So apparently a lawsuit was filed against Microsoft over its “Vista Capable” marketing program, and the plaintiffs are now trying to get it designated as a class action suit.
That’s mildly interesting, but what’s really intriguing is the revelation that Vista Capable — which was supposed to tell people buying new XP machines in late 2006 if their new computers would be able to run the upcoming Vista OS — was just as confusing for Microsoft executives as it was for average users.
Check out some of these quotes from internal corporate e-mails (don’t these guys ever learn not to put incriminating info in an e-mail?):
Mike Nash, currently a corporate vice president for Windows product management, wrote in an e-mail, “I PERSONALLY got burnt. … Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? … I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine.” Jim Allchin, then the co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division, wrote in another e-mail, “We really botched this. … You guys have to do a better job with our customers.”
The ars technica article goes on to note that the baffling array of Vista versions was partly responsible for this confusion.
Do you want Vista Home Premium? Home Basic? Ultimate? 32-bit or 64-bit?
The end result, I think, is that the next version of Windows probably comes in two flavors: Home and Business.
Of course, the bigger problem for Microsoft will be convincing people that they need a new version of Windows.
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