Unless you are living under a stone in a cave far, far away – you must have heard of Microsoft latest (and greatest?) operating system. Those of us who followed the development process of VISTA know that much of what was promised never materialised (new file system anyone?), and much was already released as new patches and upgrades to windows XP (Media player 11, Internet explorer 7 to name just a couple). But, now that it’s finally here, shell we all dance to the new tune and upgrade to MS-VISTA? Well, let’s see…

First, there are the new minimum requirements for the hardware. Many of us will find ourselves obsolete by the new VISTA standards. Older computers that were built for Windows XP may have to be upgraded – More memory and better graphics would be almost essential. With the prices of hardware constantly falling many reckon they should wait until their next computer buy. We agree. In fact, we believe that based on passed experience (more on that later), at least 12 to 18 month should pass before we consider VISTA Again. VISTA Home Basic demands an 800 MHz processor, VISTA Premium a 1 GHz. Many older computers, including my own favourite Laptop, can forget about VISTA. They are just too slow and weak and their motherboards allow for only relatively modest upgrades.

You’ll need 512 MB of RAM for Home Basic and 1 GB for Premium. But as any one who is running windows XP with 256 MB of RAM (the minimum requirements) knows, the minimum requirements as set by Microsoft should be taken with a pinch of salt. 512 MB is a better benchmark for XP. So does that mean that a 1 GB for Home Basic and 2 GB for Premium? I’m afraid so… But then again, I’ve always pushed for more RAM as a cheap upgrade to an older computer. A 512MB memory upgrade will set you back about £40 and about £80 for a full 1 GB.

VISTA also introduces a new desktop manager called Aero. Its nice looking and versatile but is very taxing on your graphics and CPU. If you go for the Premium Version you will need a 128MB Graphics card. Theses have really plummeted in price but a nice card will still set you back £30 to a £120 (you might as well get a nice one, it will come in very handy with new games

Another concern is the hard drive. You’re going to need a fair few GB’s to load VISTA, 15 GB roughly. If your Laptop has one of those basic 40 GB hard drives that are so Common, more then a third will be swallowed by VISTA. Add another 5-10 GB of application files, and more than half of your disk is populated. But what about your music? Films? Photos? A new hard drive any one? No ? Well a full hard drive will further slow you down.

Now what about Microsoft history? Does Security fix, Patches, Service packs, Critical upgrades, etc… ring a bell? Windows XP has had literally hundreds of fixes. Many were upgrades but many are major security holes that were overlooked through the development process, does anyone remember windows ME? No? Microsoft hopes you forget.
I am not one to flog Microsoft, I think they have rolled out some good software over the years. But undeniably their main success is a commercial one, not a technological one. And through out their history they chose to roll software out first, and finish it later. In my humble opinion, it should be the other way around.
It took XP about a year, before the rate of fixes and patches slowed down a bit. I wonder if it would be the same for VISTA…

So what is my conclusion? In short – Avoid it if you can! But,
If you are not planning in deploying it in office spaces where data loss and corruption could be serious, if you like to adopt new technology, if you need an excuse to beef up your computer (or better yet, buy a new and fast custom made PC), if you don’t mind teething problems and down right security risks to you data, then go VISTA all the way.
I am staying with XP, at least for a while, at least until I have to. Why spend £50 on the software, £40 for RAM, £40 for a half decent graphic card just for the pleasure of seeing my desktop in shinier colours? Personally I don’t see the need.