@glyph made the point that the Neo is an implicit promise from Apple that macOS will run just fine on 8 GB of memory for the next 8 years.

But I think it goes farther than that: Apple made a reference device for application developers. They've never been shy about enforcing requirements on developers, and this is an interesting positive side to that: developers now have a huge incentive to make applications that fit within modest memory limits.

Put differently: this is the Electron killer, for better or worse, and not in the way that Apple killed Flash.

When PCs ship with 8 GB or less of RAM, application companies don't give a fuck, and so we get a proliferation of Electron and Electron-like platforms that consume gigantic amounts of RAM. That won't fly on something like the Neo.

@xgranade I agree in principle, but in my head the dialogue at Apple goes more along the lines of "_our_ apps and the services they consume will run fine in 8 GB, but Spotify? _that's_ gonna run like a dog, heehee".

But it's been so long since I've been in the orchard I don't even know if that's the case... But I would expect Apple Music to be a native app relative to the competition as an example.

I think most will simply suffer..given social and tech inertia and barriers to switching.