New data and information related to the current legal actions launched in USA against Microsoft have been released. Current actions are targeting the broad usage of "Vista Capable" logo on hardware which were not able or powerful enough to run windows Aero rendering.New data indicate that Microsoft might have agreed under pressures from Intel, OEM and PC manufacturers to decrease the minimal specifications required for Vista Aero in order to allow entry-level hardware to be certified "Vista Capable" whereas they would not let users run all features of vista. Among that information are email exchanges describing precisely those points as well as involving directly Steve Ballmer. Despite his original claims that he was not aware of this Vista over-certification of hardware models, it seems that Steve Ballmer knew about it and even asked some Microsoft employees and executives who were worried about such practices to calm down and keep it under cover.
Such data will most likely strongly affect Microsoft's Lawyers strategy and push them to offer financial compensation while having to pay a huge fee. At the end, Vista might well be the most expensive windows version ever developer and sold by Microsoft, if one considers its extremely short lifetime as Windows 7 is already predicted for mid 2009…
