M$ Admits Vista Is Crap

Rare honesty....

A Microsoft Corp. executive last year said the software company made a mistake by lowering the minimum technical requirements needed to run Windows Vista, a decision he said was made to help Intel Corp. meet its quarterly earnings, according to internal emails disclosed this week.

The emails provide a glimpse into how Microsoft executives and hardware partners grappled with technical glitches and other problems as they prepared the long-awaited Windows Vista software for market. The emails were released as part of a federal class-action suit alleging that Microsoft's marketing program for Windows Vista misled consumers.

In several of the emails, Microsoft executives appear to be planning how they will explain to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner how a branding program implied that certain PCs were technically capable of running Windows Vista operating system when, in fact, they weren't. The emails also show how Microsoft executives struggled to respond to complaints from a Microsoft board member about technical problems he had encountered.

In the messages, Microsoft executives acknowledged they knew PCs with one set of Intel chips for handling PC graphics weren't able to handle some features Windows Vista. Microsoft included the product, Intel's 915 chip set, under a branding program called "Windows Vista Capable" that was designed to assure consumers that PCs they bought in 2006 would be able to run the operating system, which went on sale in early 2007.

In a note dated Feb. 26. 2007, Microsoft General Manager John Kalkman wrote that that "It was a mistake on our part to change the original graphics requirements." In the email, he added that "In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with 915 graphics embedded," according to a copy of the email.

Problems Microsoft was having with Intel appeared in emails over the past few years, including one dated Feb. 1, 2006, in which Microsoft senior director Mike Ybarra wrote "We are caving to Intel" and later complained that PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. supported Microsoft, yet Microsoft was "allowing Intel to drive our consumer experience."

Intel disputed the statements about its finances, while declining to comment on its private communications with Microsoft. Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for the chip maker, asserted that Mr. Kalkman "is not qualified in any shape or form to have knowledge about Intel's internal financial forecasts related to chipsets, motherboards or any other product."

A Microsoft spokesman said Mr. Kalkman and Mr. Ybarra would not be made available because the case is in active litigation. He added that the company included the Intel 915 chip set as part of the Windows Vista Capable program "based on successful testing of beta versions of Windows Vista on the chip set and the broad availability of the chip set in the market." Computers that use the Intel technology "were and are capable of being upgraded" to a version of the operating system called Windows Vista Home Basic, he said.

More broadly, Microsoft said in a statement that the emails addressed how company executives were trying to make the marketing program better for Microsoft partners and consumers. "That's the sort of exchange we want to encourage. And in the end, we believe we succeeded in achieving both objectives," the company said in the statement.

The contents of the emails were reported by publications that include the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Microsoft used the branding program to help spur PC sales in late 2006 prior to the roll-out of Windows Vista in January 2007. Microsoft and PC makers at the time feared that the coming release of Windows Vista would cause consumers to delay purchases of PCs during the 2006 year-end holiday selling season. The Vista-capable program was used to label PCs that had the technical specifications needed to run Windows Vista, which demands more memory, a faster processor and other features than earlier versions of Windows needed.

In an email addressed to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Board member John Shirley said that he didn't upgrade one of his PCs because Windows Vista didn't have the necessary software, known as a driver, to run his top-of-the-line Epson printer and two scanners. "I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers," Mr. Shirley wrote.

In the class-action complaint, filed in March 2007, two consumers claimed that PCs they bought didn't have the appropriate technology to power Windows Vista, despite the Vista-capable logo that claimed they were.

Microsoft has disputed the allegations. "We believe the facts will show that Microsoft offered different versions of Windows Vista…to meet the varied needs of our customers purchasing computers at different price points," the company said in a statement.

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