What are all the fashionable press people writing about for the launch of any new Microsoft OS? The stories debunking Microsoft’s system requirements are de rigueur, of course. BetaNews takes a poke at Microsoft’s claims yesterday, quoting from a whitepaper by analyst firm iSuppli.Â
Microsoft’s claims are a little ludicrous, which makes them an easy target. They’re saying Vista will run on an 800Mhz processor, with 512M of RAM, and SVGA graphics. And maybe it will… just. After all, I’ve got a 400Mhz Pentium 2 with 192M of RAM in my basement running Windows XP, which I use for a file server. It meets the Windows XP minimum requirements, but it’s not much good for anything else.
Equally, though, iSuppli’s contention that the minimum requirements for Windows Vista are 2G of memory, and a 3Ghz processor are also off the mark. I have Vista RC2 and Office 2007 TR2 running on:
- A 3Ghz desktop with 1G of memory, and an older graphics card. Aside from the fact that there are no aero graphics, it runs just fine.
- A 2.7Ghz desktop with 1G of memory and a new graphics card. It also runs great here.
- A 1.4Ghz laptop with 1.25G of memory and a very old graphics card. It’s a little sluggish, but for general use (ie. editing some documents, and doing a little email while watching the hockey game) it’s not too bad.
Want to know if your PC can run Vista? Go check out Microsoft’s Vista upgrade advisor.Â
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Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
