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More "Vista Capable" emails unsealed, revealing sassy civil war
Remember when Microsoft was hit with a lawsuit over its "Vista Capable" stickers? How about when the judge unsealed emails revealing that after a long battle to promote Vista's graphics-intensive Aero UI, it capitulated and lowered the requirements for the sticker so Intel could keep on selling its graphically-challenged (i.e., WDDM noncompliant) 915 chipset? Yeah, that was awesome. Connoisseurs of corporate drama should appreciate the latest development -- the judge has made public a second batch of emails revealing that MS execs were at odds about that decision. Senior VP Will Poole apparently made the call to appease Intel, but co-President of Platform & Services Jim Allchin (along with many others who had been fighting for the other side for months) was "beyond being upset," saying "this was totally mismanaged by Intel and Microsoft. What a mess." The mess he was referring to: an unhappy partner in HP, which had spent millions to meet the old standards... and presciently, the lawsuit we're watching now. Alright, maybe not so awesome for everyone.
Microsoft hit with lawsuit for "false" Vista ads
A new complaint has been aimed at Microsoft, seeking class action lawsuit status, and claiming the software giant put a bit more "wow" into its ads than it squeezed onto "Windows Vista Capable" PCs. Dianne Kelly of Camano Island, Washington, who's behind the suit, alleges that Microsoft was misleading buyers by placing Vista Capable stickers on PCs only capable of running Windows Vista Home Basic, and none of that fancy Aero, Flip3D or Media Center PC stuff that seems to be most everything the ads and marketing are talking about. Microsoft naturally disagrees, and has contested the suit. "We feel as a company we went beyond what we've ever done to try to educate people so that they understood and could make the right purchase decision," said Linda Norman, a Microsoft associate general counsel. Part of that effort even included a special "Premium Ready" sticker for retail machines that were up to snuff, but there's no mention of what you're missing out on affixed to Basic machines. There's no denying that Vista Basic is in many ways just a slight upgrade over XP, and that the multiple versions of Vista are expensive and unnecessarily complicated, but from how it looks right now, it's hard to see the suit going too far.[Via Slashdot]
