There are lots of embarrassing aspects to the story. The stock photo. The blatant falsehoods (such as the insinuations that neither Office nor Internet Explorer are available for the Mac). The marketing-speak that permeates the entire article. That it reeks of a juvenile response to Apple’s Switch ads. But the most damaging issue is the idea that the entire article was simply made up, that it’s a fabricated testimonial which Microsoft tried to pass off as the true story of an actual person.

Bad marketing is one thing. Bald-faced lying is another.

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Microsoft fessed up to the bad marketing. But they’re sticking to the claim that there exists a legitimate author of the article. In other words, Yes, it was poorly done; but we didn’t just make it up.

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The details of the switcher article, however amusing, are not important. The real story is that at Microsoft — indisputably one of the most powerful, most successful corporations in the world — it is standard operating procedure to fabricate customer testimonials.

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The Daring Fireball is most definitely not an anti-Microsoft web site. I’m not opposed to Windows — I’m opposed to blatant lying.
Caught in a lie, Microsoft stupidly chose to lie again. This is the exact sort of situation “No comment” was made for. Better still would have been to simply fess up and admit the whole thing was a sham, but that’s a lot to ask from Microsoft.