PC buyers: 'Vista Capable' machines weren't Vista capable
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 9.8.2007
How misleading was Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" campaign? Misleading enough for a judge to approve a federal trial.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that two PC buyers, Dianne Kelley and Kenneth Hansen, can proceed with a lawsuit that accuses Microsoft of deliberately deceiving the public with the "Window Vista Capable" stickers it slapped on Windows XP machines in the run-up to Vista's January debut, InformationWeek reports. Microsoft had asked for a dismissal, but US District Judge Marsha Pechman of Seattle is happy to oversee an October trial.
With their class action suit, filed in March, Kelley and Hansen claim that Microsoft used "bait and switch" tactics to move XP systems as the world waited for the long-delayed Windows Vista. They argue that Microsoft's stickers reassured buyers "that they were purchasing Vista-capable machines when, in fact, they could obtain only a stripped down operating system." Some "Vista Capable" machines, they say, were only capable of running versions of the OS that lack things like Microsoft's new Aero interface and a spruced-up Windows Media Center.
Indeed, Microsoft offers a neutered version of Vista, known as Home Basic, that requires nothing more than an 800-MHz processor, 512MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, and support for Super VGA graphics. And though the company recommends a 1GHz processor, 1GB of memory, a 40GB hard drive, and DirectX 9 support for "premium" versions of the operating system, these editions will still run on less powerful machines - with certain OS features disabled.
Microsoft has argued that its "Vista Capable" marketing campaign also included a "Vista Premium Ready" component that explained the differences between various versions of the OS, but Judge Pechman believes there's reason enough to let the suit go ahead.
Ray Persons, a partner with the international law firm King & Spalding who specializes in class actions, is amazed that Pechman approved a trial - let alone that she approved it so quickly. "It's awfully unusual for a court to certify a class action where the allegation is a bait and switch," he told The Reg. "In order to prove fraud, you've got to look at whether the individual reasonably relied on the defendant's alleged misrepresentations, and that kind of individual-by-individual determination really defeats the efficiencies of a class action."
Of course, it isn't likely that the trial will actually happen. "In most instances, civil cases - including class actions - get settled," Persons said. "Seldom, if ever, is a class action tried."
PC buyers who believe they've been duped by Microsoft can expect low-value coupons towards the purchase of machines that run premium versions of Windows Vista. These might fetch a few dollars on eBay.
source:
theregister.co.uk
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Comments(7)
microsoft has had a long, a very long history of litigation, court orders, patent
infringements and antitrust lawsuits against it since the very beginning of its history.
the surprising thing is not only the number of those lawsuits against microsoft – at one
time, it had more than 130 pending – but more importantly, the sheer amount of money it
represents. microsoft corporation has been ordered to pay nearly $9 billion as of thursday
14 july 2005.
though microsoft is keen to emphasize the fact that they are
not guilty of any wrongdoing in many of the lawsuits, they would prefer to pay rather than
anything else. this has lead some observers to speculate that fines has been a way to
"oil" the progress of microsoft.
ms's lawyers are the best of them all, and get paid top dollar. they weight the pros and
cons of such possible law suits. chances are, even if this highly unlikely case wins, the
amount they made with the "vista capable" stickers is much greater than the small amount
ms will be ordered to pay. more importantly, it's gained them money, instead of the money
they would've lost on xp sales had they not pushed the campaign. if anything, they
already had a game plan for this scenario before they made the stickers.
vista: im in ur ramz stealin ur megabytez
its not hard to see the real problem. if microsoft's greed had not resulted in no less
than six versions of vista this may not have happened. who needs six versions? its very
confusing to consumers. oh yea, vista basic will run just fine on this low end
machine...but if you want vista "premium" well, thats different!
no, people just
see the word "vista" and do not understand. the whole advertising campaign was
delibertly misleading and unfair to people. microsoft shamefully contributed to all of
this. apparently the marketing genuises at microsoft didn't learn from their mistakes
with xp. no one wanted the xp "home basic", it was and is treated with contempt. get a
clue microsoft!
videocard nvidia is not vista capable - doesn't have tv-out full screen mirror ... :(
my aunt bought a pc with vista capable written on the box and had vista home installed on
it, it has 256 ram just over 1gig processor which was a celeron as wel and it runs like
shit, my 10 year old toshiba palmtop 200mhz is probably vista capable for an install but
its not capable of running it lol
with vlite it is very easy to tailor vista cds and aplly the 256 mb patch.
i
have a toshiba satellite pro 4300
specs are 600mhz p3 and 380 mb ram.
do
not laugh, it has its own dedicated graphics ram ( 16 mb ) and is what ms would consider
vsiat capable ( only gpu is dx8, not dx9 ) - acer sells laptops that have 512 mb total but
where the shared grpahic is taking up to 128 mbs of ram - now do the sum.. mine old laptop
has more ram for the os than an actual laptop with shared graphics ram.
of
course the overall performance is bad and slow ( on old and new laptops ) but this is what
ms would sell as vista capable.
i now use the leaked sp1 on it and this speeds
things up a lot, but in genereal its still bad.
vista under 1 gb of ram for the
os is not usable at all.also the vista basic gui is noticaable slower than aero.
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Bait and Switch or just Microsft Genuine Advantage?
By Teddy on 10.08.2007 - 06:08