A US District judge in Seattle has ruled that consumers can move ahead with a class-action suit against Microsoft over how it advertised computers with Windows XP as capable of running Vista, according to an article by the Associated Press.
The suit claims that the labeling of computers as "Windows Vista Capable" misled consumers because many of the machines weren't powerful enough to run all of Vista's features, such as the Aero user interface, the AP said.
The federal judge certified the suit late Friday but narrowed its scope to whether the "Vista Capable" labels artificially created demand for PCs in late 2006 during the holiday-shopping season. Vista, which had faced several delays, was released in early 2007.
According to a related article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, many of the computers touted as Vista Capable could run only the stripped-down "Home Basic" version of Vista.
Microsoft said it was reviewing the decision.
Thats a pitty that the scope of the lawsuit is so limited now, to focus primarily on those who used the Express Upgrade Program.
The people who were really harmed are those who bought a Vista Capable PC, missed out on the Express Upgrade (Due to failing just outside that time period...or some other reason) and then bought Vista at retail later on.
(Actually the Express Upgrade Program was so bad that I have no doubt that some people who qualified for this, must have got frustrated and just bought Vista while waiting for the Program to deliever their upgrade DVD)
Arguably those people were out of pocket for the price of Vista Total, and maybe their PC.
Infact with my wifes PC a new DV 6000 HP machine, we missed out on that Express Upgrade program by 2-4 days, at the time I was mad, as the program was heavily advertised.
However in retrospect the hardware errors weve had have been less running MCE, Vista would have accelerated hardware failure.
Infact that PC was obviously not even designed for Vista, hence HPs recall.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&dlc=en&product=3245619
Infact if I put Vista on that PC, and took off Media Center 2005, I am pretty sure that due to Vistas graphics requirements being so high, and the heat generated internally... that my wifes PC would probably malfunction.
HP and Microsoft should be forced to take back these machines and provide a machine that runs Vista Ultimate well, and doesn't have hardware and software problems.
If the hardware and software do not work well together, and result in malfunctioning machines or lost work... they shouldnt be sold as Vista Capable, or Vista XXX.