[Alpine]

Not as capable as it seems allegation

A CLASS ACTION was filed against Microsoft in a US federal court alleging people buying Vista Capable machines last year found themselves with a machine barely capable of making use of its features.


According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the action alleges that people bought machines labelled "capable" and "premium ready" and thought that meant they'd get the full eye candy experience when Vista became available.

But Microsoft denies that it in any way misled people. The Seattle PI quotes a lawyer from Microsoft saying that the firm made sure it educated not only buyers but PC and peripheral manufacturers.

Judging from the state of disarray with drivers and the like, it may have tried to educate these people. Heck, we've tried to educate them ourselves, but sometimes they're very stubborn and have to be sent to stand in the corner for disobedience.

The class action says that lots of people found that rather than run Aero Glass and that other stuff, they found themselves only able to upgrade to Vista Very Basic, or Home Basic as the Vole calls it.

Our own Charlie Demerjian now reckons that Vista should be described as Vista Me II, in celebration of the famous Windows Me and the uncanny resemblance between the UI in Vista and on Apple machines.

How absurdly cynical! The INQuirer