Microsoft stretched ‘Capable’ criteria to help Intel
Newly released court documents confirm Microsoft relaxed its criteria for declaring a computer ‘Vista Capable’ after lobbying from Intel. The chip maker complained that the original rules would exclude some of its products and cause lost business in the billions.
The documents are part of an ongoing case in which computer buyers claim they were misled into buying machines marked as ‘Vista Capable’ without realizing that could mean the computers only ran the most basic edition of the operating system, without features such as the Aero graphics ‘glass’ display.
The original draft of the Vista Capable criteria, written in December 2005, required a system titled Windows Device Driver Model. In August that year, an internal e-mail described the requirement as “fundamental to user experience, stability, quality, productivity, performance, etc…”
However, Intel discovered its 915 range of graphics chips, released the previous year, couldn’t meet this requirement. The firm asked Microsoft to delay the launch of the scheme to allow it to supply computer manufacturers with chips that did meet the requirement. It said not delaying the launch would “cost us significant business”; an internal Microsoft e-mail cited in the filing says Intel reported the loss would be in the billions.
Microsoft’s response to these filings reveals Intel head Paul Otellini even discussed the problems on the phone with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who passed on the concerns to other Microsoft staff. The filing stresses that Ballmer didn’t tell his underlings how to respond to those concerns, reiterating a previous argument that he didn’t make any operation decisions and thus shouldn’t testify in court.
On Jan. 30, 2006, Microsoft told Intel it was dropping the requirement. It wasn’t a popular decision with everyone at Microsoft. An e-mail from Mike Ybarra, director of product management (which is included in the new filings but had already been made public) complained:
This kind of shit drives me crazy… at the last minute we cave into Intel and give 915 and other chipsets a backdoor into the programs. I hate the idea of a consumer upgrading a PC that we have marked as ‘Vista Capable’ and not getting the great user interface experience.
There’s no guarantee the new filings will be the smoking gun which loses the case for Microsoft. But it does make clear that Microsoft was willing to bow to industry pressure at the potential expense of consumer satisfaction.
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