The amount of tinkering required to get Windows to function as I want is increasing, while the same for Linux is decreasing. Eventually they'll cross and that's when I'll switch.
I just used their own firewall to block all the Microsoft ads URLs. I even changed my DNS server to the adguard one so I don't see ads anywhere. That's for the one laptop I have with Windows on it. My main desktop and other laptop both run Linux.
I switched about a year ago. Not because Linux got better, but because MS got worse.
I'm tired of Cortana. The fact that they try to force Edge onto my PC is absolutely infuriating. And I'm tired of these Windows updates constantly breaking my bug fixes. Never even tried W11 but I hear it's much worse (unsurprisingly).
Unfortunately, while people tout things like Wine as a fairly simple and easy way to play games on Linux...the fact of the matter is that trying to play games on Linux continues to be absolute hell. Sure, some games work great out of the box. But the majority of games require a shitton of tinkering to even run, and many won't even work at all. And your specific hardware matters as well.
I used to dabble in Linux from time to time. And I'm not even a bit gamer or anything, but app incompatibility (especially with games) was one of my biggest gripes with it.
It's absolutely insane how many things need turning off to gain some modicum of privacy with win10, I refuse to upgrade but imagine it's worse in win11.
Totally understand the love for Linux. If my audio interface & DAW were compatible I would investigated switching way back. There are other interfaces which appear to be compatible, and other DAWs, but I am highly proficient in the one I've used for ~15 years and don't want to invest time learning a new one; and my audio interface lets me use very, very high end emulations of hardware (UAD).
Seriously considering Linux for potential future live PA work though. Stability is appealing for live stuff!
I was actually quite happy to pay for Windows all these years... it's when they went "free" that this BS started. Go back to a paid model and give us vanilla windows, please!
I've been using Shut Up 10 by O&O Software for ages now. Turns off all recommended telemetry and you can go a step further and disable a ton of stuff, basically anything irksome that M$ pulls.
It's free as well. I haven't noted any negative issues with it. Also works on Win 11
I love ShutUp10. Like you, I have used it for years now with zero problems. It places many different settings and options into one single app. The same settings that Microsoft likes to hide from us by scattering arbitrarily it all over Settings, Control Panel, the registry, etc.
PSA: hotkey for screenshot in windows 10 is (windowsLogoKey)-shift-S
Then you click and drag to select a rectangle.
It’s basically a shortcut to the Snip program.
After you’ve captured the screenshot, you can:
just hit ctrl-V to paste it into any place that can accept a pasted image: email, some chat programs, google drive, Paint, etc
Click on the notification in the lower right. If the notification has already disappeared (it fades away after a few seconds), you can click on the Notifications icon (looks like cartoon chat bubble) in lower right and it’s in the list that shows.
If you click on it in notifications you get a whole window dedicated to editing the screenshot — drawing on it, cropping it, adding text — and then from there you can save it to a file or copy the newly edited image to your clipboard
Also works for win11.
And also i can recommand windows powertoys and devtoys for all kinds of nifty stuff like renaming multiple files, using one mouse and keyboard over multiple pcs and getting Text out of pictures.
Pretty sure it's a Edge notification that youve enabled on a website.
Not to excuse MS, but Ive seen this a lot of time, just edge sending loads of ads notifications