640K RAM Quote

Comments repeatedly reference the famous (often misattributed to Bill Gates) claim that '640K of memory ought to be enough for anybody,' used humorously to highlight historical underestimations of computer memory needs compared to today.

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20
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#4626
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Activity Over Time

2007
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Keywords

RAM TRS MB CPU AGI KB HDD BUS thelen.org wikipedia.org ram memory ought kb anybody storage computer hdd volatile computers

Sample Comments

WalterBright • Mar 21, 2024 • View on HN

Most people had 640K of memory.

elai • Oct 16, 2008 • View on HN

That's a bit reminiscent of "you just need 512k of RAM!"

hanche • Mar 24, 2024 • View on HN

And who needs more than 640 kilobytes of memory anyhow?

majewsky • Sep 6, 2016 • View on HN

And 640k RAM ought to be enough for everyone. ;)

justrealist • Nov 21, 2023 • View on HN

"No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought to be enough for anybody"

jl6 • Mar 24, 2017 • View on HN

Didn't someone once say 640K ought to be enough for anyone?

santoshalper • Apr 14, 2019 • View on HN

32MB was a lot of memory back then. Typical machines at the time had 8. 16 was extravagant.

doodpants • Nov 21, 2014 • View on HN

Indeed, 640 KB ought to be enough for anybody. :/

nyxaiur • Nov 4, 2021 • View on HN

Nobody could ever need more than 640kb of RAM.

dtech • Aug 17, 2017 • View on HN

And 640k of memory ought to to be enough for anybody