'Vista Capable' Machines May Not Be

The environmental impact of Microsoft's Vista operating system will be large; it is projected that over 10 million PCs will be scrapped as a direct result of upgrading to Vista, and the UK Green Party thinks it will create a Vista upgrade layer that will be identifiable by archaeologists. So, based on this and the limited additional functionality the OS provides, this TH is not changing to Vista any time soon.

But there's more - turns out that some systems that are advertised as "Vista capable" (with the sticker) are in fact not capable of properly running Vista. A class is now suing Microsoft over this, alleging that the marketing around Vista was designed to deliberately mislead potential customers. Microsoft has already changed their stance, citing that a 'Vista capable' machine might not be able to run all of the versions (at least five) of Vista out there.

If you leaf through almost any PC catalog, you will discover that Vista is almost the sole choice for new PC systems. I don't know about you, but as Robert Cringely points out, you might find it maddening when you buy a system with a 'Vista Capable' sticker on it then discover your graphics or sound card won't work because the driver is not ready, or that it won't run the version with the 'cool' Aero interface. And when you consider that it took 1800 pounds of raw materials to make that computer, one must wonder what the environmental benefits are of vending systems that are obsolete as soon as they are off the shelf.