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Microsoft pushed 16GB RAM as must-have for Windows 11 for years, now sells an 8GB Surface Laptop for $1,299
(www.windowslatest.com)
this post was submitted on 21 May 2026
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Microsoft doesn't set the spec; the manufacturer can always add more spec if they want to!
But what Microsoft does (did?) do is to provide extremely cheap OEM Windows licenses to vendors who made laptops with a certain maximum spec - that spec for a kong time being 4GB RAM max and 14" screen max.
That's why all the cheap brand-new Windows laptops you saw on the market were basically the same identical crap with the same shit specs.
Tbf, the 4GB ram limit was partially due to 32-bit architecture still being so prevalent at the time
Maybe, but what it was mainly was market segregation in Windows licensing.
Microsoft wants even the cheapest lowest-end devices to ship with Windows because that improves their market penetration, but at the same time they don't want to lose money by reducing the price OEMs pay for Windows licenses in general.
So Microsoft basically told manufacturers "Okay we'll give you super cheap licenses to keep your cost down so you can sell to the budget market, but only on super bottom-end devices. On more expensive machines you'll still pay the full license price"
Which basically resulted in manufacturers all trying to squeeze the most mileage out of that spec cap they could.