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More Information About Microsoft's and Intel's Crimes Against Customers

"LH [Longhorn/Vista] is a pig and I don't see any solution to this problem. If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux..."

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft



AT RISK of seeming repetitive, here is some new information about the collusion that we previously covered in:



This is not a sole incident. A recent (and therefore more memorable) example is the OLPC fiasco. Here are some more unsealed correspondences where Microsoft's nervousness is showing.

E-mails show Microsoft's internal reaction to Walt Mossberg column



[...]

"You also won’t have to worry about Vista if you buy one of Apple Computer’s Macintosh computers, which don’t run Windows," Mossberg wrote. "Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system, called Tiger, is better and much more secure than Windows XP, and already contains most of the key features promised for Vista."


Steve Ballmer is trying to distance himself from this crime, but he and his company seem to have granted Intel billions of dollars at the expense of consumers (and maybe OEMs). This was done knowingly and deliberately.

What did Ballmer know and when did he know it?

That's arguably the biggest question in the Microsoft "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit being heard by a federal judge in a Seattle court. Documents unsealed last Thursday imply that the Microsoft CEO was in on the decision two years ago to lower technical requirements for its Vista operating system as a favor to chipmaker Intel, which pressured the software giant to slap "Vista Capable" stickers on PCs with Intel 915 chipsets, hardware that lacked the firepower to run the full Vista feature set.

Intel allegedly stood to lose "billions" of dollars if Microsoft stuck to its original specs because the chipmaker would have been stuck with a whole bunch of the Vista-inadequate 915s. And while Microsoft's concern for Intel's quarterly earnings results was touching in that corporate bottom-line kind of way, the impact on consumers was less than heart-warming.


Over at Groklaw, Pamela Jones adds: "You know what I can't help wondering about? Does this in any way impact the EU antitrust investigation of Intel? If I were AMD, I'd surely be paying close attention."

By selling people the false impression that Vista 7 [sic] is lighter than Vista (it's not [1, 2]), Microsoft may be setting itself for similar lawsuits in the future. Vapourware can be crime.

Intel puppy

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