More 'Vista Capable' dirt could leak this week

Microsoft's "Vista Capable" program was a bit of a mess, and it could get messier.

Microsoft is in the midst of its WinHec 2008 gathering with hardware vendors this week in Los Angeles, talking through what's next and how to prepare. Meanwhile, a federal judge's ruling on its "Vista Capable" program could hit this week.

The judge previously required Microsoft to disgorge internal e-mails that revealed Microsoft was hawking a product it knew wouldn't work as advertised, and ultimately created a fair amount of ill will among hardware vendors.

Given that the ruling is likely to include additional sensitive internal e-mails and documents related to hardware compatibility with Vista, the timing couldn't be worse, as TechFlash's Todd Bishop describes:

It's not clear what remains to be revealed. But lawyers for the plaintiffs submitted a large collection of documents, under seal, to support a motion for partial summary judgment in late September. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman is considering whether to unseal at least a portion of those documents, making them available for public review.

From a public-relations standpoint, Microsoft would no doubt prefer...any new Windows Vista revelations didn't come during the WinHEC week. But it's not clear precisely when Pechman will rule. In addition to the sealed documents, the judge is weighing requests by the plaintiffs to depose Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and to send out their class-action notice via the Windows Update system normally used to distribute security patches...(B)ased on the principles applied previously in the case, it appears likely that many of the documents will be unsealed.

Microsoft has weathered worse storms before, and it will weather this one. But I'm sure it would prefer a booze-fest with hardware vendors over the boo-fest it will receive if more damaging e-mails come to light this week.

[Renegade Knight]

The Vista fanboys will dismiss this tidbit and still beat their "Vista works on my machine so you all are nuts to complain about it." Drums.

Are we ready for the 7 Compatible or 7 ready campaign.

[artmark1]

Or they could copy Apple, again, and call it "7 Savvy"

[kwhsy82]

It would be surprising if the judge doesn't release the documents. Microsoft may be able to delay a bit arguing confidentiality or just raise costs, but if the plaintiffs have the resources, MSFT will lose. Likely the plaintiffs will invest heavily here since embarrassing Microsoft helps gain a settlement. Documents in a court case are public unless there is a compelling reason why they should not be.
It would be amazing and interesting if Microsoft were forced to an update mechanism or the like to contact possible plaintiffs. I'm not really aware of that being done before (e.g. a cell phone company texting users after losing a class-action suit). Usually it's just access to contact info, which if MSFT were forced to disgorge the email names in its database, would be interesting.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I vote they release all the documents. Then we could see how nVidia, in their efforts to make their GPU's 'Vista Compatible' didn't do something silly like produce a better chipset, but instead simply wrote new drivers to overclock the existing units which led to cooking the GPU's in multiple OEM's from HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, and others.

I'd be curious to read all of what is out there, not just what is being picked and chosen for review by the court.

[plbyrd]

@Matt,

I don't get what's so damning to Microsoft about all of this? The internal emails released so far have simply shown that MS was afraid of Intel and that Intel dragging their feet on a minimal DX9 chipset was the whole reason the "Vista Capable" debacle happened. If MS had delayed Vista even further to wait for the 945 chipset then it would have been a disaster for MS with the press.

[sanenazok]

Does anyone care anymore? 1. New computers, even $200 desktops come with enough graphics power for Vista, 2. Only a tiny install base of Vista are upgrade users.

This lawsuit is designed to extract some money for the class-action lawyers. Can't MS just pay them the 2.2 million and get it over with?

[Vegaman_Dan]

You've got a point. There isn't a machine on the market today that fails to meet the system requirements of Vista unless you really limit it to tiny netbooks and even there, people are finding ways of getting it on there.

Sometimes court cases have a longer shelf life than the rest of the world's attention span for the issue.

[sruthnaomi]

bought 2 (two) hp vista laptops some time back. never has worked well. something new every day. even the hp printers had to be installed long distance by hp. negative negative negative. Question: how long should a person wait to invest in something a company says is revolutionary gorgeous wonderful?