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Microsoft Ruined Windows
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Windows 2000 Professional was the first good Windows OS that I can remember. XP and 7 were also quite decent overall.
Around 2008 everything changed. This is when Prism was ramped up, and Microsoft's new mission was to use MSE and telemetry to spy on the world. It was around this time Windows 8 rolled out with spyware and Windows 7 got "security" updates that forced telemetry into it as well.
Information is power, and the general population has no chance of living in a free and fair society until it cleans house in the private and public sectors.
The power argument is true, but secondary. The primary reasons for this are ultimately financial. The problem was that Windows 7 was too good. Too stable. It did everything most people wanted, without issues. What has been added to windows after windows 7 that was actually beneficial to the user? The answer is nothing, within a small margin of error. That's why upgrades to W10 and now 11 are as forced as possible. It's not like those uogrades have anything that people actually need or want. Since they can't produce anything more for windows that people would actually want to pay for, all that is left is adding in telemetry/spyware and selling your data, likely along side a long term vision to turn Windows into a monthly subscription.
When innovation ends but demand for increasing profits doesn't, enshittification is all that is left.