The Portable Consultant has been reading all the Christmas ads for PCs and noticing that the vast majority of desktops and notebooks are labelled “Vista Capable”… which means what, exactly?

What I had heard was that “Vista Premium Ready” means the unit will actually run Vista in all its glory while “Vista Capable” means it will run fine as long as you don’t choose to use the new GUI in all its glory… in other words, a more simple interface will run fine but the prettier Aero Glass GUI probably won’t work or, at the very least, will slow the system down to unacceptable levels.

None of the advertising flyers I’ve seen this season explain this – not even the ones that promote and explain the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista for those buying certain XP systems.

Perhaps the industry is rushing to rid itself of old stock and parts before Vista becomes the default OS on new systems.

Be that as it may, I was astounded to see a chart on Dell’s site that seems to indicate that “Vista Capable” means a Dell PC that is…:

Great for…
Booting the Operating System, without running applications or games

I suppose that’s what Microsoft would refer to as a “core experience.”

Dell wins The Portable Consultant’s 2006 Award for Dubious Truth in High-Tech Advertising.

Cheers,
-pmh