Downgrade to XP is $60: Microsoft sued

In Monday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches Microsoft get sued over a fee to downgrade from Vista to XP. Not to mention a special Valentine's Day gift...

Gregg Keizer reports:

A California woman has sued Microsoft Corp. over the $59.25 fee she was charged to "downgrade" Windows Vista on a new laptop to the older Windows XP, federal court documents show ... Microsoft's latest legal problem related to Windows Vista, which has faced scrutiny for nearly two years in the better-known "Vista Capable" case.

Los Angeles resident Emma Alvarado charged Microsoft with multiple violations of Washington state's unfair business practices and consumer protection laws over its policy of barring computer makers from continuing to offer XP on new PCs after Vista's early-2007 launch. Alvarado is seeking compensatory damages and wants the case declared a class-action suit.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols adds:

Emma Alvarado is mad as heck and she's not going to take it anymore ... Most people would have just complained about it and moved on. Not Alvarado.
...
Aware that many Windows users are ready to skip Vista entirely for Windows 7, Microsoft is insisting that business customers should 'upgrade' from XP to Vista instead of waiting for Windows 7. Yeah. Right. Tell that to Alvarado and the hundreds of thousands of other users who have been forced to pay out hard won cash for XP. I'm sure their lawyers would love to hear how moving 'up' to Vista was what they wanted.

Michael Santo asks the pertinent question:

The lawsuit also claims, without citing a source, that "to date, nearly one in three consumers purchasing a new computer has paid to downgrade the operating system from Vista to Windows XP."

Thing is, who's setting the price, and who's getting the money?

flyingfsck gives... this:

The issue is that in order to buy XP, people were forced to buy Vista as well. That practice is called Tied Selling and it is illegal in many states.

Eric Baird elaborates:

Yep, MS could get into trouble for market abuse for their current inconsistencies over who is "allowed" XP and who isn't. If they'd simply pulled the plug on XP totally, and said, "that's it, we aren't going to sell XP any more, because it's old and we don't want to be lumbered with the after-sales support forever", then that might be a legitimate manufacturer's decision.
...
The question is, how much control should a dominant component manufacturer have over how their products are used?

But David Diskin wears his happy face:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't these users opt to downgrade knowing there would be an additional charge?

Not to mention that the charge is from Dell or HP or whatever OEM, and not Microsoft, but the customer opted for it.

Falstius wonders if it's worse than Alvarado thinks:

In order to purchase the XP 'downgrade', you also had to purchase Vista Business. So the actual cost over Vista Home was closer to $150 dollars.

Meanwhile, Mr. Conrad joshes:

The suit has been canceled after Emma Alvarado was abducted by a mysterious, well-organized, group of mosquitoes. When asked for a comment on the strange occurrence, Bill Gates is said to have laughed awkwardly while pressing his fingertips together. More on this as it develops.

And finally...

• A Special Valentine's Day Gift... from Cisco
  [hat tip: LaSandra Brill]

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• 1234567890 seconds since 1/1/1970: tonight!
• Industry gets serious about Downadup, aka Conficker
• "Ditch XP for Vista," begs Microsoft

Buffer overflow:

• Erick Schonfeld: Mining The Thought Stream
• Philip Elmer-DeWitt: Tracking the iPhone's bubble of hype
• James Kendrick: Microsoft Recite preview available
• Richard Stiennon: The Internet we have is just fine  —  Thanks to the New York Times
• Lidija Davis: A Computer Repair Utility Kit You Can Run From a Thumb Drive

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Seth H. Weintraub: You can now easily edit Google spreadsheets on your iPhone
• Robert L. Mitchell: Do background checks a better valentine make?
• Dan Tynan: Google Android: It's put up or shut up time
• Eric Ogren: Customer experiences thin clients
• Sharon Machlis: Computer industry unemployment - yup, it's up
• Darren Gladstone: Games are not art, are they?
• Douglas Schweitzer: More government computers missing
• Eric Lundquist: 2009: virtualization crossover year

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 23 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.