After it has kicked Microsoft's latest operating system with extensive support for Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP, U.S. computer manufacturer Dell now managed to lose Windows Vista altogether. This is not a joke, although the way Dell has been managing Windows Vista is nothing short of hilarious. By continuing on its current trajectory, the world's second largest computer maker following HP, has the potential to go very far from its current position of close Microsoft partner. The latest stunts that Dell is pulling with Windows Vista can certainly catalyze a divorce between the original equipment manufacturer and the Redmond company.

Case in point: the piss poor condition in which Dell understood to ship the XPS M1330 laptop featured in the adjacent image. What's wrong with it? Well... a number of things, actually. There are a few defective things here and there, some details got a tad ripped and even burned, other accessories were a tad loose and falling off. Nothing that you would expect to go wrong with a laptop costing over $2,000. But there is a clear promise on the Dell official website for the various versions of the XPS M1330 laptops - "OPERATING SYSTEM(S): Genuine Windows Vista�2 Home Premium Edition."

Well, that's not the case. Not even close. The XPS in the image did not ship with Windows Vista Home Premium, and it didn't even come pre-loaded with Windows XP instead, which would have been some alternative. Not even with the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. The XPS had absolutely no operating system installed. None whatsoever. And to make matters worse, Dell did not even bother to load the BIOS. Just a sweet deal from Dell. One thing that Dell did get right is the mock level, as it glued the Windows Vista Capable logo on the laptop. And it's not the first time that the computer manufacturer miss-handles Windows Vista. Dell is in fact the author of "The worst, absolute piss-poor Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate comparison" as well as the company according to which Windows Vista Home Basic can "only boot, but cannot run any applications or games."