Apple FUD
Apple has launched a campaign of FUD against Windows Vista. You know what FUD is, right? Fear, uncertainty, and doubt, and that's just what Apple relies on in their "you need a new computer for Vista" campaign. While Apple's commercials show the same cool factor and quality of production that they always have, they have one flaw; they're hogwash!
Don't get me wrong. I'm not your typical anti-Apple Microsoft employee. I own an iPod, not a Zune, I actually prefer iTunes 7 to Media Center 11, and there's a decent chance that my next notebook will be a MacBook Pro. I like Apple, but I resent their implication that Vista is a resource hog that will require most computer users to buy a new computer.
I've been running Vista for a long time. I've installed it on a lot of different computers. Some of those computers are fast machines running modern hardware, but I've also installed it on one of my older computers, and it runs great on that machine. I upgraded the video card to an Nvidia 6800 GS AGP on that machine and it now runs Aero Glass with excellent performance, so I get all of the cool graphical effects. This machine is about 5 years old.
Another common misconception I've heard repeated time and again in podcasts that I listen to is that Vista really requires 2GB of memory. I did upgrade my laptop to 2GB for Vista because it uses a shared-memory graphics chip that sucks system RAM in order to run Aero Glass. It runs great until I install SQL Server and a few other memory-intensive apps on there. The older machine I mentioned above has 1GB of RAM in it, and Vista runs incredibly well on it; every bit as snappy as Windows XP.
I'm not the only one in this boat. I've talked to a lot of friends who say that they were incredibly surprised by how well Vista ran on older hardware. While I think that's great, the only reason that they were surprised is because they had been brainwashed into thinking that you can't run Vista on anything older than a year old.
If you want to know if Vista will run on your computer, I'd advise you to check out the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. When you run this, keep in mind that if the Upgrade Advisor flags an area, it does it for a purpose. For example, if your video gets flagged, you might not see Aero Glass when you run Vista, etc. Still, it will give you more helpful advice than Apple. You may not have to buy a new PC.
Until next time, remember not to smile.
