Microsoft: Set your systems for Vista

ZDnet ^ | May 18, 2006 | Ina Fried

[Echo Talon]

You can get Quad-sli from falcon-nw :)

[js1138]

I keep forgetting about the Home editions. I wouldn't touch them myself. The large memory space might come in handy with media editing.

[operation clinton cleanup]

I haven't seen a Windows BSOD since 1998 on any of my six computers that I've owned since 1998. They have all run with one form of windows or another.

I cant go back that far... but I have never gotten one with XP, and what few I did get from 95/98 were caused by me monkeying around with the hardware. I for one am looking forward to Vista.

[Syntyr]

I have done that too. Trying to get to the point where you have to start stepping up the voltage to the CPU in order to get it to boot.

Did you ever see that website where the guys used Flourinert and Liquiud Nitrogen to supercool the CPU and MB? If I remember correctly they were able to get an 800 mhz CPU up to something like 3.2 GHZ.

[Mr. Blonde]

Apologies, apologies all around.

I got a little jumpy and forgot to hit preview first.

[Revolting cat!]

If that's you in # 65, you're no longer Mr Blonde, are ya?!

[Mr. Blonde]

I'm with you. I just thought that some people who haven't come around yet might be interested to know what they will need to run Vista. Of course if you get a Mac there is no need to worry about if your computer can run the software.

[Mr. Blonde]

I wish that were me. I wish I could be associated with a show like Arrested Development, but sadly no.

[newgeezer]

I've had pretty good luck with XP. It is quite a bit faster than 2000 and runs well on a small Pentium II laptop.

Really? WinXP's system requirements are roughly 2X those for Win2K.

Virtual memory paging with Win2K caused so much HD thrashing on my 233-MHz PII laptop maxed-out at 144 MB RAM, that I decided to go back to Win98 SE. (Problem solved.)

I cannot imagine XP could be better. What are your laptop's specs?

[dennisw]

I build my own. They pretty much smoke any "store-bought" brand (except possibly the very top end Alienware stuff)

I know you build your own from your previous posts. You build bleeding edge. I build what was great two years ago. Just got an Athlon 2500+ processor and an EPOX  8RDA3+ for next to nothing - Gonna have some fun

[mkjessup]

Alienware stinks

Which probably explains why Dell has bought up Alienware. Truly a match made in Hell, err Dell. ;)

[postaldave]

"I like Linux too the only problem I have is it takes too freaking long to install... :)"

i take it you know your telling a lie by your :) face at the end of that.

[Petronski]

I'm just funnin' with ya.

[Quix]

No sweat, I should have hit preview several hundred times more than I have, too.

[Proud_texan]

It's a lot more secure but only because MS threw in the towel, figured you're an idiot and does what many other modern operating systems do by closing most ports by default and making you approve just about anything. Want to run a system applet? Be prepared to do extra clicks even if you're running as administrator. This should appease the nanny state sorts that think the OS should protect you from yourself. For others it only means carpel tunnel.

Some eye candy stuff. I don't use a Mac but I get the impression a lot of it is already available on the Mac platform.

The way drivers run seems to have been improved and should make things more stable as it's my experience that 3rd party drivers are a major cause of problems in XP.

I installed the February beta just for fun and installed a full suite of programs on it. Some had problems, mostly anti-virus stuff which isn't unusual, they're write AV software so you have to stay on the treadmill and feed the upgrade monkey but applications and other non-AV utilities ran fine.

Bottom line is that I'll probably put it on one box just so I can fire it up and test stuff against it. I may eventually change my mind because I did with all the Windows versions but right now my impression is that it's pretty gay but surprisingly robust and perky for a beta version.

[Petruchio]

I met her in a bar once ... I'd been doing shots of tequila all night, and there she was.

[StockAyatollah]

Given the average speed of computers sold today, even the premium-capable requirements are pretty modest. I'm impressed.

What's there to be impressed about? Looks like nothing but "windows-dressing" to me. They managed to repackage XP and use more CPU, memory and disk space. I'll pass. But it might be a good time to sell a few oz of gold and short MSFT.

[JasonC]

15 gig for the basic install. 40 gig drive for graphics. Unbelieveable ugh.

[Golden Eagle]

After reading about Mr. Gates close friendship with China, I decided to set my systems to Linux.

Linux is the official O/S of the Chicomm government. Gates is just trying to get them to finally respect copyright.

[zeugma]

but right now my impression is that it's pretty gay

LOL. I think that's an adjective normally used to describe Macs. :-)