Re: Windows vista will leave too many people behind.
- From: "Shenan Stanley" <newshelper@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 09:53:32 -0600
fuentez wrote:
With microsoft vista soon to be thrusted onto the computing public
my thoughts go to the
millions of users soon to be left out in the cold yet again. I wont
pretend to know whether winVista is worth the upgrade since I am not
one of the bloggers that got a new laptop from MS to test and give
you my honest unbiased opinion.
When winXP was released I opted not to upgrade do to the fact that
most software that exsisted at the time also ran on win2000, infact
I saw no real improvment from win2000 to XP.
The problem as I see it is every time M$ upgrades their OS many are
left behind, and with the cost of microsofts closed source OS's they
price many out of the market.
Minimum supported system requirements for windows vista.
PCs that meet the minimum supported system requirements will be
able to run the core features of Windows Vista with the basic user
experience.
Windows Vista Minimum Supported System Requirements
Processor
800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1
System Memory
512 MB
GPU
SVGA (800x600)
Graphics Memory
-
HDD
20 GB
HDD Free Space
15 GB
Optical Drive
CD-ROM drive2
Audio
-
Internet
-
1 Processor speed is specified as the nominal operational processor
frequency for the device. Some processors have power management
which allows the processor to run at a lower rate to save power.
2 The CD-ROM may be external (not integral, not built into the
system).
System breakdown
Graphics: Vista has changed from using the CPU to display bitmaps on
the screen to using the GPU to render vectors. This means the entire
display model in Vista has changed. To render the screen in the GPU
requires an awful lot of memory to do optimally - 256MB is a happy
medium, but you'll actually see benefit from more. Microsoft
believes that you're going to see the amount of video memory being
shipped on cards hurtle up when Vista ships.
CPU: Threading is the main target for Vista. Currently, very little
of Windows XP is threaded - the target is to make Vista perform far
better on dual-core and multi-core processors.
RAM: 2GB is the ideal configuration for 64-bit Vista, we're told.
Vista 32-bit will work ideally at 1GB, and minimum 512. However,
since 64-bit is handling data chunks that are double the size,
you'll need double the memory, hence the 2GB. Nigel mentions DDR3 -
which is a little odd, since the roadmap for DDR3, on Intel gear at
least, doesn't really kick in until 2007.
HDD: SATA is definitely the way forward for Vista, due, Microsoft
tells us, to Native Command Queueing. NCQ allows for out of order
completions - that is, if Vista needs tasks 1,2,3,4 and 5 done, it
can do them in the order 2,5,3,4,1 if that's a more efficient route
for the hard drive head to take over the disk. This leads to far
faster completion times. NCQ is supported on SATA2 drives, so
expect them to start becoming the standard sooner rather than
later. Microsoft thinks that these features will provide SCSI-level
performance.
Bus: AGP is 'not optimal' for Vista. Because of the fact that
graphics cards may have to utilise main system memory for some
rendering tasks, a fast, bi-direction bus is needed - that's PCI
express.
Display: Prepare to feel the red mist of rage - no current TFT
monitor out there is going to support high definition playback in
Vista. You may already have heard rumblings about this, but here it
is. To play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray content you need a HDCP compatible
monitor. Why? Because these formats use HDCP to encrypt a video
signal as it travels along a digital connection to an output
device, to prevent people copying it. If you have just standard DVI
or even an analogue output, you're going to see HD scaled down to a
far-less-than-HD resolution for viewing - which sucks. This isn't
really Microsoft's fault - HDCP is something that content makers,
in their eternal wisdom, have decided is necessary to stop us all
watching pirated movies. Yay.
If you wanna lean and talk about tech visit
http://www.technocracy.co.nr/
Yeah - it sucks living in the real world, where things change all around
you.
Remember when a nickel was a lot of money? No?
Well, how about when gasoline was under $1/gallon in the U.S.? No?
Hmmm, well, do you remember when US Postage Stamps cost 20¢? How about 29¢?
34¢? No?
The speed limit on U.S. Interstate highways was 55MPH everywhere? No?
Did you know that Operating Systems could - at one time - fit on a 720K
floppy diskette?
Then they moved to 1.44MB.. And multiple 1.4MB... Suddenly they were on
CDs... Now DVDs...
Wow - well - let me tell you - that all happened, it was all a reality for
someone, someplace, sometime.
Things change.
They just do.
Nothing you can do about the overall picture.
Sure - you can complain.
Sure - you can say that you 'saw no improvement' for a lot of things that
got pushed aside.
(BetaMax/VHS? CDs/DVDs? 400MB/400GB hard disk drives? etc...)
The fact is that if no one wants a product - it will stop being produced...
If someone wants a product and someone else can make money off it - it will
continue being produced.
What you or I may not see as an improvement in the product - others may see
as an unbelievable and fantastic thing.
A lot of it is perception. Some of it is others trying to catch up.
Do you really need a Dual Core 3.6GHz machine with 2+GB memory, dual 320GB
hard disk drives in a RAID, 256MB video card with a DVD+/-RW DL drive and a
1000watt power supply - connected to your 24" widescreen LCD monitor?
- If you are an accountant for a small 'mom & pop' store?
- If you are a novel writer?
- If you edit family photos (still only) and get your email from AOL?
Probably not - but it's available to you - and that is *not* top-of the
line.
The cost of that would have gotten me an 800MB hard disk drive and
32MB(maybe 64?) of memory in the early 1990's.
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
.
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