The Committee to Fight Microsoft (CTFM) said on Tuesday that it wants Microsoft to offer a warranty to customers that Vista does not include "bad code".
"Bill Gates sells the public defective products, and then expects us to spend years being his guinea pigs, while he corrects the myriad of defects and vulnerabilities in his defective code," said CTFM executive director Andy Martin in a statement.
"Over four years after Windows XP was released I still receive regular 'updates' and 'bug fixes,' which reflect a product that was originally scandalously defective," he said. "No other company in America gets away with selling defective products and then expecting its customers to wait years for proper product operability."
Martin, who describes himself as "the people's attorney general" on his Web site, founded CTFM 10 years ago during the US antitrust case against Microsoft.
A Microsoft spokesperson said that security is one of its top priorities and it has made "measurable improvements" in the security of its software over the last few years.
"While there is no such thing as a state of absolute security, Microsoft believes Windows Vista will be the most secure version of Windows the company has ever shipped," the spokesperson said.
ZDNet UK's Ingrid Marson reported from London. For more coverage on ZDNet UK, click here.
This is absolutely hilarious - and shows that the group has no idea what's going on.
I'm not convinced the creation of a bug-free consumer OS can be done. Maybe for simple embedded platforms, but not for desktops given given what *users* demand their OS be able to do now.
Even if we suppose that it is possible, what sort of cost do you think we'd be looking at? I find Microsoft's current prices revolting, but they're a pittance in comparison to what you'd expect to pay for a genuinely bug free OS. The engineering effort is unimaginable, and the time required would be staggering.
There are many things wrong with Windows, but this sort of blather won't help solve them.