Even before Microsoft Vista’s official launch, most of the comments I heard were negative. “You’ll have to buy all new and expensive computer equipment,” they said. “It’ll cost more than any operating system in the history of personal computers, do less, and run slower,” they opined.

After reading this mythbusting article from Tech Republic, and loading Windows Vista on my own computer, I have found that much of the negative karma associated with Windows Vista was nothing more than hot air.

Of course, even I believed a few of the more common myths about Windows Vista. As such, I wanted to help a few of you overcome the “hurdles” that almost stopped me from upgrading.

“Myth #1: You’ll have to buy a new, high-end PC to run Vista”

The question that needs to be asked is: How much Vista do you want to experience and run? Obviously with more features and razzle dazzle, the more power hungry system is required.

In terms of running Vista, you do not need to have a high-end PC for getting work done as the Vista Aero Glass interface is not mandatory. Of course, if you use Vista Home Basic, it doesn’t even come with the Aero interface. So, should you desire to use the more aesthetically pleasing interface and other features that are multimedia related an affordable RAM upgrade may be in order.

As for CPU power, the minimum recommended CPU speed is 1GHz. As a PC repair technician, most PC’s that I’ve encountered are over 1GHz and should easily meet the recommended minimums for Vista. My old AMD T-Bird 1 GHz with 1 GB of RAM from 2000 should still be able to handle Vista (with the exception of the video card which I could pick up a cheap ATI 9500 on eBay for around $30 shipped).

If you buy Vista, you’ll get a DVD in the box. So remember that you have to have a DVD drive or you’ll need to shell out a bit extra for alternative media which Microsoft sells here. Make sure you also get the proper flavor for your system – 32 bit or 64 bit.

“Myth #10: Vista costs a lot more than XP”

This apparently is a myth when you consider the XP equivalents (prices are based on NewEgg with Vista Retail/Upgrade pricing based on Fry’s) and for right now until March 15, you can get a free upgrade from XP Pro to Vista Business and XP Media Center to Vista Home Premium.

Here are Vista and XP equivalents:

Vista Home Basic -> XP Home
Vista Home Premium -> XP Media Center Edition
Vista Business -> XP Professional
Vista Ultimate

Here is a comparison on pricing:

I hope this clears up some of the truths about Windows Vista. For the complete list of busted myths, check out the article on Tech Republic. Also, for a little more information, Gizmodo has published links to some system benchmarks.

This post was reported by tjchan.

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