MS Vista Who Cares?

[RawAlex]

Torn, it isn't 64 bit dual processors... the recommended business setup is a P4 HT (hyper thread) processor, which is much more than a year old already... and that is the recommended level. That means that there will likely be reasonable performance down to P4 2.4 or so.

http://www.intel.com/business/bss/pr...ns/desktop.htm

it isn't much different from when we went from Windows 3.1 / 3.11 to XP. The cutoff at that point was about 400mhz, which at the time put a ton of PCs into the junk pile.

Alex

[Jim]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Torn, it isn't 64 bit dual processors... the recommended business setup is a P4 HT (hyper thread) processor, which is much more than a year old already... and that is the recommended level. That means that there will likely be reasonable performance down to P4 2.4 or so.

http://www.intel.com/business/bss/pr...ns/desktop.htm

it isn't much different from when we went from Windows 3.1 / 3.11 to XP. The cutoff at that point was about 400mhz, which at the time put a ton of PCs into the junk pile.

Alex

I remember buying my first Pentium and wanted to be ready for Windows 98 so I paid an extra $1200 for 24 more megs of ram That was the processor that had the math problems. Intel first said they would only replace the bad processor if it was needed in your work. Since I was in Construction Engineering at the time, I qualified. I still had to give intel a $600 deposit for the new chip. Later, intel said they would replace all bad processors. I think that was back in 1994 or 1995.

I was just looking at some new PCs and I just can't believe how cheap they are. I paid over $5k for that first Pentium. Take a look at what $5k will buy you today

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by Jim

I remember buying my first Pentium and wanted to be ready for Windows 98 so I paid an extra $1200 for 24 more megs of ram That was the processor that had the math problems. Intel first said they would only replace the bad processor if it was needed in your work. Since I was in Construction Engineering at the time, I qualified. I still had to give intel a $600 deposit for the new chip. Later, intel said they would replace all bad processors. I think that was back in 1994 or 1995.

I was just looking at some new PCs and I just can't believe how cheap they are. I paid over $5k for that first Pentium. Take a look at what $5k will buy you today

For the first decade of PCs all usable systems cost $5k. Kaypro 10 cost about $5K. IBM XT was about $5k. IBM AT was about $5k. Every 2 years that $5k purchased twice or even more performance then it did before so it was needed. PCs didn't become home friendly until they went below $2k and once that happened, well now we all have them.

[emmanuelle]

Originally Posted by SirMoby

Every 2 years that $5k purchased twice or even more performance then it did before so it was needed.

Moore's Law

Originally Posted by SirMoby

PCs didn't become home friendly until they went below $2k and once that happened, well now we all have them.

Like most things, computer hardware is priced by what the market will bear, not a % based on costs.

[SirMoby]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

http://www.intel.com/business/bss/pr...ns/desktop.htm

it isn't much different from when we went from Windows 3.1 / 3.11 to XP. The cutoff at that point was about 400mhz, which at the time put a ton of PCs into the junk pile.

Alex

You're right but back then processors technology was making huge leaps in performance and today the jumps seem much smaller. Before you couldn't really run XP on the minimum required hardware because it would have been way too slow for human acceptance.

Maybe they learned from that and the minimum requirement actually performs well or maybe it will be a dog. Only time will tell.

[RedCherry]

My first computer cost $1,500 and that was with an employee discount. My neigbor took me in posing as my Dad. It was a PCJr with 512k ram (I upgraded from the standard 256k ram) and no hard drive. I learned to program cobol on that sucker, had to swap my program floppy, then the floppy with the code on it to compile it, lol.

Just think what even $1,500 can get you now. I remember PDP 11/70's with no monitors in college, and even puch cards, which we had to do 1 program with just to show what the OLD technology was like.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

...and even puch cards, which we had to do 1 program with just to show what the OLD technology was like.

Whoa, just took a trip down memory lane. I had to use punch cards for all of my freshman and sophomore, and most Junior level Comp Sci classes in college. Fortran, Cobol, Pascal... ahhhh, the good ol' days

[MrYum]

Vista looks kinda purdy, but think I'll wait a bit for em to shake things out some.

Yup, I remember back in college...working on dual floppy systems...and that was cool stuff then! My first system was a 12 mgz 486...custom made by a guy I met through my college professor. Seems to me I paid right around 2 grand for that puppy too...lol.

Though I certainly don't get by with cheap machines these days either. I built the machine I'm using now almost 3 years ago...got about $3k into the machine. It's still fast and stable after almost 3 years...certainly don't get that out of those sub $1k Dells.

[RedCherry]

Does anyone know how compatible this will be with existing software? I"m with you MrYum, I'm waiting until it is out awhile and the bugs are shook out. It took me forever to switch from '98 being an old dos prompt person, I hated the way 2000 took you more away from that, lol. This last computer I finally caved and went to XP.

[DJilla]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

My first computer cost $1,500 and that was with an employee discount. My neigbor took me in posing as my Dad. It was a PCJr with 512k ram (I upgraded from the standard 256k ram) and no hard drive. I learned to program cobol on that sucker, had to swap my program floppy, then the floppy with the code on it to compile it, lol.

That's a cute story, you forgot to mention that crazy little chicklet keyboard. I was working in a beta computer store which was trying to become a franchise (I was a purchasing agent and you wouldn't believe how much stuff was given to me free... software came in plastic baggies and we would round table with Bill Gates twice a year at expos). Very exciting days and you a girl at the time into PC's, very cool.