Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 01 March 2008 09:10
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
The solution was the sticker program which tech-savvy people should have easily understood, although that clearly wasn’t the case when one of Microsoft’s own executives didn’t make the distinction.
My own notebook computer sports a ‘Designed for Windows XP, Windows Vista Capable’ sticker, but luckily comes with an Intel 965 chipset, not the older 945 chipset or the Vista Basic compatible 915 chipset.
That means it is able to run Windows Aero and Windows Vista Ultimate quite happily, and has been doing so since Vista RC1.
If you knew about Intel’s graphic chipsets, you read the tech press and were tech savvy, you’d have known that Vista Capable didn’t mean ‘Windows Aero capable’ in all circumstances, and that only ‘Vista Premium Ready’ labelled computers truly were ready for the Vista Aero experience.
As Dell noted, this situation was not ideal. How was the average consumer meant to truly understand the difference between Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready – especially when there had never been such a graphical distinction with operating systems before?
There had also never been such a wide range of Vista versions to come, certainly not one that was so ‘basic’ that it left out a raft of advanced features.
It went against years of Windows releases, and against people’s instinctive knowledge. If a machine says it’s Vista Capable, it should means it can run Vista, with the natural expectation that this would include at least the ‘Vista Home Premium’ version, the version that one might expect would equate to Windows XP Home Edition.
After all, who would truly want to buy something called ‘Windows Vista Home Basic’? It sounds like the cheapest, worst, most ‘basic’ edition. It was also weird because there were now two ‘home’ versions of Windows, where in the past there was only one.
But because of the alleged pressure from Intel for Microsoft to essentially pretend to support the older, non-Vista aero compatible 915 chipsets, Microsoft caved in, created endless retail confusion, numerous Vista versions and ultimately very unhappy customers who have now taken Microsoft to court in a class action.
Quite whether Intel should also take any legal responsibility in this case is no doubt something for the lawyers of the class-action suit to decide, but it doesn’t look like it’s entirely Microsoft’s fault.
So, what has Microsoft said on the matter, and why are customers sick and tired of being taken for granted and treated so poorly? Please read onto page 3.
