Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Tries to Dodge Vista Collusions Lawsuit as Ballmer Deposition Nears



Direct link to deposition video | Full set of the deposition videos (including Ogg Theora versions)

Previously in this series:



Steve Ballmer seems to be getting a step closer to being deposed.

More internal Microsoft e-mails were unsealed today in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit, detailing the wrangling that took place inside the company and across the industry before and after the operating system's January 2007 launch. The plaintiffs are using the messages to support their contention that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was involved enough in decisions to warrant a deposition.


Recent evidence from the plaintiffs traces back to Microsoft's CEO. Did Steve Ballmer lie about his level of involvement? Lies are not uncommon at Microsoft.

According to this, Microsoft is already getting cold feet. Hopefully it's not preparing to chicken out and settle out of court, just as it did with Caldera and the state of Iowa, which soon had to destroy all the evidence (as part of the settlement).

Microsoft seeks to end Vista lawsuit



Documents turned over in the case show Microsoft executives opposing a decision to lower the standards for the Vista Capable designation, with former Windows chief Jim Allchin saying in one e-mail that he believed the Vista Capable program would mislead consumers.


Here is another revealing nugget of information that comes with unsealing/unveiling of more material.

According to some newly released court documents in the "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit, Microsoft was worried about comparisons between its newest OS and the Mac OS before Vista was even out, and before Apple starting joking about it ("Redmond, start your photocopiers.")


Innovation in this case is typically a lie because Microsoft was caught systematically learning from and copying Apple. In general, Microsoft typically claims credit for other people's inventions [1, 2] by framing patents and putting them up on the wall.

Witness the sheer annoyance at Hewlett-Packard, which absorbed customer outage for this fiasco.

In an e-mail message after Windows Vista's release, Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd complained to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about the computer maker's "call lines being overrun" with customers' Windows Vista upgrade problems, according to a court filing made public late Wednesday in the Windows Vista Capable lawsuit.


It is far from a closed case and there are hundreds of pages of evidence, which are worth digging for secrets from inside Microsoft. It's getting rather ugly, so it's hardly surprising that Microsoft tries to end it as soon as possible.

"Idiots can be defeated but they never admit it."

--Richard Stallman

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