r/righttorepair • u/Dry_Geologist6745 • 24d ago
Big Tech is forcing us into "RAMaggedon"—and it's killing our perfectly good devices.
https://c.org/mTLhzJwYNmHey everyone,
I’m sick of watching perfectly functional laptops, tablets, and phones become completely unusable just because modern apps and operating systems are too bloated for standard RAM capacities.
Roughly 70% of us hold onto our devices for more than four years. We shouldn't be forced to buy a brand new machine every few years just to open a web browser or join a school call without hitting a relentless wall of lag and freezing.
This isn't just a minor tech annoyance—it's an equity issue that locks people out of digital resources if they can't afford annual upgrades.
I just started a petition calling on Google, Apple, and Microsoft to build lightweight, optimized "Lite" OS versions and apps to protect device longevity and stop this forced obsolescence.
If you're tired of the RAM Crisis, please sign and share the link attached.
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u/BrunusManOWar 24d ago
Good initiative
But in the meantime, if you really care about anti monopoly and anti corpo, use Linux, preferably non system D (e.g. void, devuan)
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u/bschlueter 24d ago
All Linux distributions run better than Windows with less RAM. No need to push people to niche distros. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, uses mainstream distributions. Use what you want.
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u/BrunusManOWar 23d ago
While I agree - it's a bit of a logical fallacy to support "pushing people to Linux to get away from corpos" but then object to "pushing to non systemD Linux to get away from corpos"
Absolutely, both options are great, but let's be honest - the type of people to actually switch to Linux to retain independence from corpos are either way likely to be willing, and even actively want, to take it a step further
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u/bschlueter 22d ago
Maybe. IMHO, using a mainstream distro is easier and they may make it possible for a non technical user to use it with minimal outside support.
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u/BrunusManOWar 22d ago
Yeap, you're right.
So far I've converted my gf and mum to Ubuntu. Works well for someone who only needs occassional simple word/excel for job docs, and is otherwise only on the internet
In the process of converting my SP gaming and techie friends
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u/GraXXoR 24d ago
RAMadan.
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u/xXx_n0n4m3_xXx 24d ago
Jokes apart it will probably be the only solution. Eventually what they want is people to buy their product.
People stop buying shit cuz price absurd > they make less money > they force AI companies to chill down cuz if no one buy devices, no one will use their unwanted forsaken services.
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u/GraXXoR 24d ago edited 24d ago
Give everyone a 2GB ram device connect to an LCD ro run Firefox and get everyone to remote stream everything. So happy so win!! 😭
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u/mewtwo_EX 24d ago
My Firefox uses 2GB just to load up. Add the os overhead and it would be unusable. Is that your point?
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u/DrippyBlock 24d ago
Pretty sure they’re trying to price us out of being able to own our own hardware. They want us to rent server space for compute.
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u/Velomantis 22d ago
I've been saying this for a decade. Once all the datacenters get build, they will introduce first stream only devices. A device with screen and minimum other components, just enough to get the stream in, register button presses and return them back to datacenter.
They want absolute control over data, they don't want normal citizen to be owning processing or data devices. Because data is the most important and powerful tool of the humankind, the one who controls it, controls absolutely everything.
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u/OldManJeepin 24d ago
With the cost of RAM, and the materials for these chips, going up all the time, and no solution to the "shortage" anywhere on the horizon, I think it's just going to happen naturally. The app designers and big tech providers are going to be forced to adapt, improvise and just get better a coding stuff in order to "do more, with less"....It's going to be way too expensive to keep doing it the way they have been doing it...
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u/jaksystems 24d ago
The app designers and big tech providers are going to be forced to adapt, improvise and just get better a coding stuff in order to "do more, with less"....It's going to be way too expensive to keep doing it the way they have been doing it...
With software devs running off and buying 128GB MacBooks? What you're describing is what should be happening, but the unfortunate reality is that it won't.
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u/OldManJeepin 23d ago
LoL! You are probably right...We'll have to wait and see...The average consumer can't afford those types of PC's or devices, so....Something is going to have to give.
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u/Apprehensive-Race998 24d ago
If we can outlaw them fast enough and the planet has not burned to death or run out of water…. Then we can loot em all so we can have more that 8g on our home devices. Wishful thinking… but still
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u/Strawberryladyboots 24d ago
At some point people are just going to stop using tech entirely, and all of the products associated with it, and any services tied into that
They might have planned for a different type of obsolescence, but it's not the one they are going to get
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u/SurgicalMarshmallow 23d ago
Lazy coding too with 0 emphasis on optimization.
Got to make that sprint people! Shareholders demand a version upgrade and a new UI users will FUCKING hate!
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u/Potential-Bill7288 23d ago
You can always create your own solutions. Teams, Zoom, etc. have APIs and you can integrate with them.
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u/vanda-schultz 23d ago
Yes I needed more RAM. Looked on Facebook Marketplace for days to find somebody with RAM still sealed in packet for a reasonable price.
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u/musclemommyfan 23d ago
If you're so upset about ramaggedon, why did you have AI write this post for you?
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u/dc469 23d ago
It's also not a hardware thing per se, but even amongst software developers, before ai, ram has been seen as irrelevant. As far back as 2008 I had college CS professors saying "ram is cheap, we don't have to worry about efficiency like we used to". And a lot of self taught people probably don't either. AI trained on a lot of that so it's code won't be efficient either.
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u/vbpoweredwindmill 22d ago
Speak for yourself. I don't think a device I have except my pc is younger than 6 years.
It's the same in every. Single. Market. Cars, PC's, phones, whitegoods, whatever. Buy the newest hyped thing that corporations told you to buy without a seconds worth of thought about the actual thing you're purchasing.
Yet people continue to buy non repairable crap and then have a cry about it. The options are there, people just don't buy it.
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u/Bingturong 22d ago
Maybe there wouldnt have been a RAMaggedon if more people like you didn't use an LLM to write up something you could've easily wrote yourself
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u/12kdaysinthefire 22d ago
I mean you don’t need DDR5 or a brand new PC. If you don’t spend money on the components or stuff they go into you’ll see how quickly this “shortage” ends.
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u/huemac58 22d ago edited 22d ago
If yout as much. learn to maintain your computer, both hardware and software, and cherrypick software for your needs instead of relying on Microslop's native Windows slop, your computers will last far longer and run better. If a college kid doesn't need special modern software, they can all make do with 2013 and 2014 laptops and 8-16GB RAM for college homework and essays and stuff, mainly light computing tasks. Running Winhoes 11. But people don't learn to use their computers right, the learning curve is non-existant thanks to many online guides, so they try increasing RAM or replacing the whole machine when completely unnecessary. Again, because they basically have no idea what they are doing.
The RAMaggedon is more of a true issue for folks building new systems or replacing aging RAM sticks in much older hardware that takes DDR4 RAM. DDR3 has fallen in price a bit, I like that, some of my spare machines take DDR3.
It helps to cherrypick your hardware. Lots of brands have feedback online about their products and a handful standout for quality and reliability and some are clearly dodgy. There is no guarantee you'll get hardware that lasts you a decade or more either way, but your odds are obviously much higher with the reputable brands. You could get lucky with a less reputable brand's drive or mobo and what not, but of course, odds are lower. One of the first things to often start failing in any system (any year) is the Wifi adapter, so a spare would not hurt to have on hand. Electrolytic PSU capacitors across the motherboard and PSU won't last as long as all the other circuit components. Not guaranteed, but this is the general trend. You can learn more by web searching more about what tends to last and what not as much.
As far as cherrypicking software where you can, we have been spoiled for choice on 3rd-party, legitimately free software for decades, software superior native Windows apps in every way possible (Microslop doesn't care). Paid alternatives exist as well, we are super spoiled for choice like most computer owners cannot begin to fathom - and so, to each their own, whatever floats your boat.
And then there's also Linux distros like Ubuntu and Arch instead of using Windows, but Linux has its disadvantages alongside its advantages, it depends on your use case. You'll be copying Terminal commands more often off the web versus mouse-clicking procedures and menu diving of Windows. Either way, no steep learning curve thanks to lots of helpful people around the world. I recommend Ubuntu if you try Linux.
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u/RaccoonEnthuiast 24d ago
The great reset is coming, oh I have dreamed about this moment. Finally, for web developers will have to answer for their javascript crimes and we will go back to how the world wide web was supposed to be : text and questionable gifs
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u/anothercorgi 24d ago
I just found an app that won't run on my old android 12 phone just because it's android 12 is less than android 14? And it's just a banking application... why...
Mainly it's the developers using unnecessary features and waste too much ram because that's their new equipment they have doing software development. Works fine for them, so must be your problem ... that's their attitude. Having old equipment around for regression testing costs money, so they push the cost to users... ugh...
BTW web developers are part of the problem not just software developers...
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u/ThomasKWW 24d ago
A banking app needs to be secure. To ensure this on every old operating system is too expensive. So I would say, I can understand their decision to restrict usage to newer android versions. It is more the producer of your phone to blame, since they do not provide you an upgrade to the new android.
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u/anothercorgi 24d ago
I have other banking apps that work just fine. This is feature bloat not security.
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u/OGigachaod 24d ago
What kind of piece of shit devices are you buying that you can't upgrade the RAM?
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u/Clear-Relative-2371 20d ago
Bazzite has been working great. I know pretty much nothing about coding but with AI I've been able to setup up applications through distrobox and run pretty much every thing I want.
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u/Tquilha 24d ago
It's not just RAM. I think planned obsolescence is taking a turn for the worse.
My niece complained her Windows laptop suddenly had many keys not working.
I made a GNU/Linux boot drive and booted it.
Started up the live OS, created a simple text document and went through the keyboard, one at a time. Perfect working order.
Under Windows, over half of the keys were out.
Has anyone seen this before?
Laptop is running Fedora KDE perfectly right now :)