Rumor Control: Windows Vista (part one)
We’ve all seen the Mac commercials: PC goes off to be upgraded to Vista and his return is uncertain. And when he finally does return he’s bloated with trial software like that snobby blueberry girl on Willy Wanka & The Chocolate Factory. But is this all true, or just a big exaggeration?
In this article, I’ll be covering a few of the most popular rumors. Feel free to email me rumors you’ve heard (at toxicityj@gmail.com) and I’ll gladly update this article and reveal the truth behind the rumor.
“You’ll need to buy a new computer for Vista, because your computer isn’t good enough” This one might be true if you haven’t upgraded in a while.
For example, if you’re like my mom who lives off of 128 megs of RAM and uses the cheapest graphics card Dell could find, then you’ll need to buy a new computer (or invest a few hundred and upgrade your RAM and graphics card, which is very easy to do).
But if you’ve been good to your computer and have a nice chunk of RAM (512MB required, 1GB recommended), a decent processor (800MHz required, 1GHz recommended), and DVD ROM drive (required), you’ll be fine (I would suggest going for the recommended rather than the required, but that’s your choice).
In the long run, if your computer isn’t up to date as far as specs go, you’ll probably be dishing out maybe $200-$300 in upgrades.
“Nothing works on Vista! UGH!” While “Nothing” might be a overstatement, it is true that Vista has a few backward compatibility issues (meaning it has a few issues running things that worked fine on XP, ME, 2000, 98, etc.).
In fact, most programs work fine on Vista but there are some that simply don’t work. Hopefully, this will change with the release of a Service Pack. So if you want to be 99% sure that your programs are going to work on Vista, wait for the SP to come out before you upgrade. Or, just grab Vista and live without a program or two for a while.
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