Windows Update to trumpet Vista Capable debacle?
Class-action call up
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Little did Microsoft executives realize when they blessed the seemingly brilliant wheeze of "Windows Vista Capable" as a way of flogging the operating system that the idea could turn into a bitter pill their company might have to swallow.
But there's the very real possibility Microsoft's very own Windows Update and MSN could be forced to carry ads promoting a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft. Plaintiff lawyers in the suit are calling for people who felt they were misled by the whole Windows Vista capable sticker idea.
Attorneys in the Windows Vista Capable class-action lawsuit have reportedly asked a US federal judge that Microsoft's Windows Update be forced to notify potential class-action members. They've also asked for banner ads to appear on MSN in addition to Yahoo! and full-page print ads in news comic USA Today.
The plaintiff's legal team has acted saying Microsoft has repeatedly said it cannot identify those who purchased PCs under the Windows Vista Capable program that ran in 2006 and 2007. "Although Microsoft cannot identify class members, it can communicate to them through its Windows Update program," the court motion said.
The Windows Vista Capable lawsuit claims buyers were deceived because machines featuring the Windows Vista Capable sticker would only run the most basic version of the operating system - Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. Machines were not able to run the features Microsoft had marketed to people in the full operating system.
Increasingly, it seems the blame for the Windows Vista Capable idea must be laid at the doorsteps of Microsoft's then-co-president (platforms products and services Jim Allchin) and Microsoft's then senior vice president (windows client business Will Poole) - both of whom have now left Microsoft. ®
COMMENTS
Sterling
Vista actually contains more than UAC as an improvement, such as a better firewall, file version history (restore previous version), and improved threading in Kernel. Heck I don't want to do your homework for you, read this - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162494.aspx
The ability to run this new Kernel vs. the previous Kernels is proof enough that it is Vista Capable. The rest are features over and above "Vista" that cost extra if you want the cute bells and whistles.
As for UAC - I laugh when people tell me they turn theirs off, as they are likely the same users that complain that Apple has a more secure OS, and yet they just disabled a similar functionality.
As for your argument against MS in this matter, a case could also be made that the "Vista Capable" computer may not run Vista x64. Is that a reasonable argument as well? I do not think so, but I am making an attempt to be reasonable.
FWIW - The article states Will Poole is no longer at MS. I don't think that is the case.
@Andy
Sorry to burst your bubble but "HD Ready" TV's are not capable of displaying any signal in HD. This "branding" only means that it will accept a HD signal and then render it as SD (or occasionally at a slightly higher resolution that is still less than HD).
The "HD Ready" stickers were another con designed to prevent a drop in the sales of SD sets once the true HD sets started arriving.
Of course I can't sue anyone for misleading me, because I new the full facts before I bought my HD Ready TV.. I just didn't care, all I wanted was a cheap and massive LCD for the bedroom that could accept a signal from a HD tuner set top box (which allows me to use HD features like EPG)
Re: Just Wondered...
No advert of Vista has ever NOT shown Aero. And if Aero were removed, all you have that's new and funky is UAC.
Which is a huge PITA and just created so that MS can blame the users for their OS's faults. Just like the "This DLL doesn't look to be used by anything. However, I don't know, so should I delete it?". That's only so that the user can be blamed that MS's registry didn't know what the clucking bell is going on in the OS.
So your wondering is answered by the negative: Vista without Aero was never shown and only talked about on techies sites.
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