July 31st, 2004
MS Longhorn & 3D Graphics
Okay, this is news for me. I didn’t know that Longhorn would have 3D graphics driving its interface.
That means an incredible number of things — for software and hardware alike. Given the amount of GPU resources we have available in various corporate environments, to rely so heavily on a major hardware upgrade by the maximum number of users who’re actually paying for the licenses (the corporate world), is wishful thinking by me. Given the reluctance I’ve seen in India to upgrade hardware which I suppose is present in all environments, I don’t foresee many upgrades.
Another fact is that most of the vendors that sell PCs do so with utterly bare minimum hardware specs. Most low-end systems have an attrocious amount of RAM (DELL still has 128MB systems on it’s catalogue with WinXP preinstalled AFAIK). Longhorn will significantly up the ante for hardware resources that would need to be pre-installed in a retail PC thereby increasing the cost of an entry-level PC. So, does that mean WinXP units will continue to be the entry-level PCs for the masses? I think so. I guess we’ll see Windows XP Service Pack 3 in winter 2006. 😉