David Black posted on January 29, 2007 13:19
I've read some of the reviews on Vista, including
one from PC Magazine and one from the technology editor of the
Washington Post (free registration may be required), and the consensus seems to be that Vista has some nice feature upgrades but that it is a resources hog. Therefore, it probably doesn't make sense to upgrade most computers. It may be better just to wait until you buy a new computer before moving to Vista.
What is interesting is that online retailers such as
Dell are still offering models with only 512 MB of RAM -- ones which will definitely not run Vista efficiently. In addition, there are many other models set at 1 GB of RAM, which is the minimum memory requirement for Vista. So even if one is planning on buying a new computer they will still need to plan carefully to make sure that the purchases will run Vista efficiently.
For a variety of reasons I did not get a Vista upgrade with my last purchase. First, I'm happy with XP, so the additional bells and whistles of Vista aren't that important when getting down to the true cost/benefit analysis, especially considering the cost of souping up a new system to meet the recommended hardware standards. Second, I'm very leery of the first edition of any
Microsoft operating system. Typically it is better to wait for the inevitable service packs. So I will just keep XP for now.
What will schools do? I can't imagine many schools rushing to upgrade to Vista. New computer purchases will likely carry Vista, but I doubt whether schools will create a rush to move to Vista in existing machines. It just is too costly with too many hardware changes. The way Vista will enter schools will be through new purchases.
Have you seen Vista yet? If so, share your thoughts about the new OS as a comment to this post.