There’s something you people seem to completely ignore. Every OS or piece of software is merely a tool. Being it used for entertainment, business or creativity, it’s still a tool, no matter which OS it is.

Yeah, that is, unless the tool suddenly turns you into its slave. And this is what NT 6.x series is all about - you are no longer in full control of your own hardware, software and even your private data is no longer private! I’m perfectly sure none of you has actually read the EULA of Windows 10 and none of you actually tried to intercept what data it sends via “Telemetry”. Turns out, among other things, it also sends screenshots of your desktop (in RSA-encrypted form, which are very easy to decrypt, because the keys are also send in the exact same traffic session). Do you still wonder why Microsoft don’t gives a heck about your own work and forces OS updates in the middle of things you may lose your very own job for?

The whole idea of W10’s peer-to-peer update distribution and forced faulty driver installation without user’s consent says a lot about current Microsoft’s goals - “lessen expenses, make more money, don’t care about consequences because money is everything”.

What makes it worse, Windows 10 “free upgrade”, being a spyware itself (telemetry is integrated even into file system drivers, as this debug symbol disassembly shows), is distributed just like any other malware (what Agent Orange has mentioned). Microsoft is that desperate to lock sla… oh, sorry, customers into its new business model.

Over these years, they already forced abomination called UEFI onto x86 platform (non-coincidentally, UEFI uses Windows PE executable format) in a failed preparation to get rid of “alternative” OSes (alas, certain devices already require hard modding to unlock UEFI settings and disable “Secure Boot” which prevents installation of Linux), which sadly introduced ton of security breaches and easy ways of bricking your own machine (unfamous “rm ~~rf /*” under Linux also manages to wipe data from UEFI BIOS).

I do know about these things because I’ve experienced most of them personally. I gave Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and even 10 a chance, and each time, after a couple of weeks, I rolled back to XP. My opinion is completely based on own experience, I’m working with PC for over 20 years ~~ I have tightly worked with DOS, OS/2 Warp, first releases of Slackware Linux, MacOS 6, and the most version of Windows, starting from 3.11 for Workgroups.

In conclusion, “current” Windows editions are abomination developed solely to be a parasite which strangles previously free “IBM PC-compatible” ecosystem.

P.S. By the way, I had a rather bizarre situation when one of my client’s machine couldn’t make sound card work under 7, because the drivers couldn’t detect if headphones are connected, even though they physically were. Seriously, Microsoft? How delusional you should be to program drivers that way?

1. ‘Your data is no longer private’
    
   ‘you are no longer in full control of your own hardware, software and even your private data is no longer private’
    
   I say one word: go yay yourself. I mean, MS doesn’t give a shit about what you do even they take screenshots of your desktop and sends it to MS. And speaking of ‘not private’ anymore, how exactly? You still have free access to your files, and keep it safe. I don’t even know what that bs belief is even from..
    
2. Forced updates
    
   This one is pretty much got less now, and if you read EULA revised recently (March 2017 I believe), you can see that MS changed its own update policy. Also, forced updates = less expenses? How??
    
3. GWX.exe (Get Windows 10 process) is a spyware
    
   Oh my god. You still think that is distributed unlike any other malware? I say it is bullshit. IT IS JUST A GODDAMN MS WINDOWS UPDATE.
    
4. UEFI causes removing the alternative OSes, and makes Linux fail to install
    
   Secure boot can be always turned on or off by BIOS (or UEFI BIOS) setup. And as far as I know, just disabling Secure Boot option doesn’t means you will be getting a lot of security breaches as long as your MBR or GPT table got fucked up.  
   Also, speaking of ‘removing alt OSes’, is that you meant that bootmgr takes priority over the Linux Boot Manager?
    
5. Driver incompatibility under 7
    
   Useful quote:  
   @LemonDrop  

@DarthBarf
Trust me friend, if windows was actually sending screenshots of your desktop to their servers there’d be a lot bigger deal made about it. Try not to link fake videos lol.

Oh yeah btw, Microsoft doesn’t make drivers for sound cards like that. Don’t blame Windows for someone else’s shitty driver programming.

@DarthBarf
Give me a port number and I’ll glady run a packet sniffer on it and find nothing just for you.

I think I still have a Laser 128 Apple ][e compatible in the storeroom.

@TexasUberAlles
Laptop.