vista beta anyone got it installed yet?

[StuartC]

The thing is will any of us have any machines capable of running it?

From M$ Website:

Windows Vista Ready PC Requirements

Windows Vista Ready PCs need to pass the current certification requirements for Designed for Windows XP logo. In addition, these PCs would need the following combination of essential PC hardware for good overall Windows Vista performance:

• CPU — PC systems should have a modern CPU.
• RAM — PC systems should have 512MB of memory or more.
• GPU — PC systems should have a graphics processor that will support Windows Vista Display Driver Model.

Windows Vista offers significant improvements to the graphics user experience. To take advantage of these advances in the graphics user experience, graphics processor will need to support the Windows Vista Display Driver Model.

Graphics processors capable of supporting Windows Vista Display Driver Model:

• Are designed to ensure that graphics user experience scales up with hardware capabilities.
• Offer improved graphic stability and performance.
• May be able to support additional desktop productivity features.

i have run it on a p3 800 with 256mb ram, not very well tho, i would say that any processor over 1.4ghz is good, 512mb is the minimum i would recommend for any pc these days that does a wide variety of tasks. building one for this standard isnt too pricey and dell do great deals on machines that are fast enough.

i havent run it on a machine with a modern gpu yet, as far as i can see that is just for transparency and animations, it runs fine on machines that dont have this. graphics chipsets i've run on are onboard intel and gf4 mx.

i'll translate this bit for you:

• Are designed to ensure that graphics user experience scales up with hardware capabilities.
means: "windows is only pretty if you have a really nice graphics card"
• Offer improved graphic stability and performance.
means: "we cant make windows run well on old PCs, we're not taking responsibility"
• May be able to support additional desktop productivity features.
means: "you can have dual display and higher resolution if you have a good graphics card"

basically ignore it unless you do multimedia stuff.

[StewartKnight]

I haven't got the Vista beta, but I did have the Longhorn one, I found out that it needed a Rad 9800pro to work properly (which I have), so I hacked it, to enable the funky graphics, and it looked great, I just hope they keep it in!