Actually I hear Win10 doesn't work really well on < 3GB of RAM, and I can confirm that just firing up my system + opening a browser and not much else: uses 2.3 GB out of 8GB.
I mean they do not have a hardcoded limit, you can run it on 512MB if you want, but it'll be unusable due to constant Swap space usage.
Any good modern operating system uses as much memory as it can to cache stuff. I'm not sure if it was a change in how the stats were reported, or actually a culture change in how OSes were programmed, but post the XP era the focus shifted from "I've got 75% of my RAM free, I'm good" to "I've got 4GB of RAM, now my OS can precache everything so it'll run faster". The latter in actual fact makes far more sense, RAM is insanely fast and having most of it sat there unused when it could be precaching apps is a, quite literal, waste of money.
On the subject of Windows 10, I have at work because we had to, we authenticate with Azure and need to do Windows 10 for compliance. I have not and will not at home, I prefer 8.1 (one of the few who does) and my main computer is now the Mac which does not run Windows, although I believe Windows on a Mac is supposed to be a stellar experience.
(Also - I never spotted this before - but software does have a hardcoded RAM limit. Although it can sometimes be altered by hacks and trickery, the OS installer will refuse to run below a certain amount. For XP I think it was 64 or 32MB, and for Vista it was 512MB).
After all the nonsense with the incorporated spyware; keylogging, search history reporting and their apparent need to have access to my personal data etc, I have zero interest in supporting Win 10. So no, I wont be giving Win 10 another chance, unless due to popular demand/new legislation MS is forced to change their policies. I also can not agree with the underhand techniques they are now resorting to, to try and force win 10 on people's computers. Most unwitting users will probably end up upgrading, even if they dont want to, as once win 10 starts installing itself the majority will believe they have no other option.
I have selected the "search for updates but allow me to decide when to download and install them" option. I also unclicked the option to install optional updates. What did MS try to do yesterday whilst I was selecting which important security updates to install? It selected an optional update to install! I searched through the optional updates and MS had automatically selected the Win 10 download! I deselected it and something came up so I decided to install later. When I came back and rebooted the computer MS had kindly re-selected the optional update...To say Im not very impressed is an understatement.:beer:
Use Never10.
https://www.grc.com/never10.htm
But yes, this sly bullshit put me off as well, and has caused a fair few problems with our clients. Apple may be stringent about wanting iOS devices running the latest, and not allowing you to downgrade, but at least they don't quite literally force you to upgrade in the first place.
Unfortunately, this is the way things are going and eventually I suspect all computer systems will be more appliance-like with little customisation offered to the user and the computer merely operates on a given set of instructions that it is programmed to accept. This is already happening as a method of disabling malware. Windows has been restrictive since the security model of Vista saw UAC introduced - which is way more than just a prompt - it allows writes to protected areas of the registry and system files to be redirected to a safe location, and the Mac OS is really starting to get that way now with its rootless technology. The other day I wanted to change the notification sound of the messages app and I had to reboot into a console and manually disable the security feature, make the change, then re-enable the feature. Believe me, this is happening!
