Microsoft is going to be in a heap of trouble because of the Windows Capable lawsuit—and perhaps Intel, too. Windows Vista Capable certification for the Intel 915 chip set may have violated U.S. antitrust laws. For more than a year, I"ve complained that OEMs shipped Windows Vista PCs with deficient graphics accelerators. I never imagined that Microsoft was involved. Why would the company want to ruin the Vista experience?
But e-mails released yesterday (while I was out of the office at a Microsoft event, damn it) suggest otherwise. I was wrong about Microsoft. By all appearances, the company colluded with Intel to qualify a knowingly, deficient graphics chip set as being Windows Vista Capable. Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogged the full text of internal Microsoft e-mails late yesterday. The communications were released as part of discovery for the Windows Vista Capable class-action lawsuit.