14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2006, even before the release to manufacturing of Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced the Windows Vista Capable logo program, designed to fuel computer sales over the holidays despite the fact that the operating system would only manage to hit the shelves on January 30, 2007. The logos were meant to indicate which machines, at that time pre-loaded with Windows XP, were capable of running at least the low end edition of Vista. Microsoft's latest Windows client comes in no less than four flavors for the general consumer market: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.
Windows Vista Capable stickers were set up to indicate that a specific PC could run at least the Home Basic SKU. Although Microsoft made this aspect clear in its marketing campaign, the Capable label was not without controversy, and in this context mockery is not far behind. Case in point: the collection of strikers in the adjacent image that apparently advertise Linux ready machines. And of course that a computer that is Capable to run the open source operating system has to be Incapable to run Vista. At the same time the Incapable tagging can backfire, meaning that only machines that cannot run Vista due to poor resources and system configuration are tailored to Linux.
Microsoft is even facing a lawsuit over the Capable designation by two consumer who misunderstood the label, believing that it applied to all Vistas. Apparently even Microsoft executives were confused on the matter, as reported by SeattlePI: "Capable is a statement -- single-word statement -- that has an interpretation for many that, in the context of this program, a PC would be able to run any version of the Windows operating system. Ready may have concerns that the PC would run in some improved or better way than -- than capable; therefore, the word capable was deemed to be a more fitting word for this program," reads the statement of Microsoft marketing director, Mark Croft. The statement was subsequently retracted.