[Pc_Support] Re: [OT] One more time … Windows Vista system requirements

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Thu, 2006-06-08 at 22:55 -0400, William Warren wrote:
> you can put xp on a p-2 350..it runs..but it's not truly useable..:)

That's now Vista on a 1GHz machine with nVidia (NV44) GeForce 6100
integrated video that just came out mid-last year.  And that's just so
it looks and works like XP today, although slower -- and does _not_
provide the new Avalon features.

Even my spring 2001 era P3 850MHz, 256MB with nVidia (NV11) GeForce Go
Mobile 16MB notebook will run the Xgl window manager at 1024x768.
Nothing great, but it works.  A MacOS X notebook with equivalent
video/power will run QuartzExtreme better.

You've gotta have at least a late 2004-era GeForce 6800+, or 2005-era
GeForce 6600+ to get _any_ Avalon features.  That's a "mark-up" of 3
generations -- eight times (8x) -- in performance over QuartzExtreme or
Xgl.

Avalon is designed for one thing, not to improve efficiency, but to
force people to buy new computers.  And there's _no_ incentive for
Microsoft to address that -- because they are not only controlling the
PC OEM channels, but the superstore distribution now as well.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith        Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org  http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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