There are always one or two in every crowd ... while others were either gloating that they hadn't been sucked into the world of Windows Vista, or complaining that they had and couldn't get out of it, two consumers brought a class-action suit over the marketing of "Vista Capable" machines. This week, the lawsuit was expanded by a Seattle District Court federal judge to "potentially include all consumers who purchased a Windows XP PC advertised as 'Vista Capable,'" according to this Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece.

Microsoft had attempted to have the case dismissed, but the expanded lawsuit has led to an even more disastrous event. Internal company e-mails from executives, some of whom led portions of the Vista project, have now been released, showing that Microsoft employees themselves had virtually the same questions and problems as consumers with "Vista Capable" machines and running the OS.

The e-mails illuminate not only problems for Microsoft employees trying to run Vista on their machines or trying to purchase new machines for that purpose, but also internal wrangling over capability designations for specific chipsets and frustration expressed by retailers, reports Todd Bishop.

The Post-Intelligencer, among other sites, has published the text of the e-mails.