Gizmodo: vista capable

Judge Orders Ballmer to Testify in 'Vista Capable' Class-Action Lawsuit

Jack Loftus — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:22:04 EST

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in October that he had no knowledge of the "Vista Capable" debacle that's since spawned a class-action lawsuit, but a federal judge wants him to testify in the case anyway. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman smacked down Microsoft's earlier claims that Ballmer shouldn't have to testify, and wrote Friday that the plaintiffs had adequately shown the chair-throwing executive may have had "unique knowledge" of the disastrous "Vista Capable" PC program.

Ballmer was ordered to give a deposition in the next 30 days. A Microsoft said the company will comply with the order.

Just for fun, here's what Ballmer was saying as early as last month:

"I was not involved in any of the operational decisions about the Windows Vista Capable program. I was not involved in establishing the requirements computers must satisfy to qualify for the Windows Vista Capable program.

Jim Allchin, Microsoft's then co-president of Platform Products and Services, and Will Poole, Microsoft's then Senior Vice President, Windows Client Business....I did not direct Mr. Allchin or Mr. Poole to reach any particular business decision. Mr. Allchin and Mr. Poole remained responsible for maintaining and executing those decisions."

[BusinessWeek Online]

HP Not Too Happy About the 'Vista Capable' Standards Scandal

John Herrman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:07:59 EST

The class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft for allegedly lowering the requirements for a "Vista Capable" sticker to appease Intel (henceforth referred to as Stickergate) has begun to turn up some dirt. Apparently HP wasn't exactly thrilled to find out about the artificially lowered standards after they spent $7m to bring their products up to speed, expressing their discontent in an email with lots of weird figurative talk about their collective mouth:

I hope this incident isn't a foretaste... it's left a very bad taste with me and my team"

The message, sent by Richard Walker, senior vice president at HP's consumer PC unit, was sent in 2006. It's clear that Microsoft knew it was at fault long ago, and interesting to note just how long this whole thing took to surface. Even more interesting is the possibility that the plan to consolidate stickers for Windows 7 — originally seen as a perceptive response to public scrutiny — may have been a direct answer to deeper, more literal troubles. [ComputerWorld via BBG]

Microsoft Lowered Vista Hardware Requirements to Appease Intel

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST

The class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for its misleading "Vista Capable" marketing let loose another scandal when emails between Microsoft and Intel execs surfaced (PDF link), suggesting Microsoft cut Vista's hardware requirements to help out Intel. Originally, Intel's 915 series chipsets didn't qualify for the important "Vista Capable" sticker, but after a scheduling mix-up, Microsoft decided to throw Intel a bone by pretending the chipsets are up to Vista standards.

Apparently, Microsoft decided to begin their "Vista Capable" marketing program three months earlier than expected, which left Intel a bit in the dust, without time to ramp up production on their newer, more powerful chipsets. Intel execs complained to Microsoft execs through email that the losses would be severe, and Microsoft decided to appease their partner by relaxing their standards for Vista capability, even though the 915 series is incapable of running Aero.

This is a pretty damning piece of evidence, especially given emails like this one from Jim Allchin, then-co-president of platform products and services: "I believe we are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program. OEMs will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features." He concluded, "We must avoid confusion. It is wrong for customers." Well said, Jim. [The Inquirer]

Best Buy Pressured Microsoft To Create Crippled Vista Label; Intel Off the Hook?

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:20:00 EDT

A month ago, everyone wanted to vilify Intel for pressuring Microsoft into approving the crippled "Vista Capable" label for certain low-grade PCs. But new evidence suggests A) that Best Buy was instrumental in approving the sinister two-tiered Vista approach very early on and B) that all of this hare-brained scheming seems to have originated at Microsoft itself.

According to CRN ChannelWeb, Vista marketing director Rajesh Srinivasan and others devised the now infamous two-tiered Vista Ready/Vista Capable plan— the latter category known to be incapable of handling the nice Vista Aero visual interface because of paltry Intel integrated graphics support—in the summer of 2005. Srinivasan pitched the idea to Best Buy as early as August 2005, and Best Buy was apparently gung-ho on it.

It was clear, at least to Srinivasan, that Best Buy liked the fact that "100% of PCs" would be associated with Vista, thanks to the creation of a "Vista Capable" category.

Here's where it gets funny, though. Originally, Srinivasan recommended that Vista Ready PCs got a logo, while Vista Capable PCs did not. Somewhere along the line, though, this changed and colorful Vista-friendly labels were stuck on both the geniune and crippled systems. (The article doesn't stipulate who pushed whom on this particular matter.)

As for hapless Intel, its involvement appears to have begun six months later, when Intel is said to have been happy that Microsoft dropped the ban on lower-end Aero-incapable chipsets like the 915. Better still, Srinivasan at one point suggested in an e-mail that Microsoft "put pressure on Intel to end of life by 915 by Oct 06," so it's very hard to call Intel the bully.

After looking at lots of evidence, CRN draws the most intelligent conclusion: "At the end of the day, Microsoft may have botched Vista Capable all by itself." I'll drink to that. [CRN via Inquirer]

Vista Capable Sticker Lawsuit Becomes Class Action

Jason Chen — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:45:31 EST

Remember the lawsuit filed a little while ago against Microsoft because PCs with "Windows Vista Capable" stickers weren't actually all that Vista Capable? A federal judge just granted that suit class action status, meaning that if you bought a Vista "Capable" PC during the 2006 Holidays, you might be in store to get a little bit of cash back.

The US District Court Judge says the suit can "pursue a 'price inflation' line of reasoning," which means that buyers were duped into paying more for a computer that did have that sticker than one that did not, even though the difference between the two were negligible (and both weren't actually Vista-capable). We'll update you as the case develops. [Computerworld via MacWorld UK]

Did Microsoft Deceive With 'Vista Capable'?

msparkes — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 04:53:23 EDT

A judge has ruled that a trial against Microsoft can proceed to decide whether they misled people with their "Vista Capable" advertising campaign. Two PC buyers have started a class action, and are arguing that they bought machines that weren't capable of running Aero, even though they were marked as "Vista Capable."

Microsoft is arguing that Vista can run on slower machines, albeit with some of the eye candy turned off, and that this was explained in their campaign. In any case, we'll probably not get to see this play out, because it's likely that the matter will be settled out of court. [The Register]