Minimum laptop specs?

[MyndFyre]

I'm ordering my laptop today, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 15.4 WSXGA+, 2.0GB DDR2-667, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache, 100GB Hard Drive 7200RPM, 8X DVD, 80GB Hard Drive 5400RPM, and about 7 hour battery (12 if I use dual cell).  Fuckin $2,057 + tax + S&H.  AWESOME!

2 HDD's? who the hell needs 180GB in a laptop?

People that like to watch movies on the go without carrying around a bunch of dvds.

That's a lame excuse.  Ripped into DivX, I could still fit well over 100 movies on my notebook, with Windows, Visual Studio, Office, and all of the other fun stuff I have installed (not to mention Brood War and the two virtual CDs for Starcraft and Brood War).

[Joe]

If I used a laptop as my main computer, 60GB standard would simply not suffice. Right now I'm using 37.2GB of space out of my 120GB, with a comfy install of Widows XP, WoW, VC# 2.0 Express, VB6, and a few small things that are <2MB or I've written myself. Add to that DVDs and other games and you beat that 60 real quick.

[Chavo]

That's a lame excuse.  Ripped into DivX, I could still fit well over 100 movies on my notebook, with Windows, Visual Studio, Office, and all of the other fun stuff I have installed (not to mention Brood War and the two virtual CDs for Starcraft and Brood War).

lol...it was a good example.  Just because you like to rip DVDs to DivX doesn't mean everyone would rather have the quality loss than space.

[rabbit]

I'll have about 45gb of games, 40gb of music, 40gb of shows/movies, and the rest for other stuff.  Also, Vista requires 15gb.

[RoMi]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

[Warrior]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

Exactly, they are actually taking into consideration having the apps you'd want in it. Really, what kind of person has 512MB of ram but just happens to have a HD less than 30GB?

[Super_X]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

Exactly, they are actually taking into consideration having the apps you'd want in it. Really, what kind of person has 512MB of ram but just happens to have a HD less than 30GB?

Me. But, I don't have a 128 mb Videocard, either.  I do have the ram, though.

[AntiVirus]

Joe, like Sidoh said, I really think you should save up more money.  Don't rush it and just save up your pennies and sooner or later you will have a laptop that you don't *need* to upgrade right away.  It seems more practical to just wait.

[Warrior]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

Exactly, they are actually taking into consideration having the apps you'd want in it. Really, what kind of person has 512MB of ram but just happens to have a HD less than 30GB?

Me. But, I don't have a 128 mb Videocard, either.  I do have the ram, though.

You can use Vista withought it, but it isn't very pleasant (imho) compared to the Desktop Window Manager and Aero Glass.

DWM stops the Window tear and Aero Glass is beautiful.

[Nate]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

Vista Ultimate requires 7.4gb of space.

[Warrior]

Vista uses about 7GB of space, Microsoft just says it requires a 15 GB hard drive.

Vista Ultimate requires 7.4gb of space.

Wow that must of recently changed. Anyhow Vista still has a LOT of useless garbage in it:

For example it still has legacy icons for Windows 95! Microsoft said they are working to remove it but obviously with an OS of Windows' size it can get pretty tedius.

But seriously, that cleanup is one of the things that should be done to prep the OS for the component rewrite that Vista had. This isn't something you should be rushing for in the RC1/RTM stages.

I really think Microsoft employees never want to upgrade Windows like this again. It was a horrible experience that even a company with as much resources as Microsoft could barely weather.

My money is on Windows become a more modular OS as a whole in the sense that you'd be able to upgrade say the Audio stack withought much trouble.

If they can do all of this behind the scenes withought breaking backwards compatability then it'd be good, else there is always VMs for backwards compatability. Hell, OSX did it with OS9 pretty well.

[Nate]

screw backwards compatibility?  You can't move forward if you are always looking back; you will always run into road blocks if you do not look where you are going.

[Warrior]

screw backwards compatibility?  You can't move forward if you are always looking back; you will always run into road blocks if you do not look where you are going.

Not many people are going to upgrade to an OS in which none of their old apps work. They need to cut backwards compatability slowly like they are doing with the 16Bit subsystem. I think Vista will be the last OS to include this.