Microsoft says its changes make Windows 11 up to 20% more responsive on 8GB PCs, with multitasking up to 40% faster in its own lab test. After Apple shipped the MacBook Neo with only 8GB, Microsoft arriving at the same conclusion was somewhat expected, only it came late. When rising RAM prices hit consumer price tags, Microsoft should have gone straight to optimizing Windows.

For some context, Windows 11’s minimum requirement is still 4GB, so an 8GB PC already has double the required memory. That should have been enough for a smooth experience, even if it isn’t the recommended amount. Microsoft’s minimum spec is too tight for real-world use.

The competition is not really about the operating systems themselves. For casual office work that doesn’t require Microsoft Office, even Linux machines will do, and a mini PC with 8GB of RAM running Ubuntu competes against a Windows work computer. I think we see this most with the Mac mini and MacBook Neo. macOS is an alternative OS, yet with Office available, the Mac mini and Neo are considered acceptable in the workplace. IDC counted Mac shipments up 10.1% in the second quarter while PC shipments fell 4.9%, a gain it says coincided with the Neo. As I see it, people went for the Mac not because Apple sells RAM cheap, but because it is better optimized.

Windows 11, at least before this announcement, was not positioned to be the most inclusive of hardware. Copilot is a great example. Microsoft made it out to be the new feature of Windows 11, even adding a button to the keyboard, yet reserved the headline AI features for Copilot+ PCs that require 16GB, which is now hard to come by. Microsoft’s own software weighed on smaller machines too, as several of the fixes it now lists show, with Widgets loading only when opened and Teams able to default to Efficiency Mode on 8GB PCs.

Microsoft needs a game plan. If it intends Windows to compete as a versatile operating system fitted for any machine, it should have either kept selling an older version of Windows alongside 11 or made 11 lighter, so that PCs already on sale wouldn’t have to adapt to the whims of ever-changing hardware prices.