Rotundus.com

To try to preserve my sanity after having been trapped behind my desk the past few weeks, I finally went out and bought a new laptop today. I managed to talk myself down from something more expensive to something fairly cheap - $900 before taxes (and no PST to worry about in Alberta). We'll see how this works out.

It's getting somewhat closer to the next Microsoft operating system release, and I was wondering how you think that this product will perform. I'm currently on the search for a new laptop, and have seen stuff like the following in a number of places:

But investing in Windows Vista doesn’t mean just paying for the OS. All reviews of the Beta versions that Microsoft has provided for Windows Vista are unanimous in their conclusion: in order to make use of this OS, a customer will need at least 2 GB of RAM, a graphics board of at least 256 MB, a DVD-RW and a hard disk of at least 120 GB. These are specifications that don’t quite reach the finest standards of today’s technology and don’t set a standard of their own.

Microsoft's Vista Premium Capable minimum specs are listed as requiring a minimum gigabyte of memory and 128 megs video memory, and in the past Microsoft has listed minimum specs that are a little too low and have resulted in poor performance.

If I were to buy a new desktop I would have no trouble meeting such requirements, but it gets a little expensive to do the same in laptop form. And, as well, I'm not even sure if I want to upgrade to Windows Vista. Lately internet video-conferencing stuff has kept me tied to windows, but Linux is improving in that regard and Mac OS Tiger is another possible upgrade route. (Apple also recently updated their Macbooks).

The BBC is reporting that tracks purchased from MSN Music, which are part of Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" initiative, will not be playable on Microsoft's forthcoming Zune portable player.