Windows 7: Is there a reason people assume Windows 7 is hardware-heavy?

I've put Windows 7 on two older PCs:

P4A (533 MHz FSB Prescott, Socket 478) 2.8 GHz, Geforce FX5200, 768 MB RAM
Celeron (400 MHz FSB Willamette) 1.7 GHz, Integrated Graphics, 1.125 MB RAM

The former has absolutely no problems, even if Aero is running. I'm sure serious multitasking could give it trouble, but it's fine otherwise.

The second runs well with all of the eye canding disabled. The integrated graphics, unfortunately, push the processor a bit further than it would like to go. I'd put a dedicated PCI GPU in it if I knew one with low power requirements. I tried to put a PCI 8400 GS (or something of the sort; cheap nVidia PCI card), and it would POST, but failed to boot.

I've installed Windows 7 on a Duron 800M with 512 MB RAM and integrated video before, but I didn't attempt to run it. I have a feeling that it would run fine if it wasn't for the integrated video.

Why do people assume Windows 7 is very demanding? Anyone have any ideas on a low-power video card for the Celeron?

probably because it is windows..... xp was demanding but no where near as bad as the suck hole known as vista. vista made me change to mac, i couldnt find a battery for my last apple notebook so ended up with this compaq cq56-115dx with windows 7 and windows 7 is a huge improvement, its still not apple quality yet.

Vista was hardwareheavy.. 7 isn't, Ive seen plenty of people say they installed it on old hardware and it worked well

outside of having to run an antivirus/antimalware program and having to install a huge amount of microsoft updates and updating the antivirus software windows 7 is a really good os, all microsoft has to do is eliminate the need for av software like mac and serioulsy cut down the number of updates and it may just be perfect. never ran an av on my mac and never had issues...

About the graphics card.. you have to give more info bout your system

Well ...you have to define "worked well" .....?
Sure, wds7 can run on old ..slow system ..like celeron+integratedGPU ...
but to me ..it's slow like HELL .....i mean ...HELL .....
You need at least something like Intel Core2Duo ...to see it fly ...

People like to overreact and make things seem work than they really are. Also, I think people assume that the new version has to be more heavy than the previous version and they remember how demanding Vista was on hardware. What they fail to consider is that Windows 7 is a polished Vista with lots of performance improvements and tweaks along the way.

I generally don't consider Windows 7 to be much more demanding than XP...expect in the graphics department with the Aero interface.

Anyway, every later version of every OS, be it Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, has heavier requirements than the version preceding it.

The need for AV has nothing to do with paltform and everything to do with mainstream use. Quite simply, the vast majority of computer users run Windows. Why bother writing viruses for Mac, etc. when Windows gives you worldwide coverage?

James

I don't completely agree. While desktop market does have an impact, the fact that almost all Windows users used to run with full admin controls makes it a cakewalk. And no offense, but Windows is just too easy sometimes. Users don't typically just wing it and get a Linux machine working. They have to do some reading and homework up front and in the end, they are often a bit wiser and more aware of the things that are going on with their machines. Unfortunately, almost anybody who has used a Windows desktop can click around in the server GUI and get it working....but that doesn't mean they should