Vista Basic and the future of older PCs

[rcarring]

So much for Vista Basic, how many people in developing countries with a three or four year old pc are going to be able to run Vista Basic if its system requirements are so onerous that they would need to buy a new pc just to boot the bloody thing?

In a couple of years you will ONLY be able to buy Vista as an OEM package. *snort of laughter*

Linux would be the only viable option.

[kb3hkg]

That is why one of the advantages of Linux is its ability to run on older PC's, and why quite a few people have switched to Linux because of that.

Ubuntu is participating in this mostly with Xubuntu which is designed for slower computers.

[andrecasteliano]

Here in Brazil, Linux is growing quickly. The government has a special interest in people using - and developing - free software.
Computers shipped with linux (and linux only) preinstalled are tax-deductible (almost all taxes).

My company has dual-boot workstations for a while now. In the end of the year we will probably using linux-only PC´s. :)

[]´s

André Casteliano

[mostwanted]

Here in Brazil, Linux is growing quickly. The government has a special interest in people using - and developing - free software.
Computers shipped with linux (and linux only) preinstalled are tax-deductible (almost all taxes).

My company has dual-boot workstations for a while now. In the end of the year we will probably using linux-only PC´s. :)

[]´s

André Casteliano

Tax-decuctible eh? That's actually not a bad idea.

[rcarring]

I remember with Windows 98 that some keen enthusiasts got upset with the following system spec:

486 DX66

16 mb Ram

There was a special switch that you could use with the setup command (undocumented) which I think was setup /ns and this stopped the installer from checking the hardware. There was a big outcry that Windows 98 wouldn't run on a 486 DX33 with 12MB Ram.

---

I think if Linux could easily emulate windows or include wine by default with a nifty gui front end that was easy to use, then there would be no reason at all to run Windows whatsover in its native form.

The problem is that many users like using their old Windows software like Encarta or a prehistoric version of Word that they "borrowed" from school or work and telling them to use OpenOffice isn't going to persuade them.

I know it goes against the grain to include support for Windows, but it would add to its marketing quality:::

"The new version of ________ will let you install and use applications that you previously used under Windows"

[Rhapsody]

Some of this mirrors comments I typed up about the various distributions of Vista (more ideas stolen from Linux?).

Windows Starter 2007

Wow, a crippleware operating system? If you told me about this ten years ago, I would've thought you were kidding. Well, it's designed for 'emerging markets' (like China, which has some of the highest rates of piracy in the world) but I'd advise those people to just save some money and use Ubuntu or some other free Linux distro instead. You'll at least be getting a proper operating system then.

Windows Vista Home Basic

Cheap and nasty. If you don't count Windows Starter 2007 (which I wouldn't, seeing as it's really just shareware Windows with a nicer name) then this is the base version. It's missing a LOT of stuff that Home Premium has and (as a proper kick in the teeth) doesn't even have the nifty Aero theme that everyone purchasing Vista will want to see. What's the point of having Vista if no one can even tell it's a new OS? Pointless. Like the 'baby' PS3, no one is going to buy this.

There'll also be an N edition sold in the EU thanks to the antitrust case there (I knew they were useful for something) without Windows Media Player. Now if only they could force them to get Internet Explorer out too. No one's going to care though, they'll all get Home Premium instead, and that has WMP on it anyway.

Windows Vista Home Premium

Somewhat analogous to Windows XP Media Center Edition, I see this as being the main version that home users will be buying. It'll be more expensive than Home Basic, but it also has a lot more stuff (including the Aero theme). I won't be bothering with it, but this does seem like the sweet spot for the Vista line-up. If you must use Windows Vista, this is probably the best balance between value and features.

Windows Vista Business

The basic edition for businesses. This is effectively Home Basic with some extra business-oriented features tacked on. A bit like Windows XP Pro, but I'll think of it more like Windows NT 4 Workstation, my mind still stuck in 1996 in some ways...

There's also going to be an N edition of this without WMP, like anyone is going to give a ****. Half of the people using it won't care about the lack of a media player, and the other half will just download it later. I like these gestures from the EU, but they lack real bite.

Windows Vista Small Business

Simple stuff. Windows Vista Business, with a bit more stuff. If the price point is close enough to Business, I'd advise people to just get this instead. If it's much higher, then it might be worth looking to see if you can get away with the cheaper version.

Windows Vista Enterprise

Ooh, the super version. Only supports 2 CPUs (I can see that being a problem eventually) though it does has just about everything else a business would want. But this is going to be around the same price level as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Which would I take? The latter, every time. It's got a much better internal design and the support would be far from lacking. But I still see strong sales for this.

Windows Vista Ultimate

Ah yes, Windows for ricers. No business is going to buy this, since all of the business-oriented features are in Enterprise, so it'll be the ultimate Windows power users (who are really just too scared to try Linux) who'll buy this. They'll probably get a nice feeling from having the best version of Windows Vista around, but I'll have a better feeling using Dapper Drake or Edgy Eft, having built a system with most of the useful features in Ultimate for little or no cost.

[teaker1s]

just downloading latest vista public beta 3.2gb wtf, for a laugh i'm going to see if it'll boot on usb drive(like xp could with tweaks) if it won't I'll try it on the gf's pc and then when it cocks up I have a perfect excuse for installing dapper;)

[BoyOfDestiny]

I remember with Windows 98 that some keen enthusiasts got upset with the following system spec:

486 DX66

16 mb Ram

There was a special switch that you could use with the setup command (undocumented) which I think was setup /ns and this stopped the installer from checking the hardware. There was a big outcry that Windows 98 wouldn't run on a 486 DX33 with 12MB Ram.

---

I think if Linux could easily emulate windows or include wine by default with a nifty gui front end that was easy to use, then there would be no reason at all to run Windows whatsover in its native form.

The problem is that many users like using their old Windows software like Encarta or a prehistoric version of Word that they "borrowed" from school or work and telling them to use OpenOffice isn't going to persuade them.

I know it goes against the grain to include support for Windows, but it would add to its marketing quality:::

"The new version of ________ will let you install and use applications that you previously used under Windows"

I had a 486dx2 66 mhz myself...

Anyway, I guess it's come to a point where with machines today it's sort of ridiculous.

I noticed a huge difference between a pentium II and a 486... Things were faster...

If someone has a 1ghz machine, surfs the web, writes documents, etc... Do they really need a 2 ghz dual core?

You have to wonder, is this general code bloat...

Or are they going out of their way to use/require more resources to get people to buy new machines...

Also, for that last part, well I don't know about by default. But it would be pretty neat if WINE's compatibility becomes near perfect...

[bruce89]

I love the way they disable features in certain editions, and when you try to access them it will probably ask "Do you want to upgrade to (one you have+1)? That would be really annoying. As Rhapsody said, it would be like Shareware. Also Windows Starter 2007 is rubbish, it only allows 3 windows open at any one time.