[GloriaFine]

Just wondering if anybody that works as a programmer could tell me, back in 2007 i got a macbook pro (intel core 2 duo 2.33ghz) and i installed parallels to run windows on it.

It used to work like magic, lightning fast and could handle fairly cpu intensive tasks including music production without any problems. Now, 7 years later, laptop wiped clean and new os installed, parallels 9 being the newest version installed and it runs at snails pace, to the extent that it is unusable.

So my question is, have programmers become (or just able to get away with being) less efficient due to the increase of cpu and ram?

Obviously my laptop is outdated by today’s standards but the same task done with the original parallels now takes at least 10 times longer to complete with parallels 9. If anybody could shed some light on this i would appreciate it.

[MarkGrillo]

Have programmers become (or just able to get away with being) less efficient due to the increase of cpu and ram?

yes. but also software in general is becoming larger (more lines of code, more things going on in the background, more things to be concerned with etc. etc.)

[ShikhaTan]

New software typically takes advantage of new technology. It also typically provides additional features. If a software is released and does exactly what it did 7 years prior, how many people would care to buy it?

[Abhey]

Precisely. Furthermore new features require more work and usually employers demand something that works and has all the functions that they need and can be delivered fast. Updates can then be made to patch things up. Unfortunately, functionality beats performance nowadays precisely because we have some great new technology.

[SapnaVishwas]

The question behind is, “Do you really need the new features of the new software?” Sometimes you have no choice, e.g. if you need Directx 11 and only have win xp. On the other hand ‘my Word for DOS is working close to lightspeed’ with the feature set I need for writing.