In my opinion, the best operating system should be one that you don't even realise is there. "Features" being added which get in the way of what you need to do is a step in the wrong direction.

"If you don't like it, stick with what you're already using"

While this might be a good idea in the short term, eventually people are going to have to migrate to the newer version no matter what.

"Who cares if Microsoft spies on you. You have a smartphone, a Google account, and a Facebook account, what's the difference?"

There's a massive difference between your operating system spying on you and Google spying on you. At least if you're going to go watch midget porn you know to use a VPN to evade Google's prying eyes, but how do you hide your fetish from Windows? And when was the last time you watched porn on your phone?

"Cortana and the XBox apps aren't bloatware - they're features!"

Cortana maybe, but I still wouldn't find it useful. I fail to see what's so hard about opening a web browser and typing in your search query. Is there a reason why everyone wants to talk to their operating system at 2 in the morning while everyone else is trying to sleep? And what if I don't own an XBox?

"Apple does the same with their operating system, so you shouldn't have a problem with it"

There's a reason why we're PC users though. We typically know what we're doing. We build our own machines and customise everything including our operating system so that it behaves in a way that we can control.

As for the compulsory updates I can't wait for all the surprise features which Microsoft want to spring on its users. Skype anyone?

And what about my parent's PCs which I've locked down so tight that they can't mess anything up; will I get to look forward to them calling me to tell me that for some reason the start button has disappeared again, or that XYZ keeps crashing?

What about my sister's laptop which she only uses once every 3 months or so. One time I had to wait 2 hours for it to install an update before I was allowed to use it, and she told me that it happens to her all the time and that she'd just find other things to do while waiting. That was running Windows 8 which thankfully I was able to disable updates for - sister has been super happy ever since.

Ho hum.

While this might be a good idea in the short term, eventually people are going to have to migrate to the newer version no matter what.

Uh, not really. My mums PC still has Windows XP, and if it hadn't been for DirectX11, I would have not switched to Win7 eigther. Though I really got to like Win7, and I did not upgrade to eigther Windows 8 or 8.1 at any point, expect that my new laptop had it default-installed. I will maybe try Win10, since it is free, but I'll give it a few months or so.

So no, you really don't "have to" update in any way at any point. Even after support is discontinued, that doesn't mean you'll get hacked immediately the day after.

There's a massive difference between your operating system spying on you and Google spying on you. At least if you're going to go watch midget porn you know to use a VPN to evade Google's prying eyes, but how do you hide your fetish from Windows? And when was the last time you watched porn on your phone?

Unpopular opinion: Who cares if microsoft know what my fetishes are and what (legal) porn I've been watching? I wouldn't want someone to know that who is in my immediate social environment due to understandable reasons, but so what if Microsoft employee number 12345 knows that person with ID 2586838 just watched 2 hours of porn? Or even if they knew it with my real name, like why should I care. If they start using my data against me and made it public, guess what outlash that would cause on their end. It generally boggles my mind why so many people are seriously concerned about people you don't know and will never ever have anything to do with know what legal activities you are performing in your free time (most likely even anonymized in the process, do you really think any one person at microsoft will have time to read through your whole user activity list even if your PC was sending like a screenshot to microsoft every second?).

Unpopular opinion: Who cares if microsoft know what my fetishes are and what (legal) porn I've been watching? I wouldn't want someone to know that who is in my immediate social environment due to understandable reasons, but so what if Microsoft employee number 12345 knows that person with ID 2586838 just watched 2 hours of porn?

What if you upset someone who works for Microsoft or knows of someone who does? Police already illegally access metadata in order to check up on their daughter's boyfriends, new neighbours, etc.

In any case, Microsoft collects and sells this metadata to government agencies.

You know one of the first things the Nazis did was raid local council buildings for citizenship records in order to determine who was and was not Jewish. Call me paranoid and tell me to take off my tinfoil hat, but I can't believe that we've managed to completely overlook past events to the point where it's suddenly okay to collect, store, and sell someone's entire online profile.

What if you upset someone who works for Microsoft or knows of someone who does? Police already illegally access metadata in order to check up on their daughter's boyfriends, new neighbours, etc.

How would I upset someone like that if I don't know them? well, potentially this could be a problem, but I'd say: In this case, the people doing those illegal things with the data is the problem, not the data itself. Police can appearently do a lot of illegal things (specially in America from what I've heard), but again, that makes those cops who do those things the perpetrators and not those who collect data in the first place.

In any case, Microsoft collects and sells this metadata to government agencies.

Which I don't see as a huge deal, as long as the government doesn't misuse this data to directly harm me (see next point). Might be since I'm living in a completely different area (austria), but I've never got in trouble with my government due to online metadata (I doubt that there is really anyone in most western countries who hasn't done anything illegal too).

You know one of the first things the Nazis did was raid local council buildings for citizenship records in order to determine who was and was not Jewish. Call me paranoid and tell me to take off my tinfoil hat, but I can't believe that we've managed to completely overlook past events to the point where it's suddenly okay to collect, store, and sell someone's entire online profile.

Yes, this can totally be a problem. This is like the first argument that always comes up in a form in the debatte about data collection/storage. Here is my take on it:

If there ever is a regime like the nazis who use collected data to find out and eliminate their political/ideological enemies, than the problem is that there is such a regime in the first place. Get what I mean? Sure they can use collected data at their advantage but that doesn't make the data and the previous harmless collection malicious, it just means that your government is f*cked up. The one point to argue now is: Should we prevent any collection of data based on the possibility that there might ever arise a system that could use this data against us? I'd say hell no! First of all its just a possibility. Without taking into account statistically probability for something like this to happen, I'm sure there is 10000 other things that could potentially screw us over like sudden nuclear destruction, famine, etc... should we now take precautions for all of those things just because they might eventually happen? Same with data collection, should we really deny any collection of data for non-directly harmful activities just because it might one day be used against us? (keep in mind, governments already have lots of data of you like where you live, where you where born, what job you have... and I say thats ok, if not for the better)

Second of all, even pretending for the sake of this argument that such a nazi-like regime would arise tomorrow, and we would now erase pretty much all the collected data. They would still find a way to harm whoever they want to harm.

So it pretty much comes down to "taking any action towards reduction of personal data collection based on the potential of future misuse is a waste of time".

but I can't believe that we've managed to completely overlook past events to the point where it's suddenly okay to collect, store, and sell someone's entire online profile.

I'm not even really saying its OK. I'm saying: As long as it doesn't hurt me, I don't bother. Its just pragmatism. I wouldn't even call it paranoia if you are afraid of future misuse of your data, but I'd sure call it irrational fear. I'm a sceptic, I try not to take things for granted because I see it as logical, because someone told me or because my feelings dictate me too, but I try to see things as the most recent, most credible hard evidence suggests. So if someone has clear proof that the current privacy policies of microsoft, google & co will eventually and/or most likely have a hugely negative impact on my life, I'll change my mind for sure. If I ever am to die and had no negative experiences with my data microsoft takes in my life, they can do with it whethever they like.

Maybe a better modern-day example is China attempting to hack into Gmail's servers, to find evidence to prosecute human-rights advocates in China, and to allow China to track human-rights activists speaking out against China in other countries.

Or, Snowden leaking details that included identifying undercover agents in foreign countries.

Or, any recent mass theft of personal information of civilians to be used for identity fraud (seems to happen every few months in the USA). The more companies that collect personal information, and the more companies they share it with, the more potential points of leakage. The more detailed that collected personal information is, the harder it is for you to recover from, as that information can be used to gain access to all your accounts even in non-hacked companies, and even with non-internet-specific organizations (like hospitals and such).

Or, as already mentioned, the repeated small-scale abuse of authority by individual government and corporate employees in the FBI, IRS, and local police forces.

It's also not an irrational fear that a government might turn orwellian. Skipping over WW2 (and IBM's participation), we've had alot of of corrupt governments since then. Modern day North Korea and China, cold-war Russia (and all the nations that were part of the USSR), and increasingly modern-day Russia is becoming more oppressive. Heck, we've had corrupt presidents in the USA. The USA, and other democratic governments, have checks and balances to reduce corruption and to limit the damage of corruption, but there's no real guarantee that things don't eventually turn bad.

I don't mind trading some personal information for services or benefits, but I like it to be as explicit and opt-in as possible.

Seriously, how is bringing up valid points in history inappropriate? No really, that's asinine. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Shogun.