Very good article. As you're aware, I'm a Windows Defender too (catchy name - wonder if it could be used on ... never mind).

When you consider the boggling scope of what Microsoft set out to do: build an operating system that will run on virtually all extant computers with any combination of hardware, it's almost beyond belief that they brought it off. And, as you point out, it's so well integrated that it can, 99+% of the time, find the right drivers for the peripherals - out of tens of thousands - well, I'd say it couldn't be done if I didn't know it had been done.

I've been loving/hating MS since the DOS 3 era and have sent many obscene curses winging toward Redmond through the years. But now? Just load 10 and go to work. Hats off to Apple for building systems that work - but at the cost of just about any flexibility that the user might desire. It's a closed universe and a small one - you can do anything that Cupertino allows, and that's all.

But today's Windows, almost thirty years on, has finally delivered the promise of utter ease and flexibility. What they've done, technically, is so far beyond what Apple ever attempted, that no comparison can possibly tell the story.

It's good, but in the early releases, it was buggy on installation, but the last major update was perfect

Quote from richietog

It's good, but in the early releases, it was buggy on installation, but the last major update was perfect

And there you go. My point, hoping not to be tedious, is to admire the scope of what MS has done. Apple is near-perfect in its little world; Microsoft has said, “bring it all to us and we’ll make it work.”

And damned if they didn’t.

OK, I'm sold. Need to get serious about replacing my ancient, weary laptop.

Windows 10 is good, if you want someone to know every thing you write, view, and don't mind it. I just wouldn't use it if I was a writer of controversial political nature.

Quote from Icyman

Windows 10 is good, if you want someone to know every thing you write, view, and don't mind it. I just wouldn't use it if I was a writer of controversial political nature.

If you truly believe that MS has hooks in Windows that lets them/someone monitor your private work, then it would be obvious that actually using or sending that material through cyberspace would get it directly into those same hands, or worse.

So if the controversial writing is meant as a purely private activity, never to be seen by anyone other than the writer, maybe that's a concern. But if you feel that all activity is monitored, then what difference does it make if it's seen earlier, rather than a bit later?