The "Vista-Capable" Debacle Spreads To Acer 133
N!NJA writes in with a Register story on a lawsuit filed against Acer for selling Windows Vista on an underpowered notebook. Of course anybody can sue for anything; it will be interesting to see if this action goes forward in the courts. "With a lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco, California, two residents of Fostoria, Ohio seek damages and relief from the world's third-largest computer maker after purchasing a sub-$600 Aspire notebook that included Windows Vista Premium and a gigabyte of shared system and graphics memory. In its official "recommended system requirements," Microsoft recommends that an additional 128MB is required to run the Premium incarnation of its latest desktop operating system. ... Microsoft says that the Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions of Vista will run on 512MB systems — with certain OS features disabled. In the beginning, Redmond called these 'Vista Capable' machines, and it's facing a separate lawsuit over this potentially misleading moniker."
"Premium" edition? (Score:2, Insightful)
Guys, I know Vista has way too many versions, but is it really that hard to remember that it's Windows Vista Home Premium (and for that matter, Vista Home Basic), not Vista Premium and Vista Basic?
--- Mr. DOS
Re:512Meg? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is there anyway we could please let this meme drop? It's getting really old. Seriously.
1 GB for $9.99 (Score:3, Insightful)
According to Acer this laptop ships with 1GB from the factory. And according to NewEgg upgrading to 2GB would be about $9.99 plus $2.99 shipping or going to 4GB would be just under $40.00. How the hell did she spend $157.40 on an upgrade that maxes out at $40 in parts and $30 in labor?
Vista does run reasonably with 872MB available to it as long as you stick to basic applications. OpenOffice, Firefox, Windows Media Player and etc. all run well enough. Crysis, Fallout 3, Photoshop CS4 and Visual Studio will run like dogs, if at all.
Vista capable is just like a DOT highway safety rating, just because your Kia is roadworthy doesn't mean that it will compete with a BMW for either performance or luxury.
Re:Remember when a gigabyte of memory was a lot? (Score:1, Insightful)
That's what the "turbo" button is for.
Re:512Meg? (Score:3, Insightful)
So the humankind hates computer geeks, scientists and any people that look smart. They just want to kill you on a very painful way and not have to call you to install another desktop manager.
Fine. Be that way. Just don't come cryin' to us when Brawndo doesn't actually have what plants crave.
I can second this... (Score:2, Insightful)
* Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1
* Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9100 (2.26 GHz)
* 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M
* 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
* 18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
* Blu-Ray +/-R/RW with SuperMulti
The Vista experience meter gives it a *THREE POINT EIGHT* on the usability scale.
If this less-than-a-year-old, Quad-core 2.26GHz, 4Gb System RAM, 1Gb VRAM, 5400RPM SATA HD system can't rate better than that, then why bother with Vista at all?
I sure as hell didn't.
I swapped the original drive for another 500Gb 5400 RPM SATA drive, installed Ubuntu, and haven't looked back.
YES I tweaked Vista to run better, I spent two days doing exactly that, and it really, honestly didn't make enough of a difference.
I shouldn't have to turn off half the OS in order to make a machine (especially one with specs like this) run like it's supposed to.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)