> How much juice is NT going to demand? Is MSFT going to be successful in forcing every sub $1000 PC purchaser (probably sub $500 by the time NT is released) to spend $300 for an OS? <
NT 4.0 runs pretty happily on my desktop on a P200 with 32MB. On my "heavy hitter" machine it runs VERY well with 64MB. In that sense, it's not all that different from Win98. Unlike the consumer versions of Windows, it does benefit from memory above 64MB, but that tends to be useful only for heavy graphics, software development and the like.
The strategy for the NT-based desktop is that there will likely be three versions. The existing NT Server and NT Workstation products, as well as an "NT Consumer" product. They would share a common kernel and overall architecture, but would differ substantially in terms of security, networkability, managability, etc. The consumer version would presumably sell for roughly what Win98 does. (It's worth noting that a full non-upgrade version of Win98 costs well over $150, though obviously the OEM cost is much less.)
In any case, I can't see that change alone fueling huge increases in the DRAM demand. It would have to come from other sources, like NCs replacing dumb terminals in transaction-processing, handheld computing, and who knows where else.
It's gonna be tough for a while.
mg |
