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]

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]

Gizmodo: vista ready

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

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