Boy, the good ole days are gone when it comes to Windows. I am posting just to help anybody that doesn’t know. This is like a creepy wire tap. If you are actually using Windows 11, make sure to disable and or reduce telemetry in Windows 11 (Privacy). If that actually helps, I am sure there are more ways they send data back but the video link is a simple how to for the telemetry. Here is more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtg_s1GQiMU
There is zero reason to use Windows now. Linux has gotten so good that even a noob can install distros like Ubuntu and Mint. I have Linux running as my main on an old Zephyrus laptop after it arbitrarily installed W11 without my permission or prompting. Windows is spyware and gets isolated in my network.
zero for you perhaps, but I unfortunately need Adobe InDesign and Illustrator (and Photoshop but that has more alternatives), or similar software that has the many professional features I use
also need my games and mods to run on Linux… currently ProtonDB says my Steam library is 51% platinum and gold, and then I haven’t even addressed older or online games
I have to use those tools for work (more so in the past), but I’m on macOS for that stuff. That’s a cost-prohibitive layer though. There’s AffinityOnLinux, but I’ve never used it myself. Raster and vector editing are areas have been sadly devoid of comparable software on the Linux side.
Edit: small edits for clarity.
I’d recommend putting more time into switching to Linux instead of pirating Enterprise versions of Windows and then installing and configuring a bunch of third-party software that is supposed to stop Microsoft from doing all the Microsoft things we don’t like. That seems like it’s a lot of work and effort too, plus they are actively hostile towards users instead of just “not ready”.
Windows: constantly having to apply patches and run tools to combat the privacy violations.
Linux: install once, run updates regularly, never have to worry about the constant privacy issues.
I appreciate that those tools exist for de-bloating Windows, but that sounds like a giant pain in the ass.