Yes it was pretty limited and not quite useful yet for real work, but it shows what could be achieved on an 8-bit 2mhz CPU with less than 64K of useful memory.
Personally, I would use the iPhone 3GS as the baseline minimal hardware that can support all of the must-have features of real-world software, because the 3GS was the first model capable of running the VoiceOver screen reader (in addition, of course, to all the other things it could do). But then, I'm sure I'm over-emphasizing the must-have feature that matters to me.
I think both comments are true. Take something as lean as GEOS and upgrade it to support 5K displays, HDR color, unicode, etc., and I still think it would be several orders of magnitude smaller and faster than most of today's software.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(8-bit_operating_system)
Yes it was pretty limited and not quite useful yet for real work, but it shows what could be achieved on an 8-bit 2mhz CPU with less than 64K of useful memory.
Modern software is VERY bloated.