Is 1gb RAM enough for Vista Home Edition?

[Kathy]

Since this laptod doesn't have Any USB ports, I need a different laptop.
I am trying to go 'cheap' but usable.
I found a cheap Acer laptop($398) with 1gb of RAM and it's running Vista Home. It has a DVD & DVD RW to burn DVD's as well as 160 gb of memory.

The guy who was at the counter was a perfect example of every lazy employee stereotype.

I asked questions and he told me the specs and then said it won't work because it takes more than 1gb of RAM to run Vista Home.
I asked how they could sell a machine that won't run and he said, most people buy the better machine which he proceeded to push.

So I need to know, was he telling the truth that you can't successfully run Vista Home Edition with 1gb of RAM :-/or was he just trying to just get me to buy the more expensive unit?

[Deleted]

Hey Kathy. the pasted info is directly from Micro$ofts website
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
512 MB of system memory
20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
DVD-ROM drive
Audio Output
Internet access (fees may apply)
These are the recomended requirements which are higher than the minimum reqs. The Guy didnt know what he was talking about. I would seriously consider looking around for someone else the next time you go into that store.

Mark aka Pez Head

[Kathy]

Thanks Mark, I kind of thought companies would be foolish to manufacture a computer that couldn't run the pre-loaded operating system -but I wanted the opinion of an expert.

[georger]

For Vista you're probably better off running at least 2 gig, maybe get 4 gig of RAM. It's a pig.

Why not move away from the Micro$oft wagon and switch to Linux? Yes it's a bit of a learning curve. But the freedom from viruses and such insane and costly system requirements will give you peace of mind.

One flavour that I like, and it will run on an older computer, is Xubuntu.

www.xubuntu.org/