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Tue, 18 Nov 2008 Microsoft emails detail internal fight on 'Vista Capable'

Numerous Microsoft employees urged their company to hold the line on graphics requirements

Gregg Keizer Computerworld

Numerous Microsoft employees, including some top executives, urged their company to hold the line on the graphics requirements for the "Vista Capable" marketing campaign, both before and after the decision was made to loosen the rules, according to insider emails recently unsealed by a federal judge.

Relaxing the requirements for the program, which was designed to promote currently-available PCs as capable of running Windows Vista when it shipped months later, allowed the entry-level Intel 915 integrated graphics chipset to qualify, a move that pleased Intel but made another major partner, Hewlett-Packard (HP), furious.

In the months leading up to the late-January 2006 decision to drop support for Windows Device Driver Model (WDDM) as a requirement for a Vista Capable PC, Microsoft employees lobbied hard to hold fast even as some computer makers started to complain. WDDM was Vista's revamped driver architecture.

In June 2005, for instance, Dell essentially asked for a waiver that would let it build and sell systems with graphics that did not support LDDM, but still sport the Vista Capable sticker. (LDDM, or Longhorn Device Driver Model, was the name for WDDM when the operating system was still code-named "Longhorn.")

Microsoft refused Dell's request. "We have discussed this with the graphics team. We will be holding the line on LDDM for Standard Logo," an unidentified Microsoft employee wrote in an email explaining the waiver rejection. "LDDM is fundamental to stability and graphics is one of the primary contributors to OCA [online crash analysis]."

Another internal message around the same time expanded on why LDDM was important to Vista Capable. "Our data shows that customers are significantly impacted by the stability of the display drivers, and the LDDM architecture in LH [Longhorn] is explicitly designed to address that customer issue."

A third message spelled it out even plainer that the LDDM/WDDM requirement was where Microsoft would draw a line in the sand. "We NEED to hold the line here. LDDM = LOGO. no LDDM, no LOGO," the message read.

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Comments received


gabriel said on Tue, 18 Nov 2008

Not at all suprising. It's one more time Microsoft way of life.

Greendave said on Tue, 18 Nov 2008

Imagine the outcry and press coverage if this story had been about Apple. Because it is Microsoft we all just accept it because we know they are a devious, misleading, couldn't give a damn about their customers type of company.

Scott said on Tue, 18 Nov 2008

I can't disable these annoying Vibrant ads! How?

james Zuppicich said on Wed, 19 Nov 2008

Amazing, the willingness to be mediocore, is just stunning to see.

no wonder apple is doing so well.

Baskaran said on Wed, 19 Nov 2008

In one word Microsoft is just going 'NoWare' with the Windows. MixWare of 2009 is very scary (Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista - all with driver models mixedup). It is a big challenge to test the MixWare with 10 Billion Dollars.

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