* You can turn off the vast majority of the telemetry, and what little remains can be easily stopped via pihole
* Edge is advertised when you first install Windows, but nothing forces you to use it. I use Firefox with Windows 11 and no mention of Edge appears anywhere now.
* Updates aren't weekly, except maybe security updates. And most updates these days happen unobtrusively in the background.
* They've made great progress with the new Terminal and Powershell apps. They're very good and have more-or-less all the functionality you'd be used to. If you really want more, WSL exists.
* You can turn off anything AI-related. Again, I don't see anything like that on mine.
* You never need to interact with the store, and you can remove it via command if you're really insistent on it.
Yes, but why are these opt-out instead of OPT-IN? [answer: $$$, "ease of use"]
Why must you use command lines to disable features which should have been opt-in, in the first place?
Why must one use a 3rd party device (e.g. PiHoles, which ARE awesome) to disable stuff — particularly when you can't even turn all telemetry off in the first place?
Because Window is, at its core, meant for average, everyday users. Not developers. Not power users.
And for the average user, all they care about is having a web browser and access to get the applications they need.
I really don't see the harm in the MS store being present. It offers them a user-friendly way to tell people to "just go here and install X" without having to walk them through anything more complicated.
Perhaps, upon initial installation, operating systems should have an option of selecting which operating environment they prefer (e.g. do you want to have all your personal information sent to vendor for customized adds; do you want to have normal OS, or advanced; do you want to use generative AI)?
Personally, my only Windows machine runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit [turns on once a month]. All my computers sit behind several PiHoles.
* Edge is advertised when you first install Windows, but nothing forces you to use it. I use Firefox with Windows 11 and no mention of Edge appears anywhere now.
* Updates aren't weekly, except maybe security updates. And most updates these days happen unobtrusively in the background.
* They've made great progress with the new Terminal and Powershell apps. They're very good and have more-or-less all the functionality you'd be used to. If you really want more, WSL exists.
* You can turn off anything AI-related. Again, I don't see anything like that on mine.
* You never need to interact with the store, and you can remove it via command if you're really insistent on it.