This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
He'd probably have an easier time with the lawsuit if instead of appealing to upgrade logic, he just went with, I don't know...
THE TIME MICROSOFT PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED WINDOWS 10 WOULD BE THE LAST NUMBERED VERSION AND THAT THEY'D NEVER NEED TO UPGRADE OS VERSION AGAIN.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32658340
Pepperidge Farm remembers, Microsoft scum.
To be fair, win 11 is more or less win 10 just with a shittier UI and even more intrusive bullshit.
No, they never did. Yes, it was all over the news, but they literally didn't. Go be angry at media for making stuff up. You don't have to believe me, go ahead and find that announcement yourself. You won't because there was never such an announcement.
Notice how even the article you linked doesn't give a full quote? It just quotes someone saying "last version" without any context of the sentence it was used in? I will give you the full quote where that comes form. Someone asked a Microsoft developer what they are currently working on, and the answer was:
”Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.”
It is obvious from context "last version" meant "latest version" here. And that misreading of a quote, conveniently not included in most articles, is the only source for all these news. No announcement. No journalist actually asking Microsoft about it. Just a fleeting comment by one Microsoft employee that obviously meant something else, in an answer about something else, but why let that get in the way of a good story.
And this was an answer to an audience question in a "Tiles, Notifications, and Action Center” presentation by a single Microsoft developer, on a developer conference. The absolute last place to look for a ground-breaking announcement about Microsoft's future.
The company said it had yet to decide on what to call the operating system beyond Windows 10.
And the exact same article you linked confirms Microsoft is still deciding on the name for the next Windows? Which would make no sense if there was no next Windows?
"There will be no Windows 11," warned Steve Kleynhans, a research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner.
There will be no Windows 11, says some guy who doesn't work at Microsoft.
And then a bunch of cherry picked quotes about continous updates being a good thing. Yep, continous updates, just like we got in Windows Vista, and that have nothing to do with there not being new Windows versions.
Modern journalism is useless. Someone made up a thing, everyone else copied it. And not a single media outlet actually asked Microsoft about it. No one. Or maybe they did, but the answer meant there is no news, so let's ignore it.
"Modern journalism is useless", but when Jerry Nixon said "last", you're telling us he really meant "latest."
Go on, pull the other one. No really, it's got bells on it.
Nixon wasn’t speaking authoritatively there, I believe both he and M$ clarified that. And the “correlating” announcement was more “we will be continuously updating windows 10” unlike the assumed by many people to mean “perpetually” which is just silly.
You’re telling me you expected windows 10 to remain forever the last Windows version? Maybe if they decided to rename the OS moving forward.
I suppose you could take the stance of it just becoming versioned in the same way Linux distros are, but then you just get left being on an old version of Windows 10.
“perpetually” which is just silly.
That's basically how Linux works, especially if you use a rolling release distro like Arch, openSUSE Tumbleweed, or Fedora Silverblue.
Honestly, if Windows followed a similar policy, I think people would be less interested in alternatives. Perhaps charge for access to new features, drop support for older hardware, etc, but let people keep using it if they like it.
No, I didn't expect that, which is why it was stupid to say it in the first place. You can't turn this around and put it on the customer to have to read between the lines what the business is trying to actually say. How about, the multi-billion dollar company that has entire buildings full of lawyers doesn't make claims that it can't back up?
I'm not saying it's right to expect that the Windows operating system was never going to have to have a paid upgrade again, but it was also stupid and wrong to make the claim that it wouldn't. That's on them. Nobody held a gun to their head and told them to lie to their customers and then later claim they didn't mean it. And furthermore, why give them the benefit of the doubt? You think if you were in trouble because of something stupid you said, Microsoft is going to come to your aid? Is it being fair? To a company that wouldn't care if they accidentally bankrupted you with a forced update?
And sure, they can "clarify"all they want that he didn't mean the words that he said precisely and accurately in unambiguous English. It doesn't change the fact that he's not some random employee. He is an executive. He knows, and everyone else should know as well, that he speaks as a representative of the company. Otherwise what's to keep them from lying through their teeth about whatever features they want? "It prints free money! It'll cure all your diseases! No, no.. he didn't mean that."
I agree that windows should not stop supporting previous versions of windows. Especially when going from windows 10 to 11 wasn't at all that big of a change. They very easily could have waited longer before making windows 11 the standard or even windows 11 period because it was not that big of a change.
Unfortunately they did not do anything illegal in my opinion but we'll have to see how this plays out I guess.
The end of the article misses one possible way to deal with your computer, migrating to Linux. It's not possible for all the mass of people, but it's still a possibility.
I feel like Linux right now is where Windows was in the XP days. for 90% of users it will work out of the box for them. They will be able to check their email, watch YouTube, doom scroll on their choose social media. The challenge is that for the other 10%, the learning curve is a lot steeper than XP was. The learning curve problem is compounded by the massive pile of guide for deprecated sub systems.
Looking into switching to Linux...
May you run into a nerd with a Ventoy USB full of beginner-friendly distros in their back pocket to help you along your journey.
There are at least two of us out there, I’m sure of it.
Do it.
If you have an old laptop, put Linux on it, get comfortable using it. Then when you are ready, make the full switch on your main computer.
I have used Linux for a few years mostly on my servers, but that's what I did to get used to the desktop experience. I setup a second SSD to have the option of dual booting if I needed it. That was back in March and I haven't booted into Windows once.
Even if he does win, it's still Windows, still under their control. It'd be maliciously and quite supraliminaly enshittified until it's unusable. Just slap on a CachyOS or anything else open source
supraliminal
Thanks for my word of the day!
