militant vegans

Well, then don't. But don't be surprised when things keep getting worse.

They don’t use it because there’s absolutely no need for them to do so when Windows is a fantastic OS for their needs

The issue has never been whether Windows is a good OS or not. Almost anything you can do with Linux you can also do with Windows[1]. The issue has always been the risk that Microsoft could pull the rug from under your feet and the fact that there's nothing you can do about it as long as you're on their platform. You can see all the bullshit that people have had to deal with in the past 10 years as the result of people being comfortable with taking that risk - shitty upgrades, telemetry, ads, and now this. And nobody even knows what other kinds of bullshit they'll try to pull in the future.

None of this to say that you have to choose one platform or another. Everything is a calculated risk. Use Windows if that's what you want, but by this point, it's clear that you will have to continue with putting up with more and more of this abusive behavior from Microsoft if that's the choice that you're making.

[1]: This is somewhat starting to change though. These days, for a lot of programming- and data science-related tasks, Linux is starting to pull further and further ahead and Windows is becoming more and more unusable.

For me new Windows releases grow more annoying, slow and counter-intuitive. Switching PCs at work made it mandatory that I went through all 'bad' Windows, like Vista and 8, now on w10. Sure, XP-7-w10 weren't\aren't that bad, but they all feel worse than the previous one. Nevertheless, I could've sticked to one of them, get used to, no problem. But they all get outdated, can't use X RAM, don't have DirectX N, aren't supported with security updates and are blocked from installing latest software.

Configuring it was very limited too. In W10 I can't call TotalCMD or other file manager instead of win expoler from other apps. It eats RAM like candies for no reason. Touchscreen interfaces with empty spaces and no right click are everywhere. Undoing telemetry and defender requires know-how or executing scripts, otherwise it's bloated. Start up times aren't the best too.

Linux is a headache and it's still far from a thing regular PC users would trust without a doubt to handle their usual tasks. The same state Windows slowly comes to, imho. But without being free and insanely customizable. The only things that I need to emulate are superproprietary DRMed products with no alternatives. They are a minority. Most users don't need them, so they have one less argument against switching.

That's my personal account tho. I'm a bit asurprised you like windows as a home system, so I'd want to hear about your positive experience with it if you have some outstanding moments with it.

When was the last time you used Linux on the desktop? It has come a long way and is getting better every month

People don't use Windows because it's a "fantastic" OS for their needs. It very evidently is not "fantastic" (or anywhere close) for anyone's needs but Microsoft's. People use Windows because it comes bundled with their PCs due to Microsoft's monopolistic malpractices, and because they can't get bothered to figure out how to get rid of that bloatware / malware (or, they would get rid of it if possible, but are held hostage by the software — or malware, e.g., Adobe — they need to work only working on Windows, again due to said monopolistic malpractices).

A Linux user watching someone use (and bitch) about Windows is like watching someone right click to copy & paste.

If you know of a vast improvement, why would you keep the benefits of better things to yourself?

Think about how often Windows users bitch about Windows. Think about how many zillions of things they bitch about and how many new things they find to bitch about all the time. Think about how many Windows users say things like, "I love this OS!" or, "This OS is so cool! Look what I can do!"

Now think about how many Linux users you see bitching about Linux. Think about how many are super excited about it and how many instantly become, "fanatics" practically overnight.

There's a reason

Even when you’re a bit more savvy it’s easy to configure Windows to your liking without all the bloat and spying

Bootlicker spotted.

This has not been true since at least win10

Try stopping start or search services from pinging daddy sataya microshit and see how that shit works for you

Also, they revert privacy settings after updates.