Lost Opportunity? Windows 10 Has the Same Minimum PC Requirements As Vista

MojoKid writes Buried in the details of Microsoft's technical preview for Windows 10 is a bit of a footnote concerning the operating system's requirements. Windows 10 will have exactly the same requirements as Windows 8.1, which had the same requirements as Windows 8, which stuck to Windows 7 specs, which was the same as Windows Vista. At this point, it's something we take for granted with future Windows release. As the years roll by, you can't help wondering what we're actually giving up in exchange for holding the minimum system spec at a single-core 1GHz, 32-bit chip with just 1GB of RAM. The average smartphone is more powerful than this these days. For decades, the standard argument has been that Microsoft had to continue supporting ancient operating systems and old configurations, ignoring the fact that the company did its most cutting-edge work when it was willing to kill off its previous products in fairly short order. what would Windows look like if Microsoft at least mandated a dual-core product? What if DX10 — a feature set that virtually every video card today supports, according to Valve's Steam Hardware Survey, became the minimum standard, at least on the x86 side of the equation? How much better might the final product be if Microsoft put less effort into validating ancient hardware and kicked those specs upwards, just a notch or two? If Microsoft did raise the specs a notch or two with each release, I think there'd be some justified complaints about failing to leave well enough alone, at least on the low end.

Comments

Re:Lost opportunity? I doubt it

[gstoddart]

Sure, make allowances for multiple-core and multiple CPUs on the not-so-low end, but making the minimum requirement a single CPU was definitely smart on their end.

You say smart, I say lazy and/or dishonest.

Because those specs weren't usable on Vista, definitely wouldn't have been usable on Win 7, likely aren't usable on Win 8, and probably won't be usable on Win 10.

I dare you to spend a week on a machine with 1GB of RAM running Windows, and then tell us they're sane minimums. My guess is you'll go crazy before the week runs out.

Sure, it'll load, and you can eventually get a program to launch. But don't expect anything which isn't constantly thrashing and driving you crazy.

My wife's work laptop until recently had 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 on it -- and it was pretty damned slow and awful.

I can only imagine that 1GB of RAM means you want to shove a knitting needle into the face of Steve Ballmer.