July 15, 2005
Will Johnson refers to 'Longhorn Ready' PCs and Best Buy's issues with hardware support ahead of the launch of the still-developing Vista marketing campaign, 'especially as it relates to the Intel/AMD chip roadmap issue'. Already, concerns were being expressed that available hardware wouldn't support the new Vista OS. (pg. 140, pictured)
Aug. 5, 2005
Eric Charbonneau addresses apparently separate 'Vista Ready' and 'Vista Logo' marketing programs in an e-mail bulletin. At that point, 'LDDM capable graphics solutions' (necessary to run Aero) would be 'required for both the Vista Ready and the Vista Logo program.' Meanwhile, systems built on Intel's 915 chipset 'will not be eligible for the Windows Vista Ready designation.' (pg. 28)
When the Vista Capable category was added to the Vista marketing plan, the 915 chipset would be eligible for Vista branding. That chipset would become a major bone of contention between Microsoft executives during the year before Vista's launch.
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