>My biggest issue with VS2010 is the amount of memory it consumes
RAM is so cheap now that there is really no excuse for developers to skimp on it. I would rather hope that they work on improving the product in other areas than optimize it for 1GB. If there are leaks however, they need to be addressed.
VS2010 is still a 32-bit app. This puts a limit on just how much RAM it can use. I for one might be a little less alarmed by (though probably no more happy about) its carefree attitude if it were a 64-bit app.
I have not heard of a single VS instance taking over 4GB of RAM. The only time you'll get into trouble is with multiple VS instances - and there 40 bucks for another 4GB of RAM pay off instantly.
While VS itself doesn't consume large amount of memory, Resharper is a voracious memory eater. I used to regularly encountered OOM exceptions - not due to insufficient memory, rather because of excessive .net memory fragmentation brought about the holy marriage of VS2010 & R#. IIRC, this type of memory problem did not occur in VS2008 too frequently. Recent versions of R# have ameliorated the problem to a large extent however.
RAM is so cheap now that there is really no excuse for developers to skimp on it. I would rather hope that they work on improving the product in other areas than optimize it for 1GB. If there are leaks however, they need to be addressed.