Microsoft Windows Vista and XP

While much ink (and many bits) have been burned concerning the virtues of Windows Vista, it seems not everyone wants the new system. Yahoo! news recently (April 23, 24, 2007) posted several news items reporting that Dell has begun offering Windows XP on a number of consumer systems, in response to customer feedback. Apparently Dell also offers Linux on (some of) their systems, and continues to offer XP on Enterprise systems. Noteworthy in one of the news items (http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20070421/tc_cmp/199200199, link good April 24, 2007) was:

“To experience all of Vista’s features, PC users need a computer with at least a 1-GHz processor, 1 Gbyte of memory, and a 40-Gbyte hard drive. By contrast, Windows XP Professional requires only a 300-MHz processor, 128 Mbytes of RAM, and a 1.5-Gbyte disk.”

I would add to this that, at least as far as XP goes, you may get away with a 300 MHz processor, but 128Mb of RAM is only enough to run the Windows system, not really enough to do anything productive with any degree of performance, especially with Service Pack 2. You really want at least 256Mb, and the more memory the better. A 1.5 Gb disk isn’t even an option these days, as 80 Gb drives are available for less than $50. Similarly, I have heard that Vista’s minimum requirements don’t really provide enough room to work, and something like 2 Gbyte of memory is much more preferable. Again, the more the better. Otherwise, the system starts swapping memory to disk like crazy, your performance goes into the toilet, and your hard drive sees years of mileage in a matter of months.

I’ve also read many complaints about Vista compatibility with both older hardware and software, resulting in the need to retire that old hardware, and purchase sometimes expensive new software licenses. Finally, I’ve also heard enough reports to suggest that upgrading to Vista on a computer that is much more than about a year old is a very bad idea. You may get lucky, though.