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

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Links 20/05/2025: Biden's Cancer, GDPR Changes, and UK Defamation Cases (or SLAPPs) Fail Again
Links for the day
Microsofters Targeting the Wife of the Critic of Microsoft
false claims and loaded statement
Microsoft a Top Sponsor at Red Hat Summit (IBM Selling Proprietary Spyware and Back Doors in a "Red" Trench Coat)
They both work for Microsoft
 
Slopwatch: Slopfarms 'Think' Redis is "Linux" (RedisRaider)
Today we'll keep it short and to the point again
IBM Has Allegedly Just Sacked Mr. McKinsey (McK), Clay Cowan, Its Fourth CMO in a Few Years
To insiders he represented the company that's killing IBM or advising IBM on how to self-destruct
Gemini Links 21/05/2025: Trips, 4D Golf, and Writing Software
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Links 20/05/2025: "Bankrupt 23andMe Just Sold Off All Your DNA Data" and "Free Speech Warriors" MIA
Links for the day
Openwashing of Windows, Back Doors, Persistent Surveillance, Keyloggers, Screen Loggers, DRM and So On
WSL is not "Linux", it's Windows
New 'Interview' With - or Talk Coverage of - Richard Stallman in the European Union
automated English translation
IBM Mass Redundancies Likely This Coming Thursday
We're not in a position to judge if that's true or false
Gemini Links 20/05/2025: LLM Scraper Bots in Gopher and "Starmer and the Somewheres"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 19, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, May 19, 2025
Skype Fell Off a Cliff (Microsoft Killed It), All Microsoft Has Left Now is Slop and Spaghetti Code
"This isn’t about AI. This is a puppet show to drive stock prices up and down."
The Official SUSE Blog Uses LLM Slop to Compose Fake Articles Promoting Microsoft and Azure
even a little slop spoils the broth
Slopfarms (Machine-Generated Fake News Sites Authored by Bots With Slop Images) Spread GNU FUD
This isn't about Linux (GNU doesn't run just on Linux)
United States Federal Government's Digital Analytics Program (DAP): GNU/Linux Users Represent Close to 6% of Visitors This Year
How far has GNU/Linux gotten? Very far!
The "LLM Ouroboros of Shit" is Complemented by Even Worse Phenomena Caused by Microsoft's Contribution of SPAM and Pollution
Microsoft became a world leader in promotion of LLM slop
The LLM Ouroboros Phenomenon
Fact #1: over time slop gets worse (training set is like some blurry JPEG). Fact #2: People's "smell" for slop improves over time, as they 'train' on slop and can detect it based on prior encounters. Put 1 and 2 together.
Links 19/05/2025: Charges of Blackmailing Over Son Heung-min, Chad Opposition Leader Detained
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/05/2025: Ableism, Silicon Monkeys, and More
Links for the day
How We Defeated DDoS Attacks
One of the best things one can do is migrate to an SSG
Microsofters Issuing Threats to Microsoft Critics Who Blog About Microsoft
So far we see that their "legal strategy" revolves around trying to discredit people like Theodore Ts'o
Links 19/05/2025: Political Catchup and CISA Advisories
Links for the day
TheLayoff.com Has Begun Deleting Trolls/AstroTurfers Infesting the IBM Section to Discourage On-Topic Discussion About Culls and Maladministration (Bad Strategy)
Moderators have realised there's a problem
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 18, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, May 18, 2025