Haven't we moved on from this shit?
As a 40 year old I grew up on a C64, then DOS and Win 3.x, NT3.x all the way up to W11. Been in infrastructure since 15 years old.
I'm not surprised by the thirsty Linux fans rallying in the comments repeating their personal journey to removing themselves from Microsoft oh so many years ago.
Yet the numbers don't lie. Desktop OS usage is pretty static. Windows has lost huge ground when you include tablet and phone use, but for normal corporate desktops it's by far a price any medium or large enterprise is content paying.
The jibes about forcing AI and bloatware don't really apply for businesses. The OS is customised with tools (3rd party or native) that have decades of pedigree. Even at home, I genuinely couldn't tell you what ads I've come across or what forced AI is relevant.
For 20+ years the FOSS brigade have been banging on about poor security by default from Microsoft. Personally I see the narrative in this article as positive, as the worst that can be put against the worlds most popular desktop OS is it has an ad for an app in one or two tiles in the start menu nobody even sees. (Seriously, who looks through the start menu these days, you press start and type in what you want).
The benefits of Windows range from it's extensive compatibility through to comprehensive management tools included and from 3rd parties.
The Linux evangelists should be delighted. Microsoft have significantly improved the reliability and security of Windows over the last decade. We went from rebooting weekly (sometimes daily!) to once a month - maybe, and that's more likely for patches than to resolve an issue. Blue screens are incredibly rare these days. Security, whilst not perfect, is well within the ballpark of Android, Linux, macOS etc.
Even the cost of Windows has dropped significantly. For home users buying OEM copies from their system builder through to the biggest Enterprise Agreement customers and everyone in-between... Windows pricing has nowhere near kept up with inflation. For home users in particular you can get it for free with very little effort.
Even have a Linux kernel and bash accessible natively from the same window as PowerShell / Command Prompt.
Windows, like all OS's, is merely a tool. I'm no more passionate of Linux or Windows as I am my hammer or screwdriver. I genuinely have given up giving a shit about any platform. It's a commodity as IT has matured.
Even Microsoft have realised this, around the Windows 8 era. MS know the money is in services, the client is purely a gateway to access them, hence why M365 and Azure work fine with every main platform / browser, and Linux is used more both on and to power Azure rather than Windows. Why the hell do we care more than the vendor? We shouldn't, and the article is simply an engagement farming piece which given the number of commentards posting (including myself) has worked.
At this point I of course need to mention that I do use Linux, both client and server side, host my own server, love The GIMP and hate Office's default file format to ensure my geek privileges aren't immediately revoked, as all Windows bashing / Linux evangelising posts require by law.