The http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx site now has the Vista criteria. For a “Windows Vista Premium Ready PC” you need a DVD-ROM drive, though it may be external. Hopefully this is only needed for installation and not for operation or for automatic updates.

It is not clear why the DVD drive is a requirement for a “Windows Vista Premium Ready PC” and not for a “Windows Vista Capable PC”.

Oh come on Josh. Don’t let me go through the pain and suffering all by myself! Actually, the new Vista build is running a tad smoother for me on my WMCE machine right now. I do have 1.5 GB of RAM and a dedicated GPU with 128 MB of video memory. Now the tablet…that’s another story and probably why I didn’t upgrade that machine just yet.

You’re spot on with the applications needing more resources. As much as I hate to have my information elsewhere, I’m finding myself leaning towards web services every chance I can get vs. traditional software for this reason.

I’d recommend 2GB for Windows XP for top performance too. It’s not really the OS that needs it. It’s the apps. Apps in general are just getting bigger. Especially as more and more of them are using the .NET Framework which does carry a bit of an up-front memory footprint.

I’m gonna give Vista Beta 2 a try again. I know I shouldn’t keep doing this to myself but I can’t resist.