Op Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:01:05 +0000, schreef Roy Schestowitz:
> Walt reviews Vista: Eh.
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | We're willing to bet those among you that don't make gagging sounds
> | whenever you're in eyeshot of a PC have probably already played with
> | Vista a bit. Maybe you don't have the last beta installed on your
> | machine, but you've sat down to a Vista box and at least logged a
> | few minutes with oohs and ahhs at Aero and Flip 3D. So by this
> | point you probably well understand that Vista, while being a major
> | step forward for Microsoft, will for most users represent something
> | more of a long overdue feature pack, finally bringing Windows up to
> | date with OS X.
> `----
>
> http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/18/walt-reviews-vista-eh/
When I stated several months ago that Vista required some 10 - 20 times
the system resources of a current PC, Windows apologists laughed at me.
One of those specimens even said that Vista would run on anything with a
1GHz CPU and 256MB of RAM. Uh-huh.
"The vast majority of existing Windows PCs won't be able to use all of
Vista's features without major hardware upgrades. They will be able to
run only a stripped-down version, and even then may run very slowly."
So Erik, there's your "On older hardware, it will run just fine in a
reduced functionality mode": Yeah it will run almost as good as XP runs
under normal conditions - that is, with all kinds of malware and registry
bloat slowing the system to a crawl.
"Microsoft says that Home Basic can run on a PC with half a gigabyte of
memory and that Premium and Ultimate will work on a PC with one
gigabyte of memory. I strongly advise doubling those numbers. To get
all the features of Vista, you should have two gigabytes of memory,
far more than most people own."
Two gigabytes is at least four times the amount of memory most people have
today.
"Even more important is your graphics card, a component most people know
little about. Home Basic can run on almost any graphics system. But
Premium and Ultimate will need a powerful, modern graphics system to
run well."
Powerful as in: at least four times the amount of normal graphics memory
and a hefty GPU. Double the hardware resources once again.
"On a three-year-old H-P desktop, a Vista upgrade installed itself fine.
But even though this computer had a full gigabyte of memory and what
was once a high-end graphics card, Vista Ultimate reverted to the Basic
user interface. And even then, it ran so slowly and unsteadily as to
make the PC essentially unusable."
The third machine was a new, small Dell XPS M1210 laptop. In general,
Vista ran smoothly and well on this Dell, but some operations were
annoyingly slow, including creating a new message in the built-in
Windows Mail program. This surprised me, because the Dell had two
gigabytes of memory and a fast processor."
I think my calculations were quite correct after all: *at least* quadruple
RAM, double graphics card, and double CPU speed. In my book, that makes
4x2x2=16 times the amount of system resources. *At least*, because even
a bit of stinting on memory or graphics power will apparently "make the PC
essentially unusable."
But wait, there's more! -- or perhaps I should say "less"?:
"If you bought a PC in the past few months, and it had a "Vista Capable"
sticker on it, it should be able to run at least Home Basic."
Huh? What kind of a con job is this? So people get "Vista Capable"
machines foisted upon them, to find out that it only runs Home Basic -
sort of like XP in a crapped-down mode. People should be warned for this.
And then there's the modes home user, who just uses a PC for a bit of
e-mail and doing a bit of work after hours. Surely, they don't need all
that eyecandy, and those whistles and bells of the Premium or Ultimate
versions?
"But some regular users may need Vista Ultimate if their companies have
particular network configurations that make it impossible to connect to
the company network from home with Home Basic or Home Premium."
So Vista Premium can't even perform all the normal functions of your
average network client computer? Welcome to the wonderful world of
software racketeering, where artifical limitations and roadblocks are set
up in strategic places, forcing people to buy the most expensive version.
Talking of which: why would normal office workers need some Ultimate-like
version? It's like giving all employees a Formula 1 race car instead of a
normal car -- with the difference that a Formula 1 race car is indeed a
bit faster.
So what on earth makes this man say that Vista is a "worthy" product? Ah,
there it is: "... a slicker version of Solitaire."
Richard Rasker
--
Linetec Translation and Technology Services
http://www.linetec.nl/
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