> My point here is not "word processors shouldn't allow you to include 
> graphics". My point is "running a word processor should not require 
> several hundred MB of RAM" [unless you're actually loading something 
> large].

They don't!  If I open a blank Word document, that's 10 MB.  Even if I open 
one of our spec documents that is 79 pages long with diagrams on most pages 
and company logos etc, Word uses up 33 MB.  It's not exactly causing even a 
slight impact on the 2048 MB I have.  Of course if I tried to import lots of 
multi-mega-pixel photos on every page it might start to use more RAM, but 
that is expected.

> Seriously. It sounds like nothing, but do you have any idea how *annoying* 
> it is when it takes 10 seconds to switch between windows? My lowly Amiga 
> with 2 MB of RAM could do all that *instantaneously* 20 years ago... WTF?

But what happened on your Amiga when you tried to use 2.5 MB of RAM when you 
only had 2 installed?  Seriously, if you are going to regularly try to use 
more RAM than you have installed then you must expect page-file swapping - 
and it's not fast.  You can set the page-file size to zero in Windows, then 
it will behave more like your Amiga used to.

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