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I’m in the same camp but my issue was Windows 10 and the insistence on a Microsoft account to install Firefox and Thunderbird. I just didn’t want to give them the info they required to set a Windows account up. I would have stuck with the Windows 10 that came pre installed on the laptop. I just didn’t want a Microsoft account, although I was happy to give internet access when setting the machine up.

I’ve been using Windows for years and still do so at work with two computers at home still using it although not connected to anything (and one is dual boot). For me Windows 8 was where everything started to go wrong with the OS GUI. The red X tricking you into ‘upgrading’ to Windows 8. Once you were upgraded there were now two different places things could run not one. The TIFKAM screen for apps and the Desktop for programs. The lack of a hierarchical menu structure added to the problem. Microsoft seemed determined to make changes that would work in a touch environment whether you had a touchscreen or not. Sinofsky seemed to brush off all the criticism of the interface before and after it was released. The smart money was on the return to a traditional GUI with a start button in the next version. This then came to pass with Windows 10. They had a collection of apps built for Windows Phone which was touch, so it would have seemed sensible to make Win. 8 compatible with those apps. They didn’t and we all know what happened to the phone division. I still have a Windows phone, a 1033 which I use for the rather good camera.

I’m all for Microsoft but they make these decisions seemingly without checking to see how popular they’ll be. Years ago I was installing some software and you had register/authenticate this on the internet. They however realised that you might not ever have/nor want this machine connected to the web. Therefore they had a system that allowed for this and you copied the codes over manually. Yes it was a little bit of extra work but on an airgapped machine it solved a lot of problems.