[ Outline ] · Standard · Linear+ Windows 'Longhorn' will need whopper PCs

[Zone55555]

Now if this quote doesn't make your short & curlies stand straight up, I don't know what will:

Microsoft is expected to recommend that the 'average' Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today.

Article on the upcoming 'Longhorn' version of Windows

Yowza... don't think I'll be overclocking my 1GHz to that kind of category of machine.

[Zone55555]

You're not *going* to see official statements from Microsoft, for the exact reasons you're seeing in this thread. Panic, confusion, and doubt. FUD is great when they apply it to competitor's products, but they don't like it attached to their own. Plus, any statements they make tie them to commitments they may have to break. It's just a no-win situation for them. What statements you will see are from the beta testers who are in the loop, and manufacturers who get the Longhorn presentations under NDA from microsoft - so obviously they can't stand up publicly and acknowledge these things either. But they're just not that outlandish if you look at them.

Like I said, dual-core processors are pretty much here in the sort term. Intel's abandoned their Tejas plans to move hardcore to a Pentium-M architecture which scales better. Pentium IV is dead, long live the next Pentium, and all that. Videocards available in the next month will be double the performance we have now - why *wouldn't* you think in two more years they'll be able to tack another 50% increase on top of that? Even just the "ultra" revs in six months ought to get us close.

Gigabit ethernet is cheaply available now in the add-in cards and motherboards, though actual access to that kind of bandwidth is lagging.

And yes, it should run on a mid-to-top machine of today, obviously they're not going to kill their entire upgrade market - but it's not the class of machine they're targeting by any stretch for the full experience. It would be foolish to do so.