So is Windows XP Home Edition not really XP because it doesn't have the extra features that Windows XP Pro Edition does??? WOW. Someone please take control of all these lawsuits. People are making a living doing nothing but suing other people.

Windows Media is the xp version of home premium. Home basic.... sounds just like what it is. The basic version of windows to run stuff.

A fool and their money are soon parted.

WOW some people are so stupid, if your computer cant run vista use XP or get a NEW one.....IDIOTS!!!!!!!!

I realize I have a tech background and that Microsoft wasn't exactly clear on everything, but even from the perspective of an average consumer, I didn't feel that they were being dishonest. People who took the time to do their research would have known if their computers were ready for Vista Home Basic or some of the higher-tiered products. Microsoft makes the products... you choose to buy them or not. It really is that simple. Caveat emptor!

+1
yea i mean itz called "VISTA BASIC" for a reason lol

and why would anyone want to leave aero glass on to begin with?

just slows down the interface; i mean not even from a hardware perspective but the fact that the animations in windows take time to play and dont add to anything

i mean they look cool for like 10 minutes then they just get annoying lol

Right on Rodney.

I am coming to believe that Vista was released as a necessary growing pain in order to promote a new and better OS than XP, mainly Windows 7. Although I do run Vista 64 bit and love it, I can easily understand how the average consumer (the ones who would never have an interest coming to THG) could find Vista to be nothing more than a pain the the butt.

In my experience, Windows 7 is an awsome OS so far, however, we would not come to appreciate its success without the introduction Vista.

Of course Windows 7 is going to be a smoother transition... it is essentially Vista SE. The teething problems with the drivers (new driver model) won't be an issue this time around... and now with memory being so cheap, 4-8 GB systems will be the norm so the even if Windows 7 has the same memory footprint, performance will be dramatically improved. If you give 'em enough time, Microsoft will usually get it right. It just stinks for those of us with Vista who actually had these problems.

In full disclosure, my Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 installation has worked flawlessly for me... absolutely flawless.

Just to represent the other side...

I think when the average customer hears "Vista Capable" they assume that it is capable of running Windows Vista. What do they know of Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business, and Vista Ultimate - the machine says Vista and nothing more.

Now, had they been branded "Vista Home Basic Capable", then customers would have had a clear picture that their was only one product with Vista in the title that would run on the machine.

THAT is why customers are feeling deceived.

I mean, if you bought a vehicle labeled "off road capable" and learned it could only drive off road on dry dirt paths with no greater than a 15 degree incline, you'd be pretty pissed off when you try to slug through some mud.

Finally, when calling all these people idiots, remember the Dilbert Principle - once we realize that we all have times when we are incredibly brain dead and stupid, then maybe we can learn to sympathize with others rather than condemn them.

and why would anyone want to leave aero glass on to begin with?

just slows down the interface; i mean not even from a hardware perspective but the fact that the animations in windows take time to play and dont add to anything

i mean they look cool for like 10 minutes then they just get annoying lol"


Isn't Vista's aero glass ui drawn by the video card? IIRC the xp ui and vista non-aero ui are drawn by the cpu, and aero is gpu drawn. That being the case, your computer will actually preform better with aero turned on.

Oh, I totally feel sorry for people who bought "Vista Capable" PCs thinking they were going to get the full blown experience... I'm sorry... I truly am. However, I just don't believe there is grounds for legal action. Too often we rely on lawyers instead of our own common sense. There has to be a reason one PC costs $400 and the next costs $1000... surely this thought must have crossed the minds of people buying $400 "Vista Capable" PCs.

The only difficulty Vista has ever given me is with drivers - and that's not even Vista's fault.

Anyway - I agree with rodney. If you don't do research into what you're buying, stuff like this happens. I don't think this suit is just.

IM sorry you get what you pay for. You dont pay 500 bucks for an emachine and get a Falcon. This is just more Liberal BS. I want to pay as little as I can and get the samething as those that spend top dollar. Look its easy. DO SOME FRIGGEN RESEARCH and dont beleave the sales guy at Circuit city or best buy.

Ugh, this is so frivelous its retarded.

Seriously, you're asking the question what does it mean to be "Vista"? The answer Microsoft provides is the CORRECT one. Vista is DEFINED by the new kernel. The fact it is *NOT* an updated version of XP but instead a whole new critter is what makes Vista what it is. Aero glass is merely an OPTIONAL interface to use. Even with Vista Ultimate and a capable GPU, you don't need to use Aero. In fact, if Vista can't find drivers it detects a VGA Adapter and uses the Basic interface.

Complaining because your window screens are 100% opaque is like complaining that your Hyundai Accent can't do 120mph.

It really is Microsoft's fault for downgrading the requirements for their Vista capable machines just so Intel could move more of it's crappy integrated video chipsets. They also could have just implemented a basic version of areo that would only take advantage of the limited polygon functionality of some of the Intel integrated chipsets. Instead they insisted on having run only on shader 2.0 GPUs and thus they've dug themselves in this hole. As for giving the public too much credit, you have to have realistic expectations of the public. This is the same public that gave Bush a second term after all.

I guess there are some people out there who are too dumb to know what the word BASIC means i guess they should have just called it Vista Light maybe there are more people who know what the word LIGHT means. I do find it surprising though that there are some people out there who bitch about not having a transparent desktop

"Liberal BS"? What the hell are you talking about?

Some of us happen to think that Bush '04-'08 was his FIRST term. But whatever... your point is still valid.

Let's face it. Most people make it through high school (and sometimes college) without basic reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. The fact that this is a product made by Microsoft makes it an appealing target for lawsuits.

I think they should have labeled some "Vista Capable" and... the better ones, "Vista Exceptional"

...and alot of them "Vista Capable...but I wouldn't if I were you"

It's not Microsoft's fault, "Vista Capable" is "Vista Capable," didn't your parents always tell you not to assume anything. Not everyone needs the business, enterprise, ultimate, premium features. If you buy a PC with 256-512 ram, Celeron processor and only payed $400 on it don't expect to run the best or have amazing performance. I get that all the time with people that buy cheap and expect the best (buying a Honda and expecting to get corvette performance).

Even a C64 is "Video Game Capable."

I stand by my statment. People are getting more and more "Take care of me" with a huge "ITS NOT FAIR" that tends to be a liberal point of view. I do support for a living. The number of people I meet that complain that there 500$ computer is not very fast and how its everyone elses fault is laughable. I Have even been told when I handed them the bill (for virus cleanup or whatever) that I should not charge them as its a service and the govt should pay for it or my favorite was I should not charge them because they are "POOR". I still get my check when I tell them I can just put all the porn viri back. Well if your poor then why do you have a computer, 3 cars, a house, Every cable channel known to man and a 60" tv.

Just wait, have you been chewed out because the monitor you just fixed for a customer now (GASP) has to be plugged into the wall

What machine will run Windows XP Home that will not run Windows XP Pro?

This is the first time that Microsoft has released a Windows product that has any significantly different requirements between its versions. XP Media Center Edition can only be sold bundled with PCs that support it, so that doesn't count.

Why would someone who is not tech savvy have any idea that a "Vista Capable" PC wouldn't support all the features of "Windows Vista," including Aero?

Microsoft might have been able to avoid this problem if those darn stickers had read "Windows Vista Home Basic Capable" instead. At least then people might have thought to themselves, "What's this 'Home Basic' thing? Is it something I need to worry about?"

Kary not that but I was once yelled at that someone could not dial in and it was the fault of the ISP I worked at. When I asked them to check the line they said the power was out but before I could say anything they Screamed " I HAVE A FUCKEN UPS I KNOW WHAT IM DOING" when I asked why he called from a Cell he said the phone system was down when they lost power. Before hanging up I said call back if it dosent work when they get power. Honestly users are the biggest problem LOL.

Excuse me but what operating system is Windows Vista Home Basic? Is it Windows XP? Mac OSX 10.5? Windows 7? Or is it Windows VISTA. The label says it is capable of running Windows Vista it is up to you to determine IF you want to run it and what level of feature set you will be able to run with said hardware.

This is ridiculous. How about I sue Electronic Arts because my computer represent "minimum requirements" on the box and I come home to find out I have to put all the settings at extremely low and it doesn't look as good as I thought it would??? My computer is capable of running the game but not capable of all the bells and whistles that might come along with it if I had a more powerful system. My fault or EA's fault?

Just a bunch of idiots trying to make a quick buck because they bought a cheap pile of crap laptop only to find out that it was a cheap pile of crap laptop.

The problem here is that Windows Home Basic is very little more than Windows XP Home with a new UI. People are finding out that Windows Vista Home Basic is utter crap and starting to complain. Vista Premium and Ultimate (which are fairly stable good OSs) are way more feature intensive (too feature intensive in Ultimates case) and calling them the same is very close to fraudulent.

The problem is marketing. Microsoft showed off the Aero interface, but never made it clear the Aero is not Vista. Hell, I said it from the start that Microsoft could release Aero for XP if they wanted to, but they tied it to vista to drive up sales. Problem is, people bought Vista Capable Machines because there was no clear distinction between Vista and Aero. "Oooh, I want that fancy new Vista interface, better buy a Vista Capable machine."

On the flip side, I don't think that many people went out and bought a new "capable" machine for the sole purpose of getting a new Microsoft OS. Anyone who did is an idiot, I mean, talk about screwing over the early adopters, MS is the king. If you now anything about computers, you know to wait for SP1 before getting a news Windows version.

Most sales of capable computers were to people in the market solely for a new computer, not a new OS. Think about who buys capable-only machines? People buying cheap-ass Dell laptops and desktops running shitty Intel chipsets. They don't care what OS it runs, they just know they want Windows. As such, while I agree Microsoft was less than clear in their marketing, I can't imagine enough people bought a computer specifically for the vista capable label. Rather, they were simply buying the cheapest one they could find, and the promise of upgrading to Vista (for free once it was released) might have provided additional incentive.

If Microsoft had just released Vista AHEAD of the christmas market, they probably could have avoided this whole damn thing.

There is no problem. When you boot up Windows Vista Home Basic the log-in screens says "WINDOWS VISTA." I know it is a hard concept for some but saying Vista Home Basic isn't really Vista is akin to saying the Honda Civic EX isn't really a Honda Civic because it doesn't have the leather, sound system, and sunroof that the LX edition has. The EX is still a Honda Civic it just doesn't have the features that the LX has. Think of Vista Basic as the EX and Vista Premium as the LX. Still Vista and still a Honda.