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Microsoft 'Vista Capable' Settlement Cost Could Be Over $8 Billion

Posted by Soulskill on from the making-seinfeld-look-like-chump-change dept.

bk- writes with news that documents from the "Vista Capable" class-action lawsuit against Microsoft indicate the software giant could be on the hook for as much as $8.52 billion in upgrade costs. "[University of Washington economist Keith] Leffler came up with his total upgrade costs by calculating how much it would cost to upgrade each of the 19.4 million PCs with 1 GB of memory and graphics cards or onboard chipsets able to run Aero, according to Keizer. Leffler put the maximum cost of upgrading the desktops at $155, while positing that the notebooks' integrated graphics would be more tricky to replace and would cost between $245 and $590 per unit. The total price tag for Microsoft would thus range from $3.92 billion to $8.52 billion and in some cases would include complete replacements of notebooks that could not be feasibly upgraded, Leffler testified. Microsoft in its response argued that giving litigants 'a free upgrade to Premium-ready PCs would provide a windfall to millions.'"

5 of 313 comments (clear)

  1. Microsoft Stock? by Cormophyte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anyone? I'll take bits of string, bug collections, and good will in trade. Just, please, get me off this train.

    1. Re:Microsoft Stock? by stfvon007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ill take 100,000 shares. Im out of toilet paper.

      --
      All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
  2. Re:Does these 8 billion take into account... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    MS can probably make Aero run on 513 MB RAM

    So you'd just need to find/add a 1MB DIMM?

  3. Re:why just Microsoft? by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 5, Funny

    I dislike Microsoft as much as the next guy

    Poster: Can I be moderated as "interesting" please?
    Slashdot: No. Sod off.
    Poster: Look, I hate Microsoft as much as anyone!
    Slashdot: If you want to be interesting, you'll have to really hate Microsoft.
    Poster: I do!
    Slashdot: Oh yeah? How much?
    Poster: A lot!
    Slashdot: OK, you're +5 interesting.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  4. Re:does anyone actually believe this crap? by windsurfer619 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...duke nukem forever being released simultanously by steve jobs while monkeys fly out his ass.

    You're modded +1 interesting because some fanboy somewhere thought it would be an interesting Apple product.