The Beta 2 of Microsoft Vista, or more technically “Vista Consumer CTP” or Community Technology Preview, should be released at any moment. Reports from those using this Beta 2 will be the big clue as to whether Microsoft can meet their delivery date of getting Vista to major customers in Novemeber and to the public in January. Beta 2 has to be stable enough for day-to-day work, or the testers can’t complete their work on time. Manufacturing has to start soon, so the Beta 2 stability is a critical issue for the January release.
Microsoft released in May the final hardware specs to run Vista:
Vista Capable (Just to run Vista)
800 Mhz processor
512M RAM
DirectX 9 support at graphics processor
PCs with all Vista Features
1GHz processor
1G RAM
128 Mb of video memory
Direct 9 capable, plus WDDM suppport, Pixel Shader 2 support, and a color depth of 32 bits a pixel
Remember that the processor support with Vista is much more demanding, so you should expect slower response on any current system unless you have upgraded the hardware to handle the extra load.