Almost two years ago, Microsoft was sued over stickers that claimed particular PC’s were “Vista capable”. These stickers were designed to help consumers feel confident in buying a PC before Vista shipped, resting comfortably in the knowledge that, once Vista got out the door, their new machines would be able to run it. Except that turned out to be not-quite true: sure, the machines could run the most basic version of Vista, but they couldn’t tap in to a number of Vista’s much touted capabilities, like enhanced features and the Aero interface. Dianne Kelley filed suit through a Seattle law firm alleging the stickers amounted to a bait-and-switch tactic, and in February of 2008 the suit was granted class action status…potentially putting the Redmond software giant on the hook for many millions of dollars in damages, if they should lose the case.
