anyone have personal experience of minimum machine specs for a .Net app

[Mitch Olson]

Hi

our company is just about to embark on developing a PIM-type application and
would like to use .NET (VB6 is our distant option 2).

The question we are currently investigating is whether the minimum machine
requirements (processor speed & memory) will rule out too much of our target
market (the universe of Windows users, well at least W98+ users). Our
primary question is what is the minimum specification of a machine to run a
relatively sophisticated application (using MSDE)? (& fyi, our second
inquiry is trying to find some stats on what the installed base of
Windows-based computers looks like).

I have read Microsoft's specs, but always take these with a grain of salt
(90MHz+, 32Mb+ RAM) so I am looking for information from developers about
their real-world experiences of deploying their .Net applications
(preferably database-based apps & even more preferably MSDE-based ones) into
the "field". I'm not just interested in whether the application can be
installed & run, but also whether it runs with sufficient performance to
meet the user's expectations based upon other applications they may also run
on that same machine.

The information I am looking for will ultimately help me to determine that
the real-world minimum spec for a .Net app is x Mhz & y Mb RAM. Any one out
there with some grounded experience of x & y with one or more .Net
applications deployments.

any assistance much appreciated

regards
Mitch Olson

[Steve S]

Our experience is to have a machine that sports a 650 MHZ processor with 128
minimum ram....

If you create the app with VB6, you can almost cut that in half... and
survive..... depending on which OS your running out there..... as for
the OS... MS will be dropping support for the 98 OS... still alot of
machines running it.... but they are slow, most lack RAM..... but still
meet the needs of many home folks.....

If you run a 98 box... 350 should be suitable.. permitting your app isn't
a real memory hog..... as it will result in alot of paging since most
folks don't have the memory..... then again, I bought 256 Mg of RAM for
mine which runs 98.... (a 650 mhz AMD based box) We have built several VB6
apps which are deployed on 350s running 98, minimal ram (64 Mg) without
major issue.....

HTH

"Mitch Olson" <mi*****@ntegra l.com> wrote in message
news:uz******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP10.phx.gbl...

Hi

our company is just about to embark on developing a PIM-type application and would like to use .NET (VB6 is our distant option 2).

The question we are currently investigating is whether the minimum machine
requirements (processor speed & memory) will rule out too much of our target market (the universe of Windows users, well at least W98+ users). Our
primary question is what is the minimum specification of a machine to run a relatively sophisticated application (using MSDE)? (& fyi, our second
inquiry is trying to find some stats on what the installed base of
Windows-based computers looks like).

I have read Microsoft's specs, but always take these with a grain of salt
(90MHz+, 32Mb+ RAM) so I am looking for information from developers about
their real-world experiences of deploying their .Net applications
(preferably database-based apps & even more preferably MSDE-based ones) into the "field". I'm not just interested in whether the application can be
installed & run, but also whether it runs with sufficient performance to
meet the user's expectations based upon other applications they may also run on that same machine.

The information I am looking for will ultimately help me to determine that
the real-world minimum spec for a .Net app is x Mhz & y Mb RAM. Any one out there with some grounded experience of x & y with one or more .Net
applications deployments.

any assistance much appreciated

regards
Mitch Olson