Yet Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has denied having any "unique involvement in any decisions regarding the Windows Vista Capable program" and has said that responsibility belonged to Will Poole, then in charge of the client version of Windows. The plaintiff's lawyers are now trying to force Ballmer to testify.
Based on the disclosed e-mails, Poole made the final decision to relax the WDDM requirement for the Vista Capable program despite protest e-mails from Allchin and others including: Mark Croft, Director of Windows Marketing; Mike Ybarra, a Director of Product Management; Michael Wallent, a General Manager in the Windows Client Group; and Bob Aoki, a Microsoft General Manager.
How did Poole pull this off? Wasn't Allchin above him? This seems too important to be an under the radar type decision. It's easier now to understand why Allchin left Microsoft about 30 seconds after Vista shipped.
Saying "my hands are tied" is the most common excuse of the modern era for not doing the right thing. Sometimes it's the truth: you couldn't do anything about it—forcing the issue would get you in trouble or cost you your job. Not everybody is cut out for whistle-blowing.
Yet too many people in powerful positions at Microsoft saw the dangers of relaxing the Vista Capable rules, and it still happened. From where I stand, they tied their own hands on this one.
What do you think?
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