Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 PCs specifically set to block updates

Let's take a look at what the "opting out" looked like:

"OMG OMG, there's a completely different thing in the computer than there was yesterday! Make it go away!! I didn't touch nothing this time!!!" And lo and behold, there was indeed a completely different OS, without any attempt at obtaining user consent (or, even worse, against the expressed denial of consent). Are you surprised that the users "opted out" of further violations of expectations?

TL;DR: nonconsensual "upgrade" bad; perhaps the tea analogy didn't quite register with MS? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8

Nothing that Microsoft is doing is shady and every department is user friendly.

There. I've argued my points as well as you have yours.

> I've never known anyone to have an "e-mail" checking machine in their kitchen.

I saw a lot of that in years past. Seems that there was a trend for awhile to have a builtin desk in the kitchen, and that desk typically had a Windows computer on it. I doubt many of these people used it for more than email and basic stuff.

> Go ahead, find one. I'll wait. Please tell me what OS is going to replace Windows??

I'm seeing Linux slowly take over on workstations, both at home and at the office. I'm no longer surprised to find Linux installed where previously it would have been unheard of.

These are just my observations, though.

> By pushing to make Windows as idiot-proof as possible, Microsoft is zagging when it should zig. [...] Their only hope is to position Windows as the OS for people who want to get serious work done

Arguably that's what they are doing by making Windows as idiot-proof as possible. For all their accidental botnets, the home users forgetting or not knowing to keep their machines updated are one problem, sure, but let's not forget that the real villains in not keeping Windows machines up to date are all in Enterprise IT. There are so many people actively working to keep machines out of date in the name of keeping their jobs "easy" or "stability", and that should be a staggering statistic.

I've got a feeling the number of Fortune 5,000 companies that have contributed to botnets is incredibly underreported, and I've got a feeling the number of Fortune 500 companies that have only avoided that fate by raw luck and bubble gum is a lot bigger than people think.

> Telemetry

Enterprise loves Telemetry. They want your machine to spy on all your activities. They want to complain that you spend too much time on HN and accidentally glance at articles related to "Gaming" during work time because they have a cool HN discussion thread.

Admittedly, some are overtly mad at Microsoft for getting access to that data themselves and trying to use some telemetry to improve their products, but how many of those complaining are covertly excited that they get access to the same data in tools like System Center?

> User-hostile update policies.

Per above, Enterprises have shown they need to be forced to update too.

> Pushing a Microsoft account for desktop login.

Enterprises love accounts. It helps keep things accountable. (Terrible pun intended.) Your Microsoft account gets to connect to your Office 365 work account. They can send you reminders to your personal Microsoft Account via the Microsoft Graph to your home computer to get back to work, if you let them. With BYOD workplaces, your home computer can double as your workplace computer and you can be so productive with all your accounts communicating together in "harmony", personal and work.

For the users used to using an AD domain account every day at work, a personal Microsoft Account can make their home devices feel like a "real boy" with the nice things like profile roaming that their Enterprise AD accounts get (assuming the Enterprise doesn't turn off nice things with Group Policies and mismanagement, of course).

> These things are not office-user friendly

Except for Minecraft, these things are extremely office-user friendly. These are things Enterprises love. These are reasons why most Enterprises couldn't quit Windows if they tried.

(Even forced updates; as much as some companies are griping right now, soon it will be the new normal and corporate ITs will adjust. They'll continue to complain, having a nice scapegoat to blame in Microsoft for update failures, but they'll also likely enjoy the perks of the new regime eventually as they realize that tech debt of not updating was its own misery and less "easy" than they thought it was.)

I have to use a bash script to increase/decrease brightness. The keyboard keys do nothing. My audio comes out both the headphones and speakers when the headphones are plugged in. Sometimes I have to use a bash script to make it play out the headphones. It'll still play out the speakers.

It's still a better experience than Windows 10.