4 GB ENOUGH you Power Users Out there

[reputationZed]

The term itself isn't lame. Whether any particular person uses the term accurately or not is another matter.

the lameness of the term is that the "... ability to use advanced features of programs which are beyond the abilities of "normal" users." is so vague it's meaningless.

 

[plumosa]

Even if you are not a "power user" its still possible to need or benefit from more than 4gb. We are sharing the MBA and to make it easier to hand it back and forth, we're running two browsers at once (firefox and safari) and multitudes of tabs each. But at least once a day we have to close one of them (usually safari) because its taking up too much memory and beach balling everything.

 

[KnightWRX]

I think the OP is referring to someone who uses their computer for a lot of heavy stuff as far as the term "power user" goes.

Ressource intensiveness of the apps you use have nothing to do with being a "power user" or not.

I'm a power user myself. I haven't quite really "needed" a computer upgrade in the last 10 years, upgrading mostly on a "want" basis. I could pipe awk into sed into grep back into sed and into xargs 15 years ago. I still can today. I understand some of the subtilities of bash, none of which require more than a few MBs of RAM to run.

I used to optimize my config.sys and autoexec.bat to run ****** Origin titles like Ultima that didn't play nice with EMS, prefering XMS and tons of conventional memory, yet required a mouse (or bugger mouse.com, I'd just learn the keyboard shortcuts when I was on my fifth bootdisk configuration, thank god for the appearence of high memory, LH and LOADHIGH).

I wrote code in the olden days that a IDE was written in a Curse like API and that the system calls were all interupt based. I know of Mode 13h and yet prefer the niceties of Code Page 437. I remember what the web was like on 14400 bps, and even remember what it meant to download 100k over a 2400 baud connection.

That my friend is a power user. That he may use a program or two that is RAM or CPU intensive has nothing to do with being or not a power user. A normal user could require more than 4 GB of RAM depending on their workflow (engineering or CAD programs, high-end visualization, mathematics, creative content creation) and a power user might need less than 128 MB (old Unix greybeard that uses screen as a "GUI" and vtys for "virtual desktops").

 

[chrono1081]

Ressource intensiveness of the apps you use have nothing to do with being a "power user" or not.

I'm a power user myself. I haven't quite really "needed" a computer upgrade in the last 10 years, upgrading mostly on a "want" basis. I could pipe awk into sed into grep back into sed and into xargs 15 years ago. I still can today. I understand some of the subtilities of bash, none of which require more than a few MBs of RAM to run.

I used to optimize my config.sys and autoexec.bat to run ****** Origin titles like Ultima that didn't play nice with EMS, prefering XMS and tons of conventional memory, yet required a mouse (or bugger mouse.com, I'd just learn the keyboard shortcuts when I was on my fifth bootdisk configuration, thank god for the appearence of high memory, LH and LOADHIGH).

I wrote code in the olden days that a IDE was written in a Curse like API and that the system calls were all interupt based. I know of Mode 13h and yet prefer the niceties of Code Page 437. I remember what the web was like on 14400 bps, and even remember what it meant to download 100k over a 2400 baud connection.

That my friend is a power user. That he may use a program or two that is RAM or CPU intensive has nothing to do with being or not a power user. A normal user could require more than 4 GB of RAM depending on their workflow (engineering or CAD programs, high-end visualization, mathematics, creative content creation) and a power user might need less than 128 MB (old Unix greybeard that uses screen as a "GUI" and vtys for "virtual desktops").

Thats one definition of a power user, and most people (myself included) agree with your definition, but I think most people who aren't in a computer science field consider power users to be people running resource intensive applications.

 

[johnhurley]

I wrote code in the olden days that a IDE was written in a Curse like API and that the system calls were all interupt based. I know of Mode 13h and yet prefer the niceties of Code Page 437. I remember what the web was like on 14400 bps, and even remember what it meant to download 100k over a 2400 baud connection.

That my friend is a power user.

I do all my coding in three way logic. Binary is so restricting.

I glued together my paper tape with matzo balls!

I added the 6 to the 5 to the zero two baby!

Sorry I could not resist!

 

[Sean Dempsey]

get istat widget.

monitor page ins and page outs. If your page outs are more than 5% of the page ins, you need more ram. But if you can't get more than 4gb, just see what sort of programs bump the page outs up over the 10-15% range.

All that matters with ram is pageouts.

 

[GGJstudios]

get istat widget.

monitor page ins and page outs. If your page outs are more than 5% of the page ins, you need more ram. But if you can't get more than 4gb, just see what sort of programs bump the page outs up over the 10-15% range.

All that matters with ram is pageouts.

There is no relation between page ins and page outs. You will always have page ins, but you may or may not have page outs. Your last statement is accurate. All that matters in determining RAM needs is page outs.

 

[orfeas0]

Kind of depends on your interpretation of the term Power User. The title gets thrown around quite a bit without any real definition of what makes a person a power user. The term is often used as a means of justifying an investment in technology without giving any substantial reason for why that technology is required. If someone argues they need 8GB of RAM because they spend a good deal of time encoding HD video, I can see the merit of their argument. If someone tells me they need 8GB of RAM because their a Power User, my perception would be that they want 8GB of RAM, because they believe they need 8GB of RAM, but are clueless as to why they need 8GB of RAM.

Here's another way of looking at it. I would consider someone who has mastered Unix commands and spends most of their day in terminal to be a Power User because they are taking advantage of functions in the OS that may not be easily implemented through a GUI environment. Yet a great deal of what this power user would be doing on a daily basis could probably be done with less than 2GB of RAM.

A final argument is that if you do not understand how to monitor and manage system resources, and how to make a determination of your requirements from that information, than you are not a power user.

It's a bit like saying I need to buy professional quality cookware because I'm a really, really good chef, rather than buying professional cookware because it holds heat more consistently or is more durable than the consumer grade stuff.

Would you be "ok" with the phrase "I need to buy a professional quality cookware because I'm a professional chef"? Or would he need to justify WHY he is a professional chef?

With your thinking, you can't say someone is beautiful. You have to state every little thing making them beautiful.
A power user is a computer user who requires more than the average computing capabilities.
And calling a term lame, is lame, which is a stupid meaningless word.

 

[Crikey]

4GB isn't enough for me. I want a MacBook Air, but I'm holding off and hoping next year's Air has an 8GB option.

 

[KnightWRX]

Thats one definition of a power user, and most people (myself included) agree with your definition, but I think most people who aren't in a computer science field consider power users to be people running resource intensive applications.

Most people outside of computer science like to think they know our lingo and redefine it all the time. It doesn't make them right nor does it mean we need to bow to popular pressure.

I will never accept any other definition of power user.

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A power user is a computer user who requires more than the average computing capabilities.

Only for a very wrong definition of power user. Again people, app ressource utilization has nothing to do with being a "power user".

If you don't know what the computer science people's lingo means, don't even meanings out of thin air.

It's bad enough we lost "hacker" this way, we're not going to lose anymore terms.

 

[brand]

Most people outside of computer science like to think they know our lingo and redefine it all the time. It doesn't make them right nor does it mean we need to bow to popular pressure.

I will never accept any other definition of power user.

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Only for a very wrong definition of power user. Again people, app ressource utilization has nothing to do with being a "power user".

If you don't know what the computer science people's lingo means, don't even meanings out of thin air.

It's bad enough we lost "hacker" this way, we're not going to lose anymore terms.

And your definition of computer science is? Here is the Wikipedia article on Computer Science if you need help. The term Power User is not specific to Computer Science like you think.

 

[WillMak]

I am still using an iMac with 1 GB....It's so slow! Put in an order for 6 GB

 

[raftr]

4GB isn't enough for me. I want a MacBook Air, but I'm holding off and hoping next year's Air has an 8GB option.

Have you actually used the latest 4GB Air? 4GB isn't enough for me on my old MB Pro but on the Air the fast SSD might just be the thing to make the swaps unnoticeable—this is what I have been hearing so far from graphic designers using the new Air. They say it's flying with Adobe CS5.5 and Parallels.

 

[iliramove]

The final factor when deciding the purchase is down to "want" or "need". I always buy based on "want" and figure that I "need" it later on... Hahaha!

 

[bill-p]

And your definition of computer science is? Here is the Wikipedia article on Computer Science if you need help. The term Power User is not specific to Computer Science like you think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_user

Power user can also be a marketing term referring to a computer user who seeks and uses products having the most features and the fastest performance.
Self-identified power users, males in particular, will often label themselves as power users if asked, even when they are less than fully competent. In one study, self-identified power users refused to read any instructions, made wrong guesses, and repeatedly became so lost they were unable to complete the test.

I don't suppose you took the time to read about how Wikipedia slanders the "other use" of power user?

 

[Sean Dempsey]

power users tarball fprots all day.


Power users are required to have a complete knowledge of all bash commands.

 

[mrsir2009]

I run multiple windows

I run multiple windows on my iBook G3 which has 256MB of RAM.

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

I use spotify while making gifs in my pirated photoshop cs5 for Tumblr while posting about it on twitter and fb while my Diablo 3 beta is running in the background. I am a mother-****** power user! Yeeeeeeha!

 

[johnhurley]

The final factor when deciding the purchase is down to "want" or "need". I always buy based on "want" and figure that I "need" it later on... Hahaha!

Sounds about right!

 

[maflynn]

With Lion, I'd say 4gb is a tight fit to run VMware and other apps at the same time. For me my MBP really started performing well with 8gb of ram. I typically keep 1 or 2 VMware VMs running at any given time, along with MS office, Safari, bento and Lightroom.

Am I a power user, I don't know, and I don't care in that sense. I just figured that for my needs 8gb works better then 4gb.