So, it turns out that a number of people who bought "Vista Capable" machines prior to the release of Vista's RTM are suing. They're suing because they can't run anything other than Vista Home Basic on their machines. The machines with the little sticker that told them that their box was 'Vista Capable'.
Here's the problem with that. You and I know that if we wanted a box that ran Vista Home Premium or Ultimate (and, especially, Aero Glass), we would have needed to buy something with:
- 2GB of RAM.
- Some SATA disks (at least) to get some decent speed.
- A Multi-core processor (nice, but not required - and remember, this was about a year ago that you would have been making the purchase).
- A WDDM compliant Video Card.
Most end users might be able to deal with the first of those requirements. But then again, many average PC buyers really don't know the difference between RAM and Disk. Many people aren't quite going to know what to do with the WDDM compliant video drivers.
But no fear, Microsoft has been 'dumbing down' computers for years now - to try and make ownership easier for non geeks. Defragmenting your disks in XP is replaced with the dumber: "Re-organize my files to make stuff faster."
In essence, Microsoft has helped make it possible for non-technical people to buy and use computers. Obviously, their business model depends upon it. I may balk at that a bit, but, ultimately, I get that it's a fact of life. (I just wish they would release something like an 'enthusiast' version of their OSes, that was slimmed down and less dumbed-down - to cater to my needs/wants.)
The point of all this? Simple: When you slap a sticker on a box that says that it's Vista Capable, you're targeting people who typically don't know a ton about computers. Yeah, geeks would sit down and figure out the absolute requirements. Non Geeks are just looking for a way to know what to buy. Worse, the non-geeks affected by this sticker are people who are actually trying to be smart and buy something that will meet their needs today - and tomorrow.
That's why MS' legal strategy with this whole lawsuit is revolting:
Microsoft criticizes the plaintiffs for focusing on "a small (less than a square inch) sticker" and not considering the broad array of things it did as part of the Windows Vista Capable program. The company claims that it made clear through "a comprehensive marketing campaign" what the sticker meant, and that arguing over interpretations of the word "capable" without reference to these broader efforts isn't a fair way to proceed.
So, people who 'bought in' to the sticker's meaning should have done more research? Like what? ensuring that the video cards for their boxes supported WDDM drivers? Hell, GEEKS had a hard enough time jumping through that hurdle when Vista finally RTMed.
Better yet, add the fact that apparently even some MS Execs assumed that the "Vista Capable" logo would have meant that buyers could run ANY version of Vista, and you can see that this is a marketing campaign (designed to keep the flow of $$ rolling while people wondered whether they should purchase new machines with XP on them, or wait to buy one with Vista) that has gone horribly wrong.
It would be nice if MS would just admit that this didn't go as well as they would have liked, and that they're setting up an 800 number people can call to meet their needs. It would likely be cheaper than hiring lawyers. It would also be the right thing to do for their customers.
Instead they're taking the idiotic stance of blaming their customers. No wonder things like this, and this resonate so well.
