| sc94597 said: That is a good question. I'd imagine it might have to do with the cost of software development of a proprietary operating system (with no template.) They could spend more money to use less ram, but the cost to just put more ram into the system might not exceed the extra cost of software development. Remember, the operating system needs to be immensely secure so that piracy does not happen. Android, Linux, and Windows have been developed and optimized over many years for the goal of running on lower end platforms. |
But thats the thing....
Android and Ios started life with less than 128MB or RAM. Console operating systems proper started life with the PS3/360 with approximately 56 and 32MB or Ram respectively. Yet both consoles were able to do quite a lot.
These consoles have over 2.5GB!!!!! reserved for their PS4 and yet they are still missing tons of basic features and still stutter opening pages on the UI that for all intents and purposes should be preloaded onto memory for rapid access.
And these systems are by default immediately secure for the most part since dev access is shut tighter than a crickets asshole. Everyone is using the same operating system, yet we still have situations where updates my break some things and would need to be patched.
Furthermore, all these OSs do have a template. XBos is based on Windows and the PS4 OS is based on FreeBSD which in practice has more in common with a Mac OS than with a Windows OS. And all these OSs have their roots in Linux on some level. Yet we can't even have a decently functioning browser. I have an old laptop that has 2GB of ram and can run chrome/Firefox perfectly which are way more fleshed out browsers than we even have in these consoles.
What I really don't get tho is this; these consoles clearly partition their RAM into two pools. System Ram and App Ram. Eveey App (game or otherwise) made for the PS4 for instance will at all times have access to the exact same amount of RAM. ALWAYS. So how in God's name is it possible for my browser to crash when it has access to at least 5GB of Ram just for itself?
