News Vista Capable suit given class action status

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02...ction_status/1

The federal judge at the centre of the "Windows Vista Capable" case has given the suit a class action status.

[p3n]

Down with Gates, all hail King Jobs!

[steveo_mcg]

Down with both all hail lord Relix Linus

[Bluephoenix]

or use windows, but don't be so F***ing stupid when buying a computer.

[Mister_Tad]

Gah, this sort of thing just infuriates me (maybe infuriates is a bit strong, but it is midly irritating)

Vista basic is Vista, is it not?
Maybe the 'Vista Capable' branding did inflate purchases in the run up to christmas - but buyer beware. Are retailers (or uninformed consumers for that matter) not as much at 'fault' as Microsoft?

And that $2000 email machine quote cracks me up, moron.

[Faulk_Wulf]

false advertising cheesecake!

EDIT: Oh yeah... cheesecake. lol.

========

Why do you think it should have been thrown out?
It wasn't whether or not people could run vista,
it was the fact that they could not run the
essential features they were told they would be able to.

Its about the same as that "HD Ready" TV b.s. that
we have where its not true high-def but if you get
$600 worth of parts, you'll have HD then.

The bottom line is that while, yes, a customer needs to be informed,
they were FALSELY informed and led into believing
that their investment would grant them access to all the
new features coming out in Windows Vista.

[Delphium]

Originally Posted by Bluephoenix

or use windows, but don't be so F***ing stupid when buying a computer.

QFT!!!

Originally Posted by Mister_Tad

Vista basic is vista, is it not?
Maybe the Vista Capable branding did inflate purchases in the run up to christmas - but buyer beware. Are retailers (or uninformed consumers for that matter) not as much at 'fault' as Microsoft?

My sentiments exactly

This should have just got thorwn out of court I feel.

[Mister_Tad]

I'm not sure about having it thrown out of court. If it can be proved that MS intended to 'dupe' customers, they should probably get a slap on the wrist.

With a class action on the other hand, you just get every Tom, Dick and Harry jumping on the bandwagon to get something for nothing (and that 'something' is generally of pretty questionable value), MS paying through the nose to give every "victim" compensation to the value of a few dollars and the legal firm behind it becoming inconceivably wealthy.

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by Bluephoenix

or use windows, but don't be so F***ing stupid when buying a computer.

QFT +1

[DarkLord7854]

Getting so tired of people always having a go at Microsoft.. Sure, they're not the best.. But geez, it's like every little thing they do gets scrutinized and exploited, just because people can't read correctly, or mis-interpret, either on purpose or accidentally and then spread rumors and then people who haven't noticed it for themselves or even tried it out think "Oh it's Microsoft, they're evil" and then everyone is repeating the same story.. Bleh. [sarcasm]I'm sure Apple is better [/sarcasm].

[Silver51]

Originally Posted by Bluephoenix

or use windows, but don't be so F***ing stupid when buying a computer.

"Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

I was under the impression that the Vista Capable logo was placed on machines by manufacturers, not Microsoft.

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by Silver51

"Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter."

I was under the impression that the Vista Capable logo was placed on machines by manufacturers, not Microsoft.

That's a good point, actually. But the specifications are given by Microsoft.

Still, if the customer don't care enough to investigate more into his investment, then too bad for him. Microsoft shouldn't have to pay for peoples ignorance.


Reminds me of a similar case i heard about a while ago:

Some lady were going to buy a cellphone for her daughters birthday. She wanted an MP3 phone, and that's what she got. The phone could play MP3s, but did only have a very small amount of internal memory (but had a micro SD slot). After whining to the newspapers (and not to the shop) that the phone was useless, she got a new phone. The new phone had 40MB storage and no SD card slot... For some reason she wouldn't just accept an additional memory card as a compensation.

I mean, how stupid can you be? If you want something, at least figure out what you need!

If I want a car, i don't expect the salesman to know whether I need a sports car or a pickup....

[DXR_13KE]

"Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? ... I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine." = "THE INTERNET IS NOT A TRUCK, THE INTERNET IS A SERIES OF TUBES"

Smilodon: that lady = pwnd!

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by DXR_13KE

"Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? ... I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine." = "THE INTERNET IS NOT A TRUCK, THE INTERNET IS A SERIES OF TUBES"

Smilodon: that lady = pwnd!

Maybe he should have bought a bunch of U bends?


and no, that lady = stupid

[pimlicosound]

How did he manage to spend $2,100 on a PC that can't run Vista properly? Did he accidentally buy a Mac?

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by pimlicosound

How did he manage to spend $2,100 on a PC that can't run Vista properly? Did he accidentally buy a Mac?

(I think newer macs are able to run windows. Correct me if I'm wrong here...)

[Saivert]

Great one pimlicosound! I laughed so hard.

Microsoft is partly to blame here, they could have designed their stickers a bit better. "Vista Basic Capable" instead of just "Vista Capable" would have been much better. Then they could have "Vista Premium Capable" for the more advanced machines.

I'm not saying customers shouldn't invest or check what they are buying, but most consumers trust the retailer to give them what they want and when they too don't really know what they are selling (which is true, believe me!) you can't say consumers are to be at fault here.

This class action lawsuit is a bit silly, but a slap on the wrist would not change Microsoft's attitude towards this either. They have to learn the hard way. And as a multi-billion corporation they will not go under because of this. It has to at least hurt for a second.

We need clear specifications as to what machine can give us the full Vista experience. Microsoft is very vague about this. Come on, what PCs do you think Microsoft used themselves during development?

[Delphium]

Originally Posted by Saivert

We need clear specifications as to what machine can give us the full Vista experience. Microsoft is very vague about this. Come on, what PCs do you think Microsoft used themselves during development?

Well for myself and many many others.... a P4 1.8GHz (without hyper threading, socket 478), 1GB of DDR3200, low profile AGP nvidia 5200 128MB, Vista Enterprise 32bit, running Aero fine, tho an upgrade of pc is long over due!!

Some other lucky peeps have had a more recent machine handed to them, and laptop not far off the above spec, however Aero seems to run ok here.

As for "Vista Basic Capable" well Vista Home Basic does not come with Aero anyways, so no matter what system you had it installed on, you would not get the Aero effect, and if my ancient work pc can handle Vista Enterprise in full glory, then these must be some reallllly poor systems that the retailers are selling to the consumers.

So is it that they are complaining about not having all the fetures due to a basic editon of Vista :s

[Shielder]

The thing is, you can run Vista on any PII or PIII based machine. Give it 256 or 512MB of memory and it will run. It will run like a dog, and be virtually unusable, but you will have the system running Vista.

I think people are complaining about the "experience" of running Vista being less than they were lead to believe. I don't think it is the "does it run Vista or doesn't it?" debate, I think this whole thing revolves around the (over) hyped user experience. After all, if you've got Vista Basic, the Wow never really starts. (In my eyes, even with HP, there isn't really much to say Wow about...)

Andy