In the PC world, where everyone is responsible for only part of a
product, they all get to share blame for big screw-ups. The recent one
I stumbled across was the whole "Vista Capable" versus "Vista Ready"
labels for computers that were being sold before Vista's release. Here
is
a forum of angry PC users who wanted to use Vista and are mad that
Aero didn't work on the "Vista Capable" PCs they bought.
They're blaming Intel for not releasing "Vista Premium" drivers for
the 915 chips.
Intel has come out to say that it's
Microsoft fault for releasing the specifications too late.
Then we have Microsoft blaming Intel for continuing to sell their
915 chips.
Next we can blame Best Buy for
coming up with the whole Vista Capable versus Vista Ready confusion
so they could sell PCs that were in fact not ready or capable.
There's more finger pointing going on than in a political debate
about why the economy is slow. No one wants to take the blame for
selling computers to users that don't work as expected, even if they
tried to promise less with their confusing marketing buzz words.
Compare this to when Apple released an update to Mac OS X 10.4
"Tiger" and it has graphic card compatibility potential. (See Mac OS X 10.4:
Requirements for Quartz Extreme and Core Image graphics.)
Then with the release of Leopard and Quartz Extreme and Core Image,
Apple
let you know what would work.
Now maybe you had something older and weren't sure, you may still
have had doubts about upgrading. There are some resources that have
popped up to help users, such as
Mac_Geniuses and Low End Mac.
Let's face it, if Apple had tried to confuse people about which
computers could use the new features, they would have been blasted for
stupidity. And rightly so, since Apple does make the whole enchilada,
so is no one to share the blame. If anything is slightly out of place
or whatever, Apple has to take all the heat.
This is yet another reason people like me stick with Apple: At least
we know who to blame when our computers screw up.
Until next time, avoid all Vista Capable computers and stick with a
brand you know you can blame your problems on.
Further Reading
- Tracing
Microsoft's Vista Capable Debacle, ChannelWeb, undated
- Judge OKs
suit over 'Vista Capable', Natalie Weinstein, Cnet News.com,
2008.02.23.
- 'Vista Capable'
logo - what went wrong?, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet,
2008.02.28
-
The Vista Capable fiasco: to hell with system recs!, Joel Hruska,
ars technica, 2003.03.30.
