On Sat, 2006-05-20 at 09:37 +0100, Bob Dove wrote:
The power requirements for Vista are such that I can't imagine anyone actually giving in to the dictat except to use Linux instead and write really powerful programs to emulate BBBG. Then of course, there are people out there with more plastic than grey matter who will spend the ever increasing amounts of dosh BBBG wants. And there'll always be 'pooter' builders keen to provide the necessary hardware.
To a degree I think the increasing hardware requirements point is moot. Forget the technical figures and look at the costs involved.
My first x86 box cost me £1000 and ran DOS, Windows 3 or GEM Desktop and apart from simple WP/Spreadsheet stuff and the odd sierra game was pretty much incapable of anything else.
My first x86 portable (I'd hesitate to call it a laptop even though it was clamshell laptop format) was mains only and ran Win311 on a mono (amber plasma) screen, new price for that was circa £2500.
A £450 desktop PC now would fulfil the Vista minimum requirements enough to be pretty usable. That machine is capable of 3D graphics, Multimedia you name it. Also nowadays if you are not too bothered about ultimate portability you don't have to add that much to get a pretty capable notebook.
Add to that, nobody in their right mind is going to install Vista on an existing machine. The licensing costs to do so are too prohibitive and the benefits too small. So actually the hardware requirements are irrelevant because Vista will run (if the requirements are accurate) on any desktop PC you would build today.
Even my trusty Amiga A1200 ran to nearly 4 figures once I had bought all the accessories I wanted...and that was designed to be a home system !