This is an excellent article as well as a sign of the times. I wish the list of Linux choices had included Mint, which is essentially Ubuntu without Snaps. Snaps are a partly closed-source Ubuntu project that contradicts the open nature of Linux.
Linux users can install the free software suite LibreOffice, which not only replaces Office but reads and writes the same file formats. Many similar choices exist, this is just one.
Gamers can install the free Steam game compatibility layer on Linux, then play many of the same games they play on Windows.
Meanwhile, Redmond's recent requirement that everyone sign up for a Microsoft account, and its pushing the Recall eavesdropping-to-cloud feature with no user opt-out provisions, clearly signals Microsoft's belief that their customers should't be allowed to choose.
Here is a list of current Windows traits that should be options, but are out of an end-user's control:
* Required Microsoft account.
* User tracking and telemetry without knowledge or consent.
* OneDrive, which is cloud storage and tracking, requires technical skill to disable.
* Desktop-recall images to the cloud, essentially Microsoft mass surveillance.
* Edge browser, cannot disable or remove.
* Unintuitive user interface, out of user's control.
* Advertising everywhere.
All these frequently heard complaints are addressed by Linux, and Linux is free.
I've been a Linux user for 30 years. I maintain one Windows dual-boot system, partly to help friends deal with Windows issues, partly to entertain myself with what most people believe constitutes a normal end-user computer experience.
A bit of context -- my first computer was an Apple II in 1977, so my definition of personal computing might seem out of touch with modern times (https://www.atariarchives.org/deli/cottage_computer_programm...).