[extropy]

DOS programs loaded fast, since there was around 1MB of working memory. Granted they did not do much, but where responsive, except when needed to do real compute, then you just waited forever.

Windows 3x/9x with first real multitasking and swap - things got quite sluggish. Early browsers were particularly eager of gulping ram and bringing everything to halt.

Nowdays it feels somewhere in the middle with copious amounts of ram stuff can be fast once up and running, but it seems every app either wants to load from web on every step or tries to index your drive on every keypress.