StupidScript - 10:52 pm on May 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

There are several Win98SE boxes running smoothly on our network that have 20GB hard drives and 128MB RAM and no addt'l video cards or whatever. They can't even handle 1GB RAM if I bought it! I've got a 486DX/66 with 8MB RAM running an early version of Slackware Linux at home, and my primary box dual boots XP Pro and RH9 with a 40GB hard drive and 650MB RAM.

It's very interesting to note that Linux gets smaller and faster (and more capable of clustering) and Windoze gets more bloated and more resource-hungry. With a development curve like that, this will probably be the last version of Windows that MS will be able to make runnable on a consumer-level box!

I guess it's a matter of priorities: Windows needs to jam as much software into the core as they can to get around licensing and anti-competitive issues (i.e. Media Player, MSIE, etc.) while "the other white meat" can concentrate on security, mobility and efficiency as the rest of its community builds apps.