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Microsoft Unveils 'Vista Premium' Requirements
Graeme writes "Microsoft has finished what some are calling the true minimum requirements for Windows Vista: the finalized requirements for the 'Vista Premium' certification program. The program is used to influence OEM designs, and it gives an idea of what Microsoft thinks Vista really needs to run well, and what they think is in the horizon. The Ars report hits the highlights, and there are some surprises in there, such as a delayed requirement for HDCP. Ars suspects that the slow ramp-up is due to the pact to not use the Image Constraint Token."
In no particular order, these are the notable additional requirements for Premium certification:
Effective now:
* HD Audio support that passes a "high-fidelity audio experience" test (exception: Business class systems have until June 1, 2007).
* Support for Direct3d 9 and DXGI feature sets (Direct3d 10 mandated by June 1, 2008).
* At least one digital output (e.g., DVI-D) for all add-in video adapters (not integrated video: that doesn't change until June 1, 2008).
* 100Mb Ethernet and/or and WiFi (802.11g must be supported; 802.11a can be supported only in addition to 802.11g).
* USB 2.0 ports throughout
* System resumes from ACPI S3 state ("suspend-to-ram") in 2 seconds (does not include user mode initialization, i.e., total "wake" time will be longer than 2 seconds)
That's how we ended up with SQL Server; and no doubt that's how we'll end up with Vista, regardless of any technical merits or issues.
*Windows Vista requirements*
..... 1 ..... 1
Arms
Legs
Insanity.
Seriously, bigger is NOT better.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Is it me, or does this have "DRM'ed Media PC" written all over? Hickup free HD playback, PVP, DVI-D... Yes, by 2007, but, snide comments about the real release date of Vista aside, it pretty much means "Do it now, so you save yourself from refitting it later".
I certainly forsee computer sales in the first quarter of 2007, when the vendors try to get rid of their soon-to-be not-compatible hardware.
It's also noteworthy that Vista requires OEMs to have some kind of networking ability. While this is a given by today's standards, I find it very curious that an operating system REQUIRES me to have it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Protected Video Path" (PVP) support, including HDCP.
... why do they never listen.
the requirement of need a freaking separate hard drive just the whopping size of the install.
Arguing with an engineer is like wrestling a pig in mud. Soon, you realize the pig is dirty, and he likes it.
Remember when everyone at work was running NT4 and we went to Windows 2000? Or when home PC's went from Win95/98/ME to XP? Remember all the hype and hysteria about the requirements back then?
We've been here before and I remember a couple of distinctive impacts of upgrading:
1. My desktop was a lot more stable.
2. The computer OS and games actually ran a little faster.
3. Need I remind everyone who's feeding us this info on Vista? The MEDIA. Nuff said.
We've all been there, (many times now MS-DOS,win3.1/NT4-Win95/2000/XP), done that. Bring on VISTA baby!
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
I can't believe that Microsoft expects business and government to be moving in the direction of Vista anytime soon. All the "bells and whistles" of Vista seem very much targeted at consumers, I just don't see any of it being something that justifies even thinking about upgrading any business workstation installations.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Microsoft (the corporation) requires it of OEM's to get the Vista Premium sticker.
Yep. one.
It seems many of these specs are for the areo feature. Am I the only one that thinks the whole aero craze is over the top. Is it really that important to be able to see through some of your windows and have them displayed in "3d"? Most likely when I load Vista I look at that feature, say ohh thats neet, then turn them all off mostly because its just a waste of reasorces. Any one else feel the same way?
Eating the brains of your enemies does not make you smarter. But it's still fun.
Don't they mean USB 2.0 High-Speed ports? The USB 2.0 "full speed" scam should have never been allowed to exist in the first place.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The 1Ghz CPU and 1GB RAM and DirectX 9 graphics is understandable, but what exactly does "plenty" of video RAM mean? For the full-blown Aero "experience" do I need 512 or 256 or 1024 or what?
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
..........jhg d;kljah j
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Tell that to my ex girlfriend... :(
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
We zealots actually just feel that they should have more choice. If you can't find a consumer friendly Linux distro, you aren't looking very hard. If you can find a retailer who sells computers that aren't pre-loaded with Windows, then you are looking very hard
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Sometimes it is hard to tell if this is Slashdot or Fox News.
The public Beta is out. Anybody actually TRIED running this AND applications on the barebones spec of 800MHz and 512MB of RAM as well as the 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM?
By apps, I mean the current version of Microsoft Office with Word and Excel open at the same time, and the IE browser open, and maybe Messenger, and the usual tray full of crap most people run.
I want to hear a REAL-WORLD test from the people using the public Beta on REAL machines.
I find it hard to believe that everybody INCLUDING MICROSOFT was talking about 3GHz machines and 1GB of RAM at a minimum last year, and now suddenly we're down to 800MHz CPUs?
What's wrong with this picture? Don't blame it on the media because Microsoft ITSELF was talking those specs last year.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Wow. I'm sure it's not competely fair to say this since both technologies are new and Aero is a bit more than just window borders, but right now XGL is making Aero looks like a slow bloated piece of crap.
Cue someone pointing to that wikipeida entry which shows all those great features coming with Vista....
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
could it have something to do with the fact that there are only a handful of monitors supporting HDCP? Many of the monitors I know of also happen to be TVs, including the Samsung 940MW and NEC20WMGX2. Oh, and don't forget the fact that we have yet to see a video card with HDCP support.
I really suspect this has more to do with HDCP not being a "requirement" then the fact that the studios have vowed, for now, to not force the use of HDCP supported outputs for full resolution viewing.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
Well, at least Dell, HP and Acer are happy. Wonder if MS owns any stock in those companies...
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
AHCI controller for SATA drives
This sig doesnt exist.
Yeah, we had thought about building "Vista Ready" machines here in our store, but after the owner checked on how difficult it would be... we decided against it. We would basically have to mail off (and pay a fee) every specs of every system to Microsoft inorder for them to assure that the system would be able to run Windows Vista. There were no package deals either where we could build multiple systems of the exact same specs... so it was going to cost a ton just for a little sticker on the front. But anyhow, our systems are Vista Capable in our minds and word-of-mouth is easy to use. Windows Aero is a very nice interface... but it's a pain in a way that the computer is going to have to be semi-top end to run it decently.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
"For the full-blown Aero "experience" do I need 512 or 256 or 1024 or what?"
Yes.
FRA: STFU GTFO
If you look at the dates etc for the adoption of certain speific H/W components I expect there will be lots of teeth gnashing when users apply a Service Pack or so called "Security Update" and zap, their system won't boot as it won't meet the "New" minimun H/W requirement for Vista.
I recon that your PC that quite happily runs XP now and is more than 2 years old (as at June 2006) will not be able to install & run vista in Dec 2007.
By the way, the latest Vista Upgrade Advisor will say your system can't run Vista if you have a HDD with the OS installed on a partition with less than 15Gb free. What a load of sh1t. My XP System has the OS installed on a Partition that is 16Gb and has over 8Gb free . There is over 100Gb free on other partitions yet the dumbass tool says "Get a Bigger HDD". I say F**K you. XP will be my last non server windows install.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
Or when home PC's went from Win95/98/ME to XP? Remember all the hype and hysteria about the requirements back then?
Um.... I went from Windows 98 to Win2000. Stability of NT with Game compatibility of win98. (Just without all the bluescreens)
Everyone who knew anything about computers should have known to put Windows 2000 pro on their computer when it came out and not WinME or Win98.
WinXP got domniance because it was just put on new computers that came out and you couldn't get Win2000 anymore.
However XP had some major glaring flaws (mydoom anyone?) and Win2000 worked just fine for anything I needed included games. Of course these days I use XP because it came with the system and there wasn't any point downgrading because since it was from a vendor all the drivers came with the box and were Winxp certified. (some of the newer hardware gives me grief in finding drivers for my old boxes)
So... I might get vista some day if it comes with a computer, but I seriously doubt it will be any better than Winxp or 2k as far as mind blowing features. It will of course get eventually better because MS will drop support for 2k and XP, but I don't see any rush to upgrade until SP1 or 2.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Doesn't full speed mean USB 1.1?
Uh, you'd better read up on what "PVP" and "DVI-D" actually mean. Remember: DRM manages rights the same way prison manages freedom.
...so the "Vista approved" sticker means that the machine in question has been certified to have a "protected digital path".
Ok. In other words, only machines that do NOT have that sticker could at least in theory have this piece of DRM-crap NOT installed.
Thanks for the warning label. I shall heed it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm pretty sure that Microsoft feels that they, as the sole OS provider for the majority of the world, are in the driver's seat when it comes to hardware specs . . .
.since they have been since the early 90s.
. .
If you wish to play the blame game your more appropriate target would be Apple for not adopting an open architecture, creating OEM level competition in hardware.
KFG
Im predicting that around 2008, we're gonna see a hugh surge in interest of alternative OS's like linux and *nixs; Coincidently this is gonna occur just slightly after everyone's gets their hands on Vista only to discover that all the DRM'd crap has severly limited what people can do. And their really gonna be pissed of when they discover that everything on their system is just being leased or rented and not really owned by them... Being of sound mind, and a reasonable person; I can see where M$ is headed with all this...Needless to say I wont be installing it EVER (period). Microsoft seems to have forgotten a basic economic principle; in the end the consumer will decide what to consume... Bring it on guys! We're ready...
This is a serious question, is this going to be installable on Mac OS X as Windows XP is? Does the Macintosh computer need or have all of these items (such as DirectX graphics card able??)? Or would virtualization software be able to take care of this stuff (Parallels..)?
I'm a code monkey
I've successfully run Windows 2000 on any machine which used to run Win98
My parents ran Win98 on an old Gateway with a 386 processor for a number of years. I think it was something like 66MHz. Care to try running Win2K, or Vista on that?
"Protected Video Path" (PVP) support, including HDCP."
Sorry M$, but I will watch what I want to watch, and my customers will watch what they want to watch, and you will not dictate to me what I can and cannot do. I will continue to stick with NON-PVP/NON-HDCP video. If your system is broken, and does not work with NON-PVP video, then we will seek another platform that does work correctly.
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. - Jefferson
Without much question, they know that people will end up buying whatever hardware they are directed by Microsoft to buy
It's not actually that what happens. Microsoft dictates what the OEMs will sell and that is what the consumers will buy. They do not directly dictate what to buy. Even tough if consumers even vaguely are aware of alternatives. My wife is in education, and during her studies numerous people told her to buy a Mac instead of buying a Windows machine. The thing is, my wife did not even know where to buy a Mac. (No Apple store in my country) All advertisements that come to you are for OEM machines, and thus she bought (a really overpowered) WinXP machine on the advice of the boyfriend she had back then. I still wonder why she shelled out so much money for a 2.6HT P-IV with 512Meg RAM and a huge graphics card, DVD-burner (when they still were rare) and a big-ass LCD screen. I guess her boyfriend wanted to play games or so. She only needed the damned thing to write *letters*! (And some basic surfing/(email)
Before she met me, the damn thing was slow as hell and bogged down by spyware and viruses. I reinstalled the damn thing, added another 1.5Gig RAM (actually, I put 2Gig of faster RAM in there - it was on sale and I couldn't resist). Never had a problem since then. The added RAM is useful for me, because I actually use that machine on occasion too ;-) The 512Meg were enough for her.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Jeez, I never thought MS Windows would have requirements higher than a PC game. Unless it is, actually, a new videogame :)
Another quality Microsoft product!
...the requirements to make Windows Vista run well make the PS3 look more attractive as a computer. :)
Many parts of the world do not have ANY network access or if they exist the dialup lines are very iffy and/or expensive. I guess that many 2nd & 3rd world countries will be giving Vista a miss big time. Blast, how are they going to feed all the starving, impoverished people without Aero Glass?
Windows 2000 installs without issues on a P133 and a 2Gb hard drive as long as you have 256Mb of ram. In fact, RAM is probably the most limiting factor, I've run W2k on 128Mb of RAM but it's a hellish pain and getting rid of every single service you don't actively need is highly required or you'll drop to swap every time you open anything above Notepad and your computer will grind to a halt.
You could probably manage to run it on 64Mb, but the OS itself would be partially loaded in the swap, and that wouldn't be good at all.
In a word, you probably couldn't run W2k on that gateway, but it would be because of the lack of RAM, not because of the CPU (granted though, even if you managed to find 128Mb of EDO and stick it in, the computer would still be dog slow)
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Sure, you're trying to be funny, but a Cray-1 supercomputer was only rated at a few hundred MFLOPS. An X-MP was maybe 800 MFLOPS, a Cray-2 was 1.9 GFLOPS, and a loaded Y-MP could do at most 2.6 GFLOPS with 512MB RAM.
A $100 graphics card would quite literally beat your average Cray from 20 years ago! A $500 graphics card blows the doors off one of those old Crays.
I was just joking to my girlfriend that my laptop (Pentium M, 1.5GB RAM, 60GB hard drive) has the compute power and storage capacity of a whole supercomputer installation from 20 years ago, and half the time I just use it as a stereo (playing MP3s).
dom
You are correct. I saw win98 run on 4 Mb of RAM... I still use it on computers that won't even run Damn Small Linux.
Nowadays, quite a lot of stuff actually requires Windows XP though (often from microsoft, and that includes games, but not always). It's always slightly frustrating to see that you can't install a game just because you were artificially blocked out (and don't tell me it's not artificial)
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I was already confused with all those VISTA editions and now you're talking about bringing on VISTA baby ?
Ok, that was a bad joke.
100% of statistics are wrong.
I see this as a major problem. Microsoft inflated the system requirements against the trend amongst OEM to use Intel video chipset and lowend chipsets in budget and mid range PCs. I can see this as at the very least a source of confusion. Instead looking at the cards you going to have add it to the main memory to figure out you requirement or if your system can even handle it. Also, I suspect that a great many notebook out there today in business, government, and consumer pc won't be able to even run Premium. Also, business and government destops won't be able to run it either. Remember, common knowledge dictated that for basic tasks a great video wasn't needed. But, this Aero feature is one of the major improvements that Vista had over XP to create a more efficient workflow. Microsoft seem to shot themselves in the foot as most people will default to lower price "basic" version. Moreover, their upgrades are going to look like XP which may create a backlash. I am sure glad I jumped off the Microsoft ship a long time ago. I think I am going to be more adament about purchasing Apple system when people ask for recommendations.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Put all those features into a computer and you essentially have an XBox360-ish looking device. We have known for several years that most of the console game companies want to market their consoles as home computers, but have always been squashed by real computers.
Instead of making a console system into a PC, Microsoft seems to want to turn the PC into a console. They are quite crafty. If you can't beat the PC market with a console, you just sabatoge the PC market.
You're correct. It should specify high speed or specify they have to implement the FULL standard. In reality this isn't much of a concern. I haven't seen a NEW computer in over 2 years that wasn't all USB 2.0 high-speed.
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
For the past five years, most of the MS crowd here have been using XP (except for those who have their feet firmly rooted in the 2k GUI). That's really amazing when pausing to think about it. Were we still using 3.1 when 98 was released? No.
In the entire time I've used XP on my personal computers, I've found it to be a stable and reliable OS, especially for that long of a timeframe. I don't think it will be too different with Vista.
Prove it.
I think Dialup users will be completely screwed when trying to use Vista. Imagine the computer trying to dial every time you try to play a media file?
"June 1, 2007, or later:
* A Green Driver Quality Rating for all drivers.
* "Protected Video Path" (PVP) support, including HDCP.
"
The PVP is going to be as destructive as the HDTV initiative - it will render millions of computer monitors obsolete when there is nothing improved in the newer models. It's a shame we can't get governments to make DRM illegal before 2007.
Oh You POS
Microsoft Windows "Hasta la Vista", 'Baby' edition.
Why do I get the feeling that Vista is nothing more than Windows Millinium Edition all over again?
Because you get your news and opinion from Slashdot.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
I'm waiting for the final EULA, which will probably say stuff like "you agree to not block LicenseChecker.exe through the use of firewalls or other measures". Heck, they'll probably label firewalling a circumvention measure, leaving the door open for some nice DMCA lawsuits.
Don't forget the mind you have to lose first.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
- one (1) EMC Symmetrix DMX Storage array of at least 1 petabyte (1 x 10^15 bytes) (recommend the 15k RPM drives)
- one (1) (Beowulf) Cluster of 1000 overclocked Athlon 64 FX-powered blades in a liquid nitrogen cooling element, 2.5 GB RAM ea.
- one (1) OC-48 Pipe for downloading updates
- one (1) array of Trusted Computing Crippleware to make sure you can't play any media or games
- one (1) array of 1000 SLI GeForce 7950 graphics cards
There you go. Should be able to run Office with that baseline configuration, but it's gonna lag. Don't even try to fire up Solitaire.(%i1) factor(777353);
(%o1) 777353
For those who (like me) did not know what HDCP is: it stands for "High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection", and its purpose is to prevent the PC's owner from using the PC to copy certain media. Fuller and more precise information can be found here. It's basically a component that you pay for, that reduces the capability of your computer. I wonder which consumers are demanding something like that ...
You're insane. 128mb vRAM is plenty. I know because I run it hitch-free on my desktop (GeForce 6800), which incidentally also has only 512 MB RAM. Yeah, it crashes now and then, but then again it is the December '05 BETA of an '07 OS...
on ebay or probably any of the back-alley tech stores in Hong Kong or Tokyo. Buy a pirated copy of the OS, a pirated copy of the logo, build your machine and you are set! ;)
But you have to understand, we can't just slap a sticker on it. There is a big lawsuit issue... Microsoft has to certify the particular system to agree it meets requirements.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Blocked?
Who has been blocked? The games may say "requires XP," but I have yet to see one actually block installation on 2000.
Two examples:
Battlefield 2. Says on the box: requires Windows XP. Does it work on Windows 2000? Hell yes, just reminds you that the game is only supported on XP before installation.
Fable: The Lost Chapters. Says on the box: requires Windows XP. Says on the box: requires Windows XP. Does it work on Windows 2000? Hell yes, doen't even bug you about it.
What game are you using that actually PREVENTS installation?
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Why should I care about these things?
I thought it was just a guide to things useful to run Vista well, but what's the deal with HDMI "not being required until later this year". Required for what exactly? To get a free Microsoft sticker to put on your PC saying "This computer meets the Vista Premium requirements"? To become a personal friend with Steve Ballmer? How can a requirement suddenly change for the exact same operating system?
If you have HDMI support before it's required for Premium, won't it be as useful then? Where's the added benefit for fulfilling the requirements? Or is this just a discussion for fun, of the sort "if you have managed to train a parrot to talk, that's pretty good" with no special point to why it's good?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Last one I recall is Age of Empires III, it doesn't just say you shouldn't install it on Windows 2000, it actively refuses to be installed on Windows 2000.
(as a result I of course don't play AoE3 and returned my copy to the store)
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Agreed. A 6600GT with 128MB vRAM at 1366x768 runs it just fine, full glass. (now if only I could persuade WoW to run at its native res, I wouldn't have to go back to s2k3 on the little machine...)
I'll admit, when I tried it briefly on my desktop machine (at 3360x1050) I used the 7800GT, but that's more pixels than most people have.
-misao
This is "limited user access", the new initiative to improve security. Only an administrator can install an application for all users, and shortcuts installed for all users by an administrator belong to an administrator. Of course you need to authenticate as an administrator to delete a file owned by an administrator. Workaround is to install the program to your own account.
And "trusted." How long before epoxy-embedded DRM hardware is a requirement?
Given the overhead involved in HDCP certification, requiring that will probably do one of three things: it will essentially eliminate PC building from the purview of Mom & Pop Shops and DIYers, or it will downgrade Windows as an OS choice for these folks, or it will downgrade the meaningfulness of certification. Sadly, it's probably going to take a release or two before the masses finally realize that in system terms, "trusted" means "digitial chaperone" and "mafiaa system backdoor"[1] more than it means "enhanced security."
---
[1]http://mafiaa.org/
Pi Ran Out
At least four titles: Tetris DS, Mario Kart DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Animal Crossing: Wild World. The Nintendo DS wireless adapter's driver requires Microsoft Windows XP, and its installer will error out if you try to install it on Windows 2000. For anything other than Genuine Microsoft Windows XP, you need to buy a separate 802.11b access point, and those vary in their compatibility with the 2 Mbps rate used by the DS wireless hardware and the NAT traversal used by games.
OF COURSE!!! now I understand why the release is delayed again and again... they wait until most people have the hardware vista needs...
seriously - 1gb ram is still not usual, nor directX 9 graphics cards. what does this OS do!? this is more requirement than for farcry!
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Ars Technica suggests that they really ought to be requiring 2.5 GHz or more, and I'm surprised they've been sucked in to the "Assume all CPUs resemble Intel main-Pentium-track CPU" - my laptop 1.6GHz Pentium M seems to be faster than my desktop 2.4GHz Celeron.
They also say that the basic Home systems won't require Premium-rated hardware, but everything else will. I'm sorry, but while my business system probably does need lots of RAM, USB2, FastEthernet, and good power management, I don't see it needing digital video output to run business apps - it needs lots of pixels on the screen to handle lots of text, and it's nice to be able to play DVDs on the airplane, but the video output doesn't need to be anything like the speed I'd use for a media player box because I don't *want* a chorus of paperclips singing and dancing at me in 6.1 audio.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Ah, you admit that: a. it crashes, b. it's related to the video card.
A wise person would still realize that, when running multiple apps (I sometimes have up to ten going, including scripts, databases, spreadsheets, email, and other background events) and with multiple desktray icons (which all tend to reside and some may kick off downloads), with multiple screens, that my recommendation would make better sense.
Sure, you can run it with 128mb vRAM. Sure, you can run it with 512mb RAM.
But if you're going to use it like many of us do, you should just bite the bullet and get 2 GB RAM or more and realize 512mb vRAM might not be sufficient.
You might have no problem with things crashing, but in many of my former jobs, if it crashed, people might die or scientific discoveries might not get found (some things run for weeks on end).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I wonder which consumers are demanding something like that ...
Digital restrictions management is like advertising: The consumer is not the customer. The consumer is the product. The movie studios are the customer.
But if no such [some package] exists for the hardware that was donated to you or for the hardware that you owned prior to choosing to switch to *Debian, then what?
The Wikepedia article should be updated to point out clearly that the whole part of USB 2.0 full speed is a marketing scam. When USB 2.0 came out initially, theoretical maximum transfer rates jumped from 12Mbs to 480Mbs. The problem was that there were still a huge backlog of unsold systems with the old USB 1.1 ports. Of course, nobody wanted the older, slower standard, and everyone knew to insist on USB 2.0 in their new systems. The industry somehow managed to get the "standard" changed so that what was USB 1.1 could now be labeled as USB 2.0 Full Speed. The new standard became USB 2.0 High Speed. Of course, most computers were labeled simply as USB 2.0 regardless of which they had, which was a huge scam on the buyers. Why there aren't people in jail over this still infuriates me.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Never mind all the banter about the computing requirements - what video card or sound card...
What I really want to know is: What are the fiscal requirements of Microsoft Windows Vista?
No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
Look at the console wars. X360 sells worse than the PS2 (currently, not over time). Why? Well, there are mods for the PS2, there are none for the X360.
Now, if one system allows you to play copied movies and the other one doesn't, my bet would be that people start moving. Especially the younger generation, who would be considered very "uncool" by their peers if they allowed their system to lock them in while the "smart people" know that there is a solution to that "problem".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If I remember correctly, hardware and sofware support (especially games) for Win2000 improved after WinXP was released. Win2000 was so rare on "home" PCs that many hardware and software companies didn't bother supporting it. But after WinXP Home was released, they were forced to support the NT 5.1 kernel. After that, adding support for Win2000's NT 5.0 kernel was relatively easy.
I pretty much agree with the rest of your post, but you (and I) are not like most "home PC" users.
TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
The requirements don't seem all that bad once you look at reality. Unless you build a very very sucky system, you're most likely to meet them.
About a year ago, I built a system optimized for running some simple 3d games on Linux, as well as having some nice compile times. Then, I take a look at the requirements and go through the checklist: apparently, if I sent my system in for Permium Certification, it would have gotten it. Plus, this system only costed me $600. Beta2 runs very smoothly on here.
The idea here is that most practical systems will be ready for the certification. You get a mid-end $50 video card to play Unreal Tournament 2004, and you find out that most of them are equipped with a HD output. As for the 1GB RAM - might not be as useful, but the prices are falling. 100mbit ethernet port and sound - most decent motherboards come with onboard components that meet the requirements.
Vista is simply stating: look, if you don't get a decent system, it won't run. If you see here, unless you're buying a system just for the very basic stuff, other needs will make you get a system with requirements that meet the features. As for the amount of resources it takes - hey, it's good use of all the hardware I paid for mainly just to run a game.
It has long been frustrating that some machines (especially older ones) running on Windows XP wouldn't boot from USB ports. That was particularly a problem in public areas such as Internet cafe's and libraries, where some people like me would rather use Firefox in Damn Small Linux than to use the public terminal's IE. Stories about hidden keyloggers in public places have also made this a priority. Although I'm not a fan of Vista, I do hope that its release and the standards it requires would make it less of a pain for me whenever I'm trying to boot from USB. Which brings up another matter... DSL supports two types of USB media, USB-ZIP and USB-HDD. Hopefully I wouldn't have to install DSL on my flash drive using the older USB-ZIP format due to potential incompatibilities of older computers. All of the newer PC's support USB-HDD, which is a newer and better standard IMHO.
I have had vista beta 2 installed for a while now and it isn't that bad.... it is nice knowing that any hardware that is available today will be support without even installing the distributed software. You don't even relize how many people just have a monitor on windows xp with no drivers installed because it jsut works... with previous versions of win *98 and older) you had to have a driver for everything. I say this because I just got bluetooth keyboard + mouse + media pad and have struggled with xp to support it for 3 days... I boot into vista having tackled the beast xp and it goes... yup I see your hardware, done.... and that is it... I don't need the installation disk at all. The requirements aren't all that bad, at least I hope all the big companies, dell, gateway stop shipping computers with on-board graphics chips and something a little better, like at least a seperate graphics processor. My machines specs are: amd athlon 64 bit 3800+ geforce 7800 gtx overclocked 2 gb ram dual channel and I know this is pretty high end.... but in vista it is butter smooth. But the thing that irks me is that when going into vista's system performance area it says that my computer is ranked a 3..... now I don't know what this is out of, but it listed various sub catagories and I had like 5.9 in graphics ram and testing, but a 3.9 in hard drive space and processor... now my hard drive is sata 2 and my processor is 64 bit... some now... and it ranked it a 3 when all the number were 3.9 or higher... um what is that? Overall I am happy that vista is as nice as it is. I have fooled around with win customize and other such programs to try to get xp to look nicer, but it always screws me over in the end braking more things than enhancing and am happy that vista is nice and pretty out of the box. I give vista a good rating for now, but I am still not accustomed to the overall feel of the GUI yet....
Uh. Where did I say the crashes were related to the video card? The crashes were related to the fact that it is a BETA operating system running on several-year-old device drivers built for Windows XP, or at best BETA drivers.
I was running with Outlook 2007 Beta open, GAIM open, MSN beta open, Azureus (at times) open, multiple explorer windows, WMP11 / iTunes (alternately), Word&Excel Beta. Yeah, as I loaded more an more, it started to get slightly less responsive, but still ran noticeably smoother than my typical XP experience except in rare instances.
It probably isn't the ideal OS for research or whatever you're doing, but to trash it without even trying it, especially when much of what is being discussed is consumer-oriented rather than research oriented, is asinine.
Linux crashes too. In fact I've had less luck with my various Linux distros than with XP, for the most part. Yet I'm not willing to blanketly dismiss Linux just becuase of a few bad experiences. Yet you are dismissing Vista based on hypothetical and second-hand experience.
Balmer might as well have said "You will no longer be able to BUY a PC - you will only be able to rent from your Local Microsoft (tm) outlet. We just take your credit card number and easily meter your usage."
This is nuts - every review I've seen says Vista is 80% new looks 17% DRM and 3% improved features. I'm not going to pay this tax I'm just going to get a nice desktop Linux or a miniMac.
We used to laugh and make fun of programmers that couldn't write tight, fast and efficient code.
Now they promote them.
My old boss used to call it code bloat and would heckle me mercilessly if my code modules were bigger than 32K.
Is that a SCSI connector or are you just glad to see me?
Users who want the "premium experience" (read: Aero interface) will need 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and plenty of RAM for that DirectX 9.0-Capable graphics card.
:)
What on earth is it doing using up a Gig of Ram, a 1GHz processor, goodness knows how much video RAM? A 3D game - for sure needs that kind of processing power, but an operating system for goodness sake? Whatever happened to writing efficient, non-bloated, elegant code? What's wrong with writing something that doesn't use more and more and more memory? Why is it that a knackered old heap running KDE or Gnome or whatever looks prettier, works faster and has funkier graphical add-ons than MS bother with? Most of the world uses Windows, why don't they bother making it half-decent?
Sorry I know the answers to this, it just infuriates me that most companies, most users are expected to put up with such mediocre pap. And I have a hangover so I'm right
I only bring this up because on big reason for the price discrepency of a base mac and base PC is that the base PC is using older technology
That's one reason Macs hold their value so well.
I wonder how a businees case can be made to buy a PC with full digital connection and HD DVD when all it will be doing is MS Office.
Dell isn't going to give you a choice.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
The one (and only) time in my life I bought a Windows OS for an existining PC was ME to put on my laptop.
Having given microsoft my money, the OS *REFUSED* to install on my laptop claiming the processor was "too slow" (and only by a fraction too).
I regarded the minimum requirements as a guideline (that my PC "broadly" met) that would guarantee reasonable performance - not a contractual obligation on my part.
And thus I was deprived that wonderful WinME experience for several months - something which in hindsight I should be grateful for...