back to article 'Vista Capable' plaintiffs seek class action revival

Six folks suing Microsoft over allegations they were hoodwinked by the company's "Vista Capable" marketing campaign are asking a federal judge to revive the case's class action status. Last week, a judge at US District Court in Seattle tossed out their collective claims after ruling they hadn't adequately shown that the …

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  1. Matthew
    Thumb Down

    greater good?

    Then thing is.. no one wanted vista once they saw how crap it was anyway, So in a way they were saving their own customer from a nightmare. perhaps the customers should be thanking them?

  2. kevin biswas
    Stop

    Best legal system money can buy........

    Need I say more ?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Fix the economy...

    take down the incumbents. Their tax revenue only looks nice until you see businesses that would spring up in their place.

  4. James O'Brien

    SAY WHAT!!!??!!!11

    "The plaintiffs call the OS's transparent Aero interface "an essential requirement for Vista," saying that not being able to run it in certain "Vista Capable" machines was a deliberate omission by Microsoft."

    WHAT!?!?!

    Why do these fucktards believe that 'AERO' is an "essential requirement" for fucking Vista to work? Sorry about the swearing but this has totally blown my mind and yes I live in the states but seriously I didnt think that my countrymen were *THIS* fucked up and sue happy.

    God please shoot me now.

    /I ask again I need a sponsor to get the hell out of this country to another one. At this rate even Iraq would be better it seems

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    @James

    The answer is simple...what does "Vista Capable" mean? It means it can run Vista. It does not say "Reduced Vista Capable", "Low Power Vista Capable" or "Barely Vista Capable". IMHO a reasonable person will assume that that badge means it will run Vista without restriction.

    Now, I do agree that "Aero" is not essential. But they bought those PCs in good faith believing they'd get Aero, and MS let them down. Badly. Whilst I don't agree with the "essential" argument, I do think MS helped to mis-sell tonnes of kit through dodgy marketing.

    A better option would be to reject the MS EULA, get a refund and install Linux. Then, if Aero is so essential to them, they can Compiz/Emerald until they are blue in the face!

  6. Andy Barber
    Joke

    @ James O'Brien

    Move to the UK, at least we speak a similar language.!

  7. N

    hold on...

    I can see the disappointment, Vista is a complete pile of shit & rotten to the core in my opinion.

    However, if you bought it on the understanding & the trumpeting from Microsoft that it was going to have a dog poo V1 interface which would run fine on your computer & it diddnt/wouldnt when Microsoft told you it would, well in law, you have a case.

    I hope they win.

  8. Brian Whittle

    the thing is

    Microsoft have always understated the requirements of their os's

    These lawsuits are just from ambulance chasers IMOP

    and as for the first comment I much prefer Vista to XP

    theTCP/IP Stack is much better , it looks crisper than the garish XP, the enhanced search features are cin brilliant

    That said UAC was at best poorly executed (and thats being kind)

    I don't care about needing more memory more CPU time etc , things move on

  9. Lettherebemorelight

    @Matthew

    You are taking the meaning of "essential" too literally. From a Joe Sixpack standpoint the Aero interface is the highest ranking new feature on the Vista list. Vista without Aero is sorta just like XP, only a lot bigger, slower, higher system requirements, built in DRM etc etc.

    Now to me it really doesn't seem hard to understand why these people feel cheated. MS should have been honest and labled the computers "Vista capable BUT only the crappy looking version, not good ones with the new Aero interface". But why be honest when you can be dishonest and drive up sales.

  10. Wayland Sothcott

    Windows Anytime Upgrade

    The first Vista machine I sold was a sweet little Acer laptop. It had 1GB RAM and ran Vista fine. The customer was very pleased. However they wanted to watch something on YouTube and the browser said it needed a plugin. So they thought, rather than down load it, lets install the Windows Anytime Upgrade CD that I unwittingly supplied with the laptop.

    Having installed the CD Windows became dead slow so they called me. Clicking the start button took about 10 seconds before the menu popped up. Everything went at this speed.

    Fortunately the laptop came with a partion on the hard drive to wipe the machine back to factory default installation.

    I agree with the court case because Vista was sold on the aero features, the rest is just XP, or at least the same as XP.

    I expect Windows 7 will be the good bits from Vista added to XP which will be re-skinned. Why make a big thing of a new OS, no one wants a new OS, we just want to run our programs.

  11. Richard Silver badge

    @James O'Brien

    "Aero" was the part that Microsoft were using to advertise Windows Vista, so from the point of view of a layman, Aero IS Vista.

    The 'under-the-hood' stuff is basically irrelevant - for example, most people just want a car that 'goes fast', is 'comfortable' and 'looks good'.

    They don't care about the methodology used for the automatic advancement, or what kind of timing it uses.

    Just like 95% (or more) of computer users care about three things: It does the stuff they want to do, looks pretty and feels fast.

    Windows Vista Basic only satisfies part 1. It looks pretty much identical to WinXP, but feels slower.

  12. John PM Chappell

    @ James O'Brien

    With a name like that, have you considered that you might be elligible for an Irish passport? ;¬)

    IIRC Irish grandparents is sufficient (I am likely to claim my own passport on the same grounds, UK is not the shining beacon of hope some yanks imagine).

  13. Allan Rutland
    Flame

    As above...

    it it utterly silly. Doesn't really matter which version you have from Basic to Ultimate, they all run exactly the same applications. The only differances is the amount of gimmicks and fluff you get with them. They all have the same security changes, they all have UAC, this lawsuit ever since they first tried it has been nothing but a joke and continues to be so.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @James O'Brien

    Oh, for crap's sake. Let me get this straight-- because a group of people were sold equipment which wasn't capable of running the fancy graphics in Vista, and then had the audacity to complain, you think your entire country is a farce, and would prefer being shot, or moving to a war zone, to having to share the majority of a continent with them?

    America has plenty of problems, sure, and small minded nutcases with no sense or proportion is one of them. Holy shit, you'd rather die than have to read articles like this one? Really? Just take a bath with your toaster, then, and put us all out of your misery.

    And, really, I think that given the choice between living in a county that's been basically ruined by years of mismanagement, military invasion, and sectarian fighting, OR having to put up with people's dissatisfaction with their computer systems, very few people would choose Iraq. And, frankly, I think that's a bit offensive towards all the Iraqis who have died in the last six years. They didn't have a choice in the matter-- I'll bet if asked to deliver a list of things which annoyed them (from beyond the grave, etc) people freaking out about Aero wouldn't even rank in the top thousand.

  15. Pirate Dave Silver badge
    Pirate

    @James O'Brien

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but if Internet Exploder can be considered a "required" component of Windows, then why not Aero?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @James O'Brien

    Don't come here, we're more oppressed than you are.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    A Litte Clarity, Please

    MS aggressively advertised Vista as having the Aero interface. To many, this was the only significant difference between it and XP. MS' typical blurbs about faster, more secure, etc, were the same things they'd been saying for years about each successive OS and yet there hasn't been any great feeling of better security, and as we know the majority of the performance difference when buying a new PC is that it's newer hardware.

    MS CHOSE to put the Vista stickers on systems. Who really believes any PC sold wasn't sold with the intention of being able to merely run some form of the most popular OS on earth? We could reasonable assume a brand new system would in some form be able to run the soon to be released monopoly OS. The sticker was then inferred to mean something more, support for the advertised feature sets, ALL of them. If it couldn't do that, the sticker shouldn't have been there.

    The best outcome from a suit like this is to teach companies not to play fast and loose with their marketing. What MS ought to do now is buy a sufficient number of lowest end, DX9/128MB/PS2.0 video cards and give one to each person in the class (which ought to exist for anyone seeking to be a member). If anyone doesn't want to run Aero it can be stressed that they gain little to no advantage from the low-end video card so they might as well not bother with it.

    It's sad that people have to sue, but remember that when MS started the program it was deliberately to imply a greater value from the PC while we now know there was no greater value compared to any other system without the sticker when it came to supporting Vista's features.

  18. nobby

    @SAY WHAT!!!??!!!11

    they call "AERO" "an essential requirement for Vista" because its the only bit of Vista that any one sees.

    therefore is the only bit of vista that anyone would miss.

    From my experience. people actually *like* win 2008 server..

    lets see:

    win 2k8 (similar codebase to vista, similar behind-the scenes "improvements". AERO turned off by default) = Liked

    Vista (similar codebase to w2k8s, similar behind-the scenes "improvements". AERO turned on by default = Universally derided

    So, looks like running aero *is* vista to most people. ESPECIALLY the sort of people who buy PCs from a shop, with stickers on saying "vista capable" without asking what it means to be "capable".

    Go Team! Class-Action Their Asses Off.

  19. Hugh_Pym

    For most users Aero == Vista

    That is how Microsoft advertised it; 'Look how lovely Vista looks, by you also get blah blah blah'. So it is no wonder that most people equated 'Vista Ready' with 'Aero Ready'. I think that from a legal standpoint If you believe Microsoft did this on purpose so as to keep hardware sellers happy and the revenue flowing in (and I do) then you agree with the class action. If you think no-one in their right minds would think that 'Vista ready' meant it was ready to do what they saw Vista do on the adverts then you are free to call these guys idiots.

    There is however a third option: If you trust Microsoft to deliver on a promise you deserve all you get.

  20. Mike
    Stop

    Re: For most users Aero == Vista

    Adverts *did* say not all features are available on all versions, small print yes, but common sense should be applied, just because these people plead ignorance doesn't mean that their claim is valid, if you see an advert for a car for sale you should always ask "what will I get with it", alloys power steering, abs, aircon, metalic paint, leather etc. etc. etc.

    The litigous nature of americans is either driven by stupidity or greed, not a sense of right and wrong, remember the woman who (successfully) sued McDonalds for making their coffee too hot (nasty burn, but who's fault was it?)

    Should society stop supporting stupidity? If you buy a product without being sure it does what you want (either through knowing or asking), then tough, imagine if they won their lawsuit, had millions awarded, who would pay? the people who buy Windows 7 of course, this would never be a punishment for Microsoft, where does their money come from?

    Vista is way more than Aero;

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_Vista

    But you can't advertise the fact that the windows address book is based on XML as a feature, as it's a bit boring, adverts are visual and snappy, so you need to show visual and snappy, almost every car advert has cars with alloy wheels, but nobody (in their right mind) expects alloy wheels free.

    Maybe in a country with an average IQ of 98 (and dropping) you need to spoon-feed people but perhaps a better solution for society as a whole is to stop them breeding.

  21. Cameron Colley

    While I have no love for Microsoft...

    ... I hope the paytards loose.

    If you're too stupid to understand that Microsoft are a bunch of racketeers then you probably shouldn't be buying a computer.

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