Can Your Rig Take Vista ?

[Lewis]

Is Your PC Ready for Vista? (Don't Count on It.)

Posted by Steve Bass PC World
Friday, April 21, 2006, 01:54 AM (PST)

Remember the hardware hassles you went through when upgrading to Windows XP? Last week BetaNews said half the PCs in use today won't be adequately equipped for Vista. Captain Bill's Microsofties have recommendations, but as usual, they're both vague and unrealistic, something only Microsoft call pull off.

For instance, Microsoft's saying PC's should have 512MB of memory or more. They oughta change the font size on the "or more" because my intuition, based on how XP performs with 512MB, is that you'll need at least a gigabyte, especially if you want to take advantage of Vista's fancy graphics. Me, I'm aiming for 2GB, or more if my PC's systemboard can handle it.

There's more to Vista's needs and you can read about it in No Vista, but 'Vista Capable' Stickers Instead.

BTW, Vista will come on a DVD (the Windows Vista Beta 1 DVD was 2.46 GB). I'm guessing that if you don't have a DVD player, your PC probably isn't ready for Vista anyway.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Until Microsoft releases precise requirements, all of us pundits are talking through our hats. (Yeah, I know, so what's new.)

Are You Upgrading?

Yes, but I have to do it. According to my editor, it's a job-related obligation. After all, I am in the business of trying all these new things.

What's going to be fascinating, though, is watching the stats to see how many people bother with Vista. My prediction is that not nearly as many as Microsoft hopes for.

My preference, and that goes for the systems I watch over (hi mom), is to stick with XP. It's the most stable version of Windows I've used and it does everything I need (including an occasional crash I can kvetch about). I can't see laying out a grand for four PCs to update my hardware, just for Vista. But I'll concede -- if you're buying a new system anyway, sure, get one with Vista on it.

Check Out Vista Demos

There are a couple of spots for you to see Vista in action.

The first is a Camtasia Studio screencast (from TechSmith) and you can get to it from Betsy's Weber's Blog. The screencast shows Vista's voice recognition feature, though you'll also get a good look at Vista's interface.

Then watch as Microsoft's Chris Henley demonstrates Vista's games and parental controls. Turn your PC's volume down because the opening of the screencast has an annoying -- and loud -- sound effect. While you're at the site, you can also watch Outlook 2007 and Office 12 screencasts.

What about you? Will you stick with XP (or if you're like my brother in law, Win 95), upgrade to Vista, or chuck it all and buy a Mac?

Comments
Posted by Jon on Friday, April 21, 2006, 04:24 AM (PST)

By the time Vista is finally released, "half the PCs in use today" will be doorstops.
Posted by Steve Bass on Friday, April 21, 2006, 06:35 AM (PST)

Jon: With all that Apple has been doing, that may happen sooner then you think.
Posted by viral bhavsar on Friday, April 21, 2006, 07:18 AM (PST)

hey steve thanks fot the update looks vista is set for more hype than realism.

i am a guy from indian and looks it will be flop here cause it needs some serious speed for indians to upgrade there pc's.

i guess if i can have a downloadable demo version. ( well its more like who cares)

bye the way can anyone tell me what's the cost of a copy at vrlx3@sancharnet.in

i just hope men at microsoft would have understood true needs. because ALL GLITTER IS NOT GOLD & GOOD GRAPHICS IS NO GOOD SPEED.
Posted by Bear on Friday, April 21, 2006, 08:04 AM (PST)

Naughty. Naughty. Your not trying to discourage people from buying Mr Gates latest gouge product are you ??? Shame. Shame on you.
Posted by frank on Friday, April 21, 2006, 09:50 AM (PST)

most of the things that made vista a new, exciting and must have product have been ripped out and the only thing left is useless graphics and pocket gouging requirements. No thanks, I'm sticking with XP.
Posted by Kaja on Friday, April 21, 2006, 11:38 AM (PST)

Latest gouge? I'm sorry, Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, and now Leopard...? Now that is a gouge.

 

[tim-from-pa]

Vista? Heck, I'm still stuck on Win98Se here. My kids' computers have XP and there are some "attitudenal" problems with it that I still can't accept over the years, one of which the hardware change over. XP has some neat additional features, but not enough for me to like that OS fully.

Hardware limitations is a problem. Since switching the kids' computers over to XP, they do not run as fast as my 98SE. That's from all the junk in the background running. I could just imagine what vista will do. WE will need a ton of new hardware to keep up with it, and then because of the complex operation, one will not see any improvement in this respect---- it's the supposed added features that will be the selling point. That won't sell for me.

Soon I think I'll switch over to freebee OS like Linux. I'm getting a feeling that since computers are getting so common, that this is a reaction to make these things more expensive again and cut the common guy like me out from having one or building one like I am used to doing. They just want more control IMO.

 

[Lewis]

Windows 98 is still a good OS I still use mine sometime. And yes 98 will run faster because it does not have as much on it. You can put 98 on a 2 GB hard drive, but XP you can't, has to be a 4 and up.

 

[cwhitlow]

I've used Win98, but with some of the things I do with video and all I needed something better, so I use XP for stuff like that and partitioned on my other hard drive is Windows 2000 which runs pretty much everything else.