Windows 7 Beats Snow Leopard On Older Hardware Support

[Lordbob75]

Got a four-year-old Mac? Forget the newest version of OS X; Apple’s Snow Leopard will only be supported on Intel CPUs. Got a PC from 2001? Windows 7 just might run on it. I tested a below-spec PC with the latest version of Windows and saw surprising results.
If you have a PC and you want the upcoming Microsoft OS, but don’t want to buy a new computer, Microsoft has your back. The minimum specifications listed on the Windows 7 RC download page are a 1 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, and 16GB of free hard disk space. This means if you have a computer that is more than a few years old, you can still get some functionality from the latest OS rolling out of Redmond. Intel hit the 1 GHz processor mark on March 8 2000, which means theoretically Windows 7 could run on computers over 9 years old! Since Microsoft is known for understating their hardware requirements, I grabbed an old PC out of retirement and put it to test.
The PC I chose had an Intel P3 933 MHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, and an 80GB hard disk. My test subject was manufactured in 2001.

Windows 7 Beats Snow Leopard On Older Hardware Support - Business Center - PC World

I found this rather impressive. Not my choice computer to run Seven on, but it means that the comp I jury rigged together last night could probably run it. Oh wait.... Nvm it only has 128 mb of RAM. Oh well. Still, not a bad deal at all!

~Lordbob

 

[Mercurial]

Haha, yay now Apple fan boys can suck thier App*es

 

[John Henry]

I'm actually a windows user, but in 2010 i would like to buy myself an macbook pro. They are just fantastic, and so i can stop to upgrade my hardware each year. But i'll never leave my win 7.

 

[tfcolligan]

Just wanted to say, love your screen name.

Nice grab on that. Wish I'd thought of it.

 

[itsn8o]

Given Apple's disregard for PPC users, I am very certain that Win7 will be running in my office on the next machine. I resent the fact that my high-spec Dual G5 cannot run SnowLeopard whilst my cheap bottom of the market laptop runs Win7 beautifully.

I use Pages, Keynote and Numbers frequently as they are hightly graphical and present financial information clearly for the layperson, which my clients really appreciate.
However, if Apple's prices stay the same, and Win 7 is going to be as good as I think it will be, and I can manage to master Office to deliver the same high-quality reports and presentations as iWork - I will be parting company with Apple.

I think it is unfortunate from my point of view that people have to have the latest and greatest from Apple, as it puts Apple in a position where they can charge a premium just for being Apple - not that Microsoft aren't guilty of this, but Apple seem to be a bigger offender right now.

 

[DarkXeno]

I just see it as Snow Leopard is doing what Vista did. Vista was an OS meant to run on newer hardware and move people off of the six year old machine they where using. MS took a lot more flack then Apple will cause Apple users and fanboys will protect them and continue to push the Apple motto, and MS wont sit there and state its flaws of not running on PowerPC chips. Unlike what Apple did with Vista stating all its flaws in big media events every chance it got.*Cough*WWDC*Cough* People need to see Apple for what they are a HARDWARE then OS vender. Apple knows they need to push their user base into new hardware in order to make money because of their markup, why else would they be sending out the update on newer Intel chip systems for $29. Those people have already paid the higher price in hardware so its now time to get those others to move over. Just another way to move customers into buying more of your product, its the price of business and trying to sell the newest thing you have in your lineup.