Microsoft is being sued by a man who feels cheated by the current plans to sunset Windows 10. He makes some good points, but I doubt he’ll win.

  • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    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.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • Xzyer@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        It’s really not hard to find the original statement from Microsoft, which was made by a Microsoft employee.

        At the 2015 Ignite conference, Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon stated that Windows 10 would be the “last version of Windows”, a statement reflecting the company’s intent to apply the software as a service business model to Windows, with new versions and updates to be released over an indefinite period.[68][69][70] In 2021, however, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be succeeded on compatible hardware by Windows 11—and that Windows 10 support will end on October 14, 2025, marking a departure from what had been dubbed “Windows as a service”.[71][72]

        • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Did you even read my comment? I already addressed what you said, and already included the quote.

          But I really like how in the text you copied, “Windows 10 is the last version of Windows”, a factual statement about the newest version of Windows at the time, was editorialized into “Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows”, a statement about the future that was never said.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        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.”

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 months ago

          Again, an employee speaking off the cuff in an unofficial way isn’t “the company making claims.”

          If this was the janitorial staff, would you have taken them at their word? An intern who waddled on stage? Granted Nixon had a little more authority within the company than either of those individuals, but he was by no means in a position that anyone paying attention would take his word on this particular statement.

          The issue here is that the media took this “random” employees word as gospel and without getting clarification ran with dozens of “ThiS Is tHe lASt vErSIoN oF wINdOwS!” clickbait articles. All fact checking thrown out the window, no proper follow up. They just spun an entire story out of his off the cuff statement.

          Edit: It should be clarified: Nixon wasn’t an executive. He was a software developer. I don’t believe he was even a “senior software developer” at the time.

    • CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’s a free upgrade. Bitching about the version is insane. It was a marketing change they turned around on. It still meant you get a free upgrade which used to cost money.

      • Alexstarfire@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Not if your PC doesn’t support some arbitrary requirements. I can’t upgrade because of the TPM requirement. There are ways to get around it. But at the same time Windows 11 isn’t really something I want to upgrade to. It’s got a bunch of crap I don’t need or want. Not that Windows 10 didn’t. Windows 11 is just worse and I’ve drawn a line.

        I have to use Windows 11 for work so I know what I’m missing. Nothing. Well, the screenshot button being mapped to the snipping tool is nice. But there is already a shortcut for the snipping tool.

        • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.mlBanned
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          2 months ago

          TPM isn’t arbitrary, it’s the path to a new from of CPU embedded, digital rights management that will marry your software to your cpu and make it non-transferable. The end goal being some successor of pluton where all code you download is encrypted and you can’t ever see it.

          You won’t be able to jailbreak your PC in the future, just like 99% of smartphones.

  • UltraMagnus@startrek.website
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    2 months ago

    The assumption that you’ll lose a lawsuit against a large corporation probably stops a lot of viable lawsuits from ever happening - good for him for giving it a go.

    • Iunnrais@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Some key software I need to use doesn’t work on Linux, and is unlikely to be able to in the near future, sorry. I did use Linux for a while, mind you, and I more or less like it… but a computer is only useful if it runs the software you need to do the things you want to do with it.

      I don’t want to downgrade to windows 11, but I’m going to be forced to. And to even do that I’m going to need to bypass the hardware authenticator, as I’m apparently ever so slightly behind their so-called minimum requirements, which aren’t really minimum requirements but just a push to get me to buy a new PC I don’t need.

    • Lazylazycat@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I only really use my laptop to DJ and you can’t run Rekordbox on Linux. I’d love to swap, but Linux doesn’t seem to do what I need it to do.

    • kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      I wish more people were willing to give Linux a shot but I also understand that for most of them its a matter of the devil you know versus the one you don’t. They don’t want to learn a new OS when they can just to do their banking and watch TikTok with what they have.

    • absentbird@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I’ve found that many people will go to great lengths to avoid learning anything new.

      They want to be able to ignore their computers as much as possible, even considering the prospect of alternative software is taxing and upsetting for them.

      I think that’s basically how Microsoft and Adobe are so successful, they bought and cheated their way into the default position, and now they can do whatever they want with no real repercussions.

      The user wants to click on the same icons with the same names as before, sometimes it’s as simple as wanting the same name; if it’s not called ‘outlook’ they don’t want it, doesn’t matter how well it works.

      • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        So I’m partially on board with you.

        HOWEVER, windows 11 is dog shit. It’s been over 2 years and is still broken. Missing many features that are available in 10, some super basic shit.

        Don’t even get me started on teams/teams classic/teams new, outlook classic/outlook new (also dog shit, dragged a folder inside a folder and it fucking vanished. Had to disable “new” to get it back). Fuck new outlook. I feel like Microsoft is fragmented with what they want to do and not going anywhere, so we’re here with half broken paid app$.

        Coupled with the fact 11 is really pushing ai crap, won’t run legit on decent hardware, people are tired of having to buy a new computer every four years. I’m still running an 8th gen, spent $2k+ when I made it and other than being able to play newer games, it doesn’t feel like a thing changed under the hood. I upgrade as needed, added a little more ram and recently got a 3070 GPU, but there is zero reason to replace my machine. Even though 8th gen is the cut off for TPM requirements, my point still stands.

        I have several 8th gen dells I used as servers, no reason to replace those for an ad riddled operating system.

        Wanting to change and being forced to upgrade are completely different things and I see both sides, having people learn something new and forcing it for “reasons” is bullshit.

  • iterable@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Never forget we were told Windows 10 would be the last version. That all updates from then on would be only to Windows 10.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      Literally why I paid for a new version instead of… Finding other ways to install it.

      That’s on us though for believing scumbag corporations won’t just straight up lie to sell stuff I suppose :(

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I hope he wins.

    Windows peaked with XP. 7 was alright. 8 was a free fall of a downward slide falloff.

    Appified overly complicated slop and bloat filled garbage ever since.

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 months ago

      It’s much easier to install Linux these days than it is to install Windows. And with KDE Plasma the user experience is really similar. As for the distribution I would suggest OpenSuse as that has very little requirement for terminal commands, they’ve packaged GUI elements in the whole distro.

      As for Tumbleweed vs regular, that’s up to you. I’m happy with Tumbleweed.

    • wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      As someone who recently made the switch, DM me if there’s anything I can help with. A lot of the Linux Bros on here will be completely unhelpful out of smug superiority. Also, if you have an HP, you will almost certainly have to do a LOT more work (I had to learn to edit GRUB config files pre-startup). It will be much easier if you don’t have an HP. Anyway, open offer. Also, do Linux Mint.