Microsoft's internal emails have revealed that they knowingly lowered the requirements for Windows Vista to help Intel sell more low-cost chipsets.
As part of the investigation into the misleading "Vista Capable stickers" has revealed what is thought to be a crucial email in a class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft, executive John Kalkman complains of bending the minimum specifications to allow certain budget mainboards to earn the criteria despite missing out on key features. Despite a lack of support for Vista's Aero Glass appearance and other features considered selling points for Windows Vista. The Intel 915 mainboard chipset was allowed to qualify for the Vista Capable logo solely to satisfy the close hardware partner, even though it effectively allowed companies to ship sub-par hardware and delay efforts for more capable equipment.
"In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 [chipset's] graphics embedded," Kalkman said in February 2007, just after Vista's release.
Microsoft responding to the questions raised by this and other e-mails, claims that the dialog was evidence of an "active discussion" about how to implement the Vista Capable program rather than evidence of deliberate intent. No explanation was given for why the discussion was still in progress months after the start of the Vista Capable program and weeks after the late-January debut of the software. No comment from Intel as of yet.
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