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Possible Vista Troubles, Minimum Specs Revealed

by Chris Remo, May 19, 2006 8:30am PDT
Related Topics – Games: PC

Security software firm Symantec has sued Microsoft, claiming that the upcoming Windows Vista makes unauthorized use of Symantec technology. The technology in question is a volume management system, directing Vista's handling of high numbers of files. Veritas Software, as of last year a subsidiary of Symantec, created the tech and licensed it to Microsoft. Symantec's accusation states that Microsoft's inclusion of the technology in Vista is "trade secret misappropriation" based on reverse engineering of the volume management system, explicitly breaking the license agreement and concealing its activities. The statement goes on to note that Microsoft has claimed ownership of many of the features derived from Veritas' software, as well as filed patents for some of them. Microsoft claims that the disagreement "stems from a very narrow disagreement over the terms of a 1996 contract with Veritas." The software giant claims to have attempted to work out a mutually agreeable situation with Veritas, to no avail. Regardless, states Microsoft, Symantec's suit is without merit because in 2004, Microsoft exercised a right in its contract with Veritas, allowing Microsoft to buy outright the code and intellectual property rights in question. Symantec is currently seeking an injunction to prevent "further development, sale or distribution" of Vista, which it claims makes significant use of the Veritas tech. If successful, the suit would delay Windows Vista yet again, following recent delays slating consumer versions of the operating system as being available in early 2007. However, should such a situation arise, it is likely Microsoft would agree to a monetary settlement, allowing Vista development to continue; such behavior is not unusual for the company. In rather related news, Microsoft has released the official system requirements for Windows Vista, and they're not as steep as perhaps some have assumed. The bare minimum specs are an 800MHz processor, a DirectX 9 video card, and 512MB of RAM. That won't get your PC to Premium Ready status, however. To achieve that, you'll need:

- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1. - 1 GB of system memory. - A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero2. - 128 MB of graphics memory. - 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space. - DVD-ROM Drive3. - Audio output capability. - Internet access capability.
Various features are available only on Premium Ready PCs, including Vista's much talked about Aero skin.


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53 Threads | 308 Comments
  • #256
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    By: EvilAsh x
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    NIS200+ series has been the greatest Pos av/firewall software combo I have had to deal with in my 15 years of working in it. I do in-home pc repair work. That's right I make house calls. In just the last year alone I have repaired os'es hosed with spyware/malware and what combo was being run.. of course NIS either 2004/005/06. Symantec's software has grown increasingly slower and more bloated and more complex to manage for the average end-user.
    I usually switch the person to a Trend-micro pcillin av/Webroot spy-Sweeper combination. And 99.9% of my clients are overjoyed to watch their pc boot up 75% faster and are happier knowing the scans done by both software are actually faster combined then just running NIS. And both products actually can detect alot more spyware/malware and viruses then NIS. IF your a gamer and your running NIS.. you need to turn in your hardcore label and get a console.. because your seriously Slowing your pc down for no reason.
    May 19, 2006 6:33pm PDT
  • #211
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    By: jonas54 x
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    I read a discussion about this on Slashdot yesterday (take it as you will, I don't know how Slashdot is received here). From what they were saying it seems like these minimum specs aren't the minimum specs for Windows to execute, but rather the recommended minimum that people should have to have a nice experience. Like they could say it will run on 256/512MB, but then once people start loading up a bunch of apps it'd slow down to a crawl (as with XP).

    And of course it all depends on what you have enabled. You don't need a 128MB video card unless you want to run the topmost interface out of three options.

    They were saying it runs on a ~800Mhz/512MB system just fine with some of the fancy stuff disabled, and that the install only uses about 3GB (not sure about what options were chosen).
    May 19, 2006 3:27pm PDT