Buying Vista? Get a guarantee
,----[ Quote ]
| Before spending the money for Windows Vista, set to debut this week,
| is there any guarantee that the software you buy will run as
| advertised on your PC? Not exactly, analysts say.
|
| [...]
|
| And if frustrated consumers change their minds, simply returning
| Vista for a refund is not an option at many retailers. Most typically
| do not allow consumers to return opened packages when it comes to
| software. But Vista is unique: since many consumers may not know if
| their computer is completely Vista-compatible until they try to
| install it, some retailers are making exceptions.
`----
http://news.com.com/Buying+Vista+Get+a+guarantee/2100-1016_3-6154150.html
Many people may find out the hard way that it's either a new PC or an upgrade
to Linux with the existing hardware. See some comparisons below. Another
issue would be limitation in terms of feature sets, which customer will need
to pay extra to remove (see bottom of message).
Related:
What about the performance and memory usage of KDE and GNOME?
,----[ Quote ]
| In this particular test, KDE and some typical KDE applications were
| found to consume 143.2 MB of RAM. GNOME and comparable GNOME
| applications consumed 174.8 MB. XFCE and some third-party
| applications comparable to the ones used for GNOME and KDE
| consumed 206.8 MB of RAM.
`----
http://pinderkent.blogsavy.com/archives/35
See an item about Linux...
,----[ Quote ]
| "I did install SuSE 7.3 on a Dyme 166 MHz machine with 32 MB installed and
| I used KDE 2.2 from July 2003 to December 2004 to write my documents,
| develop my compiler and browse the web."
`----
http://thebeez.vnunetblogs.com/the_beez_speaks/2006/10/the_unknown_sol.html
Allchin's 'Buy a Mac' E-Mail Exposed
,----[ Quote ]
| "I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do
| what I called plan (b) yesterday. We need a simple fast storage
| system. LH [Longhorn] is a pig and I don't see any solution to this
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| problem. If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to
| heart. Jim"
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/allchins_buy_a_mac_email_exposed.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535
http://tinyurl.com/y5cuu6
Testing Vista's different memory configurations
,----[ Quote ]
| You simply cannot play games on Vista with 512MB o memory, at least not the
| games wen tested. You will sometimes get playable scores but even then the
| experience and the load time will be ridiculous.
|
| Anything more than 512MB will help you a lot, with 2x1GB being the best
| price performance buy.
|
| 4x1GB is the best choice for best raw performance. It is hard to prove it
| ^^^^^
| in every test, but if you have 2x1GB and you load as much in memory, the
| ^^^^^
| system will become endessly slow.
| ^^^^
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36148
Vista Runs Smooth Only on 2G Memory
,----[ Quote ]
| However, Dell CEO Kevin Rollins suggested otherwise on Thursday, 26 Oct at
| a speech at Shanghai's Jiaotong University. "I think they tell you maybe 1
| gig of memory is OK. No, two gigs of memory would be great."
|
| This echoes with my own experience with Vista RC2. With only 1G of
| RAM, there are many disk activities indicating heavy disk swap, a
| symptom of lack of memory in the system.
`----
http://www.itechnote.com/2006/10/27/vista-runs-smooth-only-on-2g-memory/
Vista System Memory Concerns
,----[ Quote ]
| Vista: Facing a Slow Adoption. In the beginning, early adopters and
| gamers who are looking to ready themselves for the DirectX 10 upgrade
| will be best suited for those ready to make an investment in the
| unknown.
|
| Considering how many software and game titles will likely need to
| be run in "compatibility mode" until patches are released across
| the board, I would suggest really looking at what Vista's advantages
| are before taking the plunge.
|
| No matter how much we may wish to see the path Vista is about to
| embark on, the fact remains that because of its hardware requirements,
| Vista adoption may turn out to be rather slow.
`----
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2395&Itemid=449
Microsoft Windows Is A Greedy Memory Hog, The Cure Is To Feed It RAM
,----[ Quote ]
| For Windows 2000, XP, 512MB is the minimum and 1GB or more is recommended.
| For Windows 98 any flavor, 256MB is the minimum and 1GB is recommended. If
| you are an avid PC gamer or video editor, 1GB is the minimum
| recommendation. Other operating systems such as Linux or Mac are similar.
| Simply put: more is better.
`----
http://bytepowered.org/articles/Article/Microsoft-Windows-Is-A-Greedy-Memory-Hog--The-Cure-Is-To-Feed-It-RAM/539
http://tinyurl.com/yn9ztx
Microsoft's Ultimate Disadvantage
,----[ Quote ]
| While Ultmate's absence wasn't surprising, I did expect to see it on
| high-end PCs. A high-end desktop would have the oomph for Windows Vista
| Ultimate.
|
| [...]
|
| What about Dell? Dimension desktop PCs come with Windows Basic or Premium,
| in base configurations. On the high-end XPS systems, where Ultimate would
| seem well suited, Dell offers Windows Vista Premium or--get this--Windows
| XP Media Center Edition.
|
| [...]
|
| I ended my Ultimate search at Sony, which typically offers the kind of
| multimedia wonders made for Microsoft's top-end Windows. The VAIO
| VGN-AR390E notebook, a $3,300 powerhouse comes with Windows Vista Premium.
| The similarly priced VAIO Digital Living System VGX-XL3 desktop PC also
| packs Premium. Where's Ultimate, Sony?
`----
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/microsofts_ultimate_disadvantage.html
Boycott The Windows Vista Release
,----[ Quote ]
| For reference, this is the list of features Microsoft says is added
| in Vista Ultimate
|
| * "Help protect against hardware failure"
| * "Business Networking and Remote Desktop"
| * "Better Protect Your Data"
|
| Hell, I've used the top two features in XP Professional so much I
| don't know what the heck I?d do without them, and better protect my
| data? YES PLEASE!
`----
http://www.nigelj.com/blog/2007/01/windows-vista-release/
Acer: Vista Home Basic is a lemon
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is effectively smuggling through a price hike for Windows
| Vista - by making the entry-level version so poor that no-one will
| want to use it. So says Jim Wong, senior veep at Acer, the world's
| number four PC maker, who told UK hack Jon Honeyball: "The new
| [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won't feel
| it at all. There's no [Aero] graphics, no Media Center, no
| remote control."
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/acer_slams_vista_home_basic/
Vista Home Basic's half-baked bits
,----[ Quote ]
| More suspicious, of course, is that that Home Basic can't run the
| Aero Glass UI, even if the PC is suitably equipped with WDDM-supported
| graphics (this includes some integrated graphics chipsets, such as
| Intel's 945G/GM Express and Core 2 Duo 965 Express) and backed by
| enough RAM.
|
| [...]
|
| Yet three of Home Basic's components -- Backup, Mobility Centre and
| Meeting Space -- are present in an oddly stripped-down form which we
| expect will lead to confusion among people running different versions
| of Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Another quirk of the cut-down Home Basic build is the Mobility Centre,
| which is intended to aggregate all notebook-centric features into a
| single control strip. Home Basic lists its version of the Mobility
| Centre as being 'limited', which doesn't say much.
`----
http://www.apcmag.com/4900/vista_home_basics_half_baked_bits
Ubuntu Ultimate Edition
,----[ Quote ]
| It seems the folk over at Ubuntu Software have released an ultimate
| edition of Ubuntu which is aptly called Ubuntu Ultimate Edition.
`----
http://www.ubufied.com/2007/01/28/ubuntu-ultimate-edition/
|
|
