I would disagree about not needing >2GB of ram, but other than that - SSDs rock.
Outside of that, my work machine has Chrome, Mail.app, Terminal and Textmate open generally so 2GB is fine without the VMs.
My home machine is the previous generation, top of the line iMac (3GHz, 2GB) and is often noticeably sluggish. It looks like iTunes is responsible for a bit under 200MB. I really don't know what the issue is though to be honest, but it feels like a 4GB upgrade would get it over the hump.
Of course on Microsoft Windows it uses all available memory, quite effectively. If you have copious RAM you get far-better-than-SSD "read speeds" when reopening applications (which is a typical behavior, cycling between a small universe of applications), presuming your computing lifestyle is that your computer is never turned off...e.g. you put it to S3 sleep during off time.