this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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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."
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.