out AI integration into their OS that doesn't suck. It also makes me wonder why Google which has both Gemini and Android can't figure this out, and if there are lessons to draw from that.

Microsoft has Copilot and Windows. Look what happened.

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

#136

Post by xp84 »

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.

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

#137

Post by Grombobulous »

doublerabbit wrote: post #130
Grombobulous wrote: post #67

As long as the VM closes when the application closes, I don’t see too much of an issue with this design decision. It seems like the VM is a core part of how you use the application.

Apart from you have no idea what's going on in the VM. It's not as it has a virtual terminal. I'll play the skeptic archetype: What's not to say they're transmitting all prompts back HQ? Don't be naive and don't think they don't already do this. Why not ask itself and see what it says about it. "Claude, why are you running in a virtual machine and what are you doing?". /shrug

Claude transmits all prompts back to HQ as a part of its basic functionality.

If you are using an AI system to read your codebase from your local folder and make changes, whether or not you have a VM running or not is inconsequential. The Claude extension and/or CLI doesn’t need a VM to send code back to the mothership, you’re already running an executable program and granting it directory access.

Whether you trust a company as a vendor is typically based on their privacy policy, EULA, and your contract with them (if applicable). Those are the bits that have legal enforceability.

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

#138

Post by xp84 »

cortesoft wrote: post #13

Isn’t it good that it spins up without no way of stopping it? Why would it be a problem that we do have a way of stopping it?

When you realize that in some languages, for instance, in Spanish, double-negatives are not just tolerated, but correct, it helps you to let go of this particular type of pedantry when it accidentally appears in an English sentence.

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

#140

Post by bauldursdev »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #47
nathanyz wrote: post #10

The VM itself is for Claude Cowork which does all work within the VM sandbox. That doesn't help answer why they spin it up immediately and don't have a way to disable it though. Just the "why it exists" question.

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.

There's such a spectrum between "give it everything" and "give it nothing". Imagine you just want to use it to code and want to make sure any commands it runs doesn't mess up your actual machine.
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