Well, I had to laugh, no really, so much so I usually end up crying.

Why ?

There is a general concensus that Vista needs a min of 1Gb ram, and, 2Gb with give you a better experence. I'm NOT talking Games PC here in general.

So ... I have a good laugh when I see Adverts like ...

... an Acer laptop PC, that they state is a “multimedia powerhouse”. WOW!

The system comes with Windows Vista Home Basic, 512MB RAM and a Intel Celeron M processor at 1.73GHz. Priced at £499.99 it also sports a 17″ widescreen display. Also on the same page is another Acer which states that behind the “impressive entertainment abilities”. Huh?

This is a Windows Vista Basic system with a Intel M processor at 1.6MHz, 512 MB RAM, priced at £399.99.

Hey, I ain't picking on Acer here, no, I can quote you others, Dell, Mesh, Hewlet Packard ... oh the list goes on. Look around on various sites, it is easy to find these inexpensive systems, basically configured the same way. Hey! anybody want a Astin Martin with a Sazuki motorbike engine.

I have even seen a PC with 256Mb ram ... the OS, Vista basic.

I think we are going to see more & more people "complaining" about there Operating System ... who is going to get the blame ?? ... Microsoft ??

The real blame should fall onto the shoulders of those who sell these minimal equipped machines with false or misleading advertising which indicates to the consumer they are getting a ‘impressive’ and/or ‘powerhouse” of a system.

Now who would you blame ???

Looks like some have already started to blame MS ... MS being sued for misleading people

Sorry ??? did I miss something ??? ... I did not know MS made PCs ... is there an MS rep who goes around sticking stickers on PCs ???

256MB with Vista? I wouldn't like to try that!

I know what you mean about the adverts though, PC World makes me laugh every time I see it on TV. They really drive me mad as I can't even understand what they are on about, they seem to reel off the spec in one long monotone sentance (here!).

I hear ya mucks. Same thing over here in Canada. It has nothing to do with M$. All the big stores wiped XP off their machines as soon as Vista was released and they installed Vista instead. Indeed there are MANY machines available that are running Vista with 256 or 512 Mb of RAM. Pathetic.

Many people have no idea and will buy these things thinking they're getting a super duper machine.