Re: Alternative to MCE?

[LeeUKHA <mailinglists@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Far from it, I'm not bashing Vista for needing more resources, it's a
new OS with lot's of pretty new shiny buts.

While your Inspiron 1300 may be ok as general desktop, would it work OK
as a Media Center?
If it does, I've read lots of other articles about problems with older
hardware...
I guess I'm just staggered that you need 1GB of memory to run what is
basically a video recorder...
Lets face it, a TiVo copes quite well it a 50Mhz (yes, 50 Mega Hertz)
Power PC processor and 16MB (yes, 16 Megabytes) of RAM.

I guess I'm just tired of the constant upgrades of late, 2Ghz, then
3Ghz, then 64Bit, now dual core...
How many people (including most of this list) really need a dual/quad
core processor? Nice yes, but need?
Aero is very pretty, but really, how much of productivity increase does
it give you?
It's more secure, but shouldn't it have been more secure since 2000 was
launched?

I found a copy of Word 2.0 recently, its a tiny, single file and loads
in a second.
I bet it still does 99% of common functionality that most people use...

I need sleep, so I'll stop rambling...
Lee
PS. Ubuntu/Edgy is ain't 'legacy', it's only 3 months old... And Feisty
will be out before Vista SP1...

> OK, so, yeah my main machine is something of a brute. But then, it's a
> current high-end desktop. I'd have bought the same spec if I was
intending
> running XP on it (it came as an XP machine, of course).
>
> But you failed to comment on the bottom-of-the-range Inspiron 1300
which is,
> IIRC, a 1.6GHz Pentium M. It's got 1GB of RAM but then I've not run
less
> than that in any machine I've had in the last three years.
>
> And it's used as a general purpose machine, not just a media centre.
>
> Now, I'm not denying that Vista has higher resource requirements than
a
> 'legacy' OS (sorry, couldn't resist ;-) ) but the idea that you have
to have
> a top-drawer machine to run Vista Media Center is simply typical
MS-bashing
> and is quite unfounded.
>
> In the true spirit of UKHA, you should embrace the new opportunities
that
> Vista affords and use it as an excuse to buy a new machine!
>
> Steve
>
>