It seems everywhere you go on the internet today you are bombarded with a ton of myths about Vista. As with most myths, there is usually a grain of truth embedded into most Vista myths. We all have seen the claims by the Vista bashers that Vista is a resource hog or that it requires a monstrous graphics card or high end hardware. What is the most disturbing about many of these myths is that many technology experts and the technology press are spearheading spreading these myths. These are people that should know better, but their hatred for any thing Microsoft has blinded them to the truth. Those few that do expose the myths as lies are labeled as shills for Microsoft. This thread is being created for the express purpose of exposing and busting those myths.
From time to time I will update this thread to expose more myths and disseminate the truth behind Vista. Please feel free to comment and help add to this list. I will update this first post with any corrections and add new myths to bust as you participate.
Myth: Vista requires high end hardware
There is a grain of truth to this myth. If you define high end hardware by 2003-2004 standards this myth is very much true. By today standards this myth does not apply. Mainstream and low end hardware sold today will handle Vista perfectly fine as long as the system has at least a Gig of RAM. Multicore processors are now mainstream and are sold at prices even cheaper than what you could buy a Sempron or Celeron processor for just a year ago. Most big box retailers sell very cheap PC's that have a dual core processor and a Gig of Ram for less than $500 USD. Most PC's you buy today are made with Vista in mind so the high end hardware argument does not hold water.
A Gig of RAM is not unreasonable considering that RAM is very cheap right now. With modern software requiring more and more RAM, I would not even recommend running XP without at least a Gig of RAM.
A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:
* A modern processor (at least 800MHz¹).
* 512 MB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:
* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹).
* 1 GB of system memory.
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive³.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability.
Windows Vista Capable and Pemium Ready PC's
Myth: Vista requires a monstrous graphics card to use Aero
Here is the specification from Microsoft for Aero.
# 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹).
# 1 GB of system memory.
# Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
Here is the footnote on the graphics memory.
If the GPU uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond the 1 GB system memory requirement; If the GPU uses dedicated memory then 128MB is required.
Aero Footnote
Windows Vista Capable and Pemium Ready PC's
Here is the translation. Any Direct X 9 capable GPU, including onboard graphics using shared memory is capable of running Aero. That means GPU's that were made as far back as three years ago are capable of using the Aero interface. You do not need a monstrous graphics card to use Aero.
Myth: Vista is a resource hog
On the surface people are going to think I lost my mind on this one, including some pro Vista people. To further elaborate the reasoning behind why this is a myth it will take an explanation of some core Vista technologies and their impact on system resources.
This myth was started very early on because everyone in the tech industry viewed Vista the XP way when it comes to system resources. One of the famous tweaking web sites gives some very bad advice based solely on the XP way of looking at things. Many of us almost had a heart attack the first time we opened up System Properties and saw Vista using a massive amount of RAM. That was because we were looking at RAM usage in XP mode. By researching and understanding how Vista manages resources we were enlightened that Vista was optimizing performance and not hogging resources.
Superfetch
Superfetch is a improved version of the prefetch in XP. What prefetch does is it keeps portions of the programs you recently opened resident in memory after you quit using them for faster access later. Vista improves upon this by monitoring your usage and aggressively caches your most used programs into RAM. It will literally recache the RAM at different times of the day depending on your usage patterns. When you need your RAM, it is freed and even processes from Vista itself is moved to the page file. Because Superfetch is assigned a lower priority than your programs, it will never interfere with your programs. This improved memory management system is fluid and is a huge reason users should want to upgrade to Vista. When you need the memory, it is there and when you don't, Ram is used to speed up accessing your programs.
Windows Vista: SuperFetch and External Memory Devices
Superfetch
Low Priority IO
This technology coupled with Superfetch is what makes Vista a wonderful manager of resources. What Low Priority IO does is it assigns background processes a lower priority than your programs so they don't interfere with performance. If you are running your Anti-Virus and gaming at the same time, the AV will take a back seat to your game until you are done. Processes from the operating system itself are assigned a lower priority so that Ram is freed and available to the program running. I have observed while running Ubuntu in Virtualbox (Virtualization Software for running another operating system under Vista.) Superfetch and Low Priority IO move all but 200 Megs of RAM usage to the page file. Vista was actually using less RAM than XP when I needed it.
Learn about Vista Features
To summarize, resource management in Vista is vastly improved over XP and results in a much more responsive system. Vista gladly gives over any resources it is using to your programs when needed. This is why Vista is not a resource hog.
Myth: Vista is more expensive than XP
One of the biggest arguments that people use in their anti-Vista rants is that Vista cost $400 and is beyond the means of the average person. This lie is based on the retail price of Vista Ultimate and rarely will these people admit that this is not what most people will pay for Vista. The truth of the matter is that Vista has the same price points as the comparable versions under XP. Another thing these people neglect to mention is that the major OEM's receive a huge discount because of volume sales.(Where the majority of Vista users will obtain the operating system.) These savings are passed directly on to the consumer due to the cut throat competition in today's PC market. It has been reported that some OEM's pay as little as $25 for a copy of Home Basic. Since OEM's refuse to publish what they actually pay for Vista, I will use the published OEM and retail prices to compare cost.
* Vista Home Basic $99 (full version retail: $199)
* Vista Home Premium: $119 (full version retail: $239)
* Vista Business: $149 (full version retail: $299)
* Vista Ultimate $199 (full version retail: $399)
Vista Pricing
I am using Ed Bott's research into XP's pricing since it is hard to find a compiled list of OEM pricing on XP.
*XP Home $90 (Full version retail: $199)
*XP MCE $120 (Full version retail: None)
*XP Professional $130+ (Full version retail:$299)
Ed Bott OEM pricing research
PC World pricing comparison
The prices for Vista are either the same or are only slightly more expensive than XP. This is not taking in consideration that a careful shopper may actually be able to receive the same discounts for Vista. The price points that Vista is currently at is either the same or cheaper than the OEM prices for XP when it was new. (XP professional was $179.99 when it was first released. Vista Business is 159.99) Take notice that the version of Vista comparable with the version of XP that most people will buy are the same. (VHP $120, XP MCE $120)
Myth: Gaming under Vista is slower than XP
When Vista went RTM, the state of graphics drivers were very poor to say the least. Gaming performance was anywhere from 5% to 20% slower than XP, depending on your configuration and the game. Over the last few months both AMD/ATI and Nvidia have released new drivers that have brought gaming performance under Vista on par with XP. Sometimes Vista is slower by a few frames and other times XP is slower by a few frames. The difference is so small now there is no noticeable difference in gaming between XP and Vista.
Firingsquad: Vista vs XP 7 months later
Myth: Vista eats babies, kills puppies and causes global warming
MMMMMMM babies are tasty and killing puppies is a great sport err ummm Vista is an operating system and only does the bidding of the end user. I have found Vista useful for looking up great baby recipes!
If you subscribe to the myth of man made global warming, (Start another thread if you want to debate this!) go look in a mirror and point a finger at the person you see in it. Now turn off the computer and the tv, shut out the lights, go outside and plant a tree.
Summary
Vista is not the monster some on the internet are making it out to be. It is in vogue for people to hate Microsoft and it's products and this leads to a lot of misinformation, FUD and downright lies. This post is intended to counter that misinformation and help those looking for information on Vista make an informed decision.
I do have some advice for you if you do decide to buy a computer with Vista. RAM is cheap and the more you throw at Vista, the better it performs. Most of us would never dream of buying XP with less than 512 of RAM. With Vista that absolute minimum is 1 gig for decent performance on light computing. However, as cheap as RAM is I would not recommend buying less than 2 gigs since this is the sweet spot for Vista. If you can afford it, buy 4 gigs even on 32 bit. Vista will make good use of that RAM.
From time to time I will update this thread to expose more myths and disseminate the truth behind Vista. Please feel free to comment and help add to this list. I will update this first post with any corrections and add new myths to bust as you participate.
Myth: Vista requires high end hardware
There is a grain of truth to this myth. If you define high end hardware by 2003-2004 standards this myth is very much true. By today standards this myth does not apply. Mainstream and low end hardware sold today will handle Vista perfectly fine as long as the system has at least a Gig of RAM. Multicore processors are now mainstream and are sold at prices even cheaper than what you could buy a Sempron or Celeron processor for just a year ago. Most big box retailers sell very cheap PC's that have a dual core processor and a Gig of Ram for less than $500 USD. Most PC's you buy today are made with Vista in mind so the high end hardware argument does not hold water.
A Gig of RAM is not unreasonable considering that RAM is very cheap right now. With modern software requiring more and more RAM, I would not even recommend running XP without at least a Gig of RAM.
A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:
* A modern processor (at least 800MHz¹).
* 512 MB of system memory.
* A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.
A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:
* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹).
* 1 GB of system memory.
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive³.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability.
Windows Vista Capable and Pemium Ready PC's
Myth: Vista requires a monstrous graphics card to use Aero
Here is the specification from Microsoft for Aero.
# 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor¹).
# 1 GB of system memory.
# Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)², Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
Here is the footnote on the graphics memory.
If the GPU uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond the 1 GB system memory requirement; If the GPU uses dedicated memory then 128MB is required.
Aero Footnote
Windows Vista Capable and Pemium Ready PC's
Here is the translation. Any Direct X 9 capable GPU, including onboard graphics using shared memory is capable of running Aero. That means GPU's that were made as far back as three years ago are capable of using the Aero interface. You do not need a monstrous graphics card to use Aero.
Myth: Vista is a resource hog
On the surface people are going to think I lost my mind on this one, including some pro Vista people. To further elaborate the reasoning behind why this is a myth it will take an explanation of some core Vista technologies and their impact on system resources.
This myth was started very early on because everyone in the tech industry viewed Vista the XP way when it comes to system resources. One of the famous tweaking web sites gives some very bad advice based solely on the XP way of looking at things. Many of us almost had a heart attack the first time we opened up System Properties and saw Vista using a massive amount of RAM. That was because we were looking at RAM usage in XP mode. By researching and understanding how Vista manages resources we were enlightened that Vista was optimizing performance and not hogging resources.
Superfetch
Superfetch is a improved version of the prefetch in XP. What prefetch does is it keeps portions of the programs you recently opened resident in memory after you quit using them for faster access later. Vista improves upon this by monitoring your usage and aggressively caches your most used programs into RAM. It will literally recache the RAM at different times of the day depending on your usage patterns. When you need your RAM, it is freed and even processes from Vista itself is moved to the page file. Because Superfetch is assigned a lower priority than your programs, it will never interfere with your programs. This improved memory management system is fluid and is a huge reason users should want to upgrade to Vista. When you need the memory, it is there and when you don't, Ram is used to speed up accessing your programs.
Windows Vista: SuperFetch and External Memory Devices
Superfetch
Low Priority IO
This technology coupled with Superfetch is what makes Vista a wonderful manager of resources. What Low Priority IO does is it assigns background processes a lower priority than your programs so they don't interfere with performance. If you are running your Anti-Virus and gaming at the same time, the AV will take a back seat to your game until you are done. Processes from the operating system itself are assigned a lower priority so that Ram is freed and available to the program running. I have observed while running Ubuntu in Virtualbox (Virtualization Software for running another operating system under Vista.) Superfetch and Low Priority IO move all but 200 Megs of RAM usage to the page file. Vista was actually using less RAM than XP when I needed it.
Learn about Vista Features
To summarize, resource management in Vista is vastly improved over XP and results in a much more responsive system. Vista gladly gives over any resources it is using to your programs when needed. This is why Vista is not a resource hog.
Myth: Vista is more expensive than XP
One of the biggest arguments that people use in their anti-Vista rants is that Vista cost $400 and is beyond the means of the average person. This lie is based on the retail price of Vista Ultimate and rarely will these people admit that this is not what most people will pay for Vista. The truth of the matter is that Vista has the same price points as the comparable versions under XP. Another thing these people neglect to mention is that the major OEM's receive a huge discount because of volume sales.(Where the majority of Vista users will obtain the operating system.) These savings are passed directly on to the consumer due to the cut throat competition in today's PC market. It has been reported that some OEM's pay as little as $25 for a copy of Home Basic. Since OEM's refuse to publish what they actually pay for Vista, I will use the published OEM and retail prices to compare cost.
* Vista Home Basic $99 (full version retail: $199)
* Vista Home Premium: $119 (full version retail: $239)
* Vista Business: $149 (full version retail: $299)
* Vista Ultimate $199 (full version retail: $399)
Vista Pricing
I am using Ed Bott's research into XP's pricing since it is hard to find a compiled list of OEM pricing on XP.
*XP Home $90 (Full version retail: $199)
*XP MCE $120 (Full version retail: None)
*XP Professional $130+ (Full version retail:$299)
Ed Bott OEM pricing research
PC World pricing comparison
The prices for Vista are either the same or are only slightly more expensive than XP. This is not taking in consideration that a careful shopper may actually be able to receive the same discounts for Vista. The price points that Vista is currently at is either the same or cheaper than the OEM prices for XP when it was new. (XP professional was $179.99 when it was first released. Vista Business is 159.99) Take notice that the version of Vista comparable with the version of XP that most people will buy are the same. (VHP $120, XP MCE $120)
Myth: Gaming under Vista is slower than XP
When Vista went RTM, the state of graphics drivers were very poor to say the least. Gaming performance was anywhere from 5% to 20% slower than XP, depending on your configuration and the game. Over the last few months both AMD/ATI and Nvidia have released new drivers that have brought gaming performance under Vista on par with XP. Sometimes Vista is slower by a few frames and other times XP is slower by a few frames. The difference is so small now there is no noticeable difference in gaming between XP and Vista.
Firingsquad: Vista vs XP 7 months later
Myth: Vista eats babies, kills puppies and causes global warming
MMMMMMM babies are tasty and killing puppies is a great sport err ummm Vista is an operating system and only does the bidding of the end user. I have found Vista useful for looking up great baby recipes!
If you subscribe to the myth of man made global warming, (Start another thread if you want to debate this!) go look in a mirror and point a finger at the person you see in it. Now turn off the computer and the tv, shut out the lights, go outside and plant a tree.
Summary
Vista is not the monster some on the internet are making it out to be. It is in vogue for people to hate Microsoft and it's products and this leads to a lot of misinformation, FUD and downright lies. This post is intended to counter that misinformation and help those looking for information on Vista make an informed decision.
I do have some advice for you if you do decide to buy a computer with Vista. RAM is cheap and the more you throw at Vista, the better it performs. Most of us would never dream of buying XP with less than 512 of RAM. With Vista that absolute minimum is 1 gig for decent performance on light computing. However, as cheap as RAM is I would not recommend buying less than 2 gigs since this is the sweet spot for Vista. If you can afford it, buy 4 gigs even on 32 bit. Vista will make good use of that RAM.