You’re not wrong, but as privacy conscious consumers we have more ways to force Microsoft and other tech giants to bend the knee than just disengaging with their product and leaving less savvy users to fend for themselves. One such example is legislative action, take a look at how the EU has been wielding their internal market to force companies into more pro-consumer practices. Another is class action lawsuits, there’s a long history of successful suits resulting in lasting change.

You might not agree with me on whether those options are the right path forward here, but I feel that we, as security and privacy conscious owners have a duty to speak up about these things for the majority that can’t or won’t due to their technical abilities.

Why does every mention or discussion of any annoyance in Windows immediately turn into a “install Linux” thread on here?

Sure, Linux might solve the immediate problem for the affected individual (and probably introduce a bunch of new ones as Linux isn’t always as easy to use as advocates try to convince people it is) but it doesn’t solve the larger issue - Microsoft needs to be held accountable for horrible design decisions and anti-consumerist practices.

Not everyone can, or will, switch to Linux. No matter how hard people champion that cause. And even if they do, it’s a process that will take time. In the immediate, lots of people stand to benefit from Microsoft not pulling this sort of bs, and it’s entirely justified to complain about it to make them walk back this decision.

Apple flexing their anti-competitive muscles again.

From locking down the OS to proprietary charging and a staunch opposition to right to repair, their track record has been nothing but anti-consumer for the last decade and a half.

And the worst part is that they’ve gotten away with it for so long and so often that they managed to inspire Android device manufacturers (ahem…Samsung) to follow in their footsteps. Someone really ought to step in and break up the company, Microsoft anti-trust style.

Back before music piracy was a thing; because who’s going to download a 3-4MB file on a 14k4 modem? By the time you grab one song you’d have racked up such an internet bill you might as well have bought the single.