Because some people still require windows for what ever reason and also it's fun to resist corporate bullshit by spitting in their face.
Personally I switched to Bazzite for my gaming rigs and Mint for everything else, but I wont judge anyone who wants to stay on windows despite the hostility microsoft has for its user base and I say more power to them.
Those who stand defiant in the face of overwhelming odds are exactly the sort of folk I like.
How is continuing to use their product (thus being farmed for telemetry and other revenues) defiant in any way?
The reality is you and others are afraid of change. There is no windows-only program I can't run. Your defiance is futile and you're the only one suffering, not Microsoft.
I get it but let me give you an example of the sort of thing Linux is dealing with:
I have a nephew who wanted a PC, and had a small budget (they where 11 at the time and I was not going to let them pay) so I used some parts around and made a not so bad mint machine. It worked very well but can not play fortnight (not an issue with mint or the hardware) or other such anti-cheat games. The child was ok with it but his parents got mad at me as to why I would not just "be normal" and put a real operating system on the machine. They tried to tell my nephew that he should not use his PC until they can bring it to someone that can "fix" it by putting windows on it (they are kinda asshats). Lucky for my nephew the place they took the PC said the same thing I did and that it would not run as well with windows on it, but would do it if they wanted (they said no when they got the cost).
So the PC gets used and is enjoyed (it was the nephews birthday present from me), and used by his father as much as him. But all this time I am getting constant complaints about the "weird stuff" I forced on them, and that one day they will get him a "real" computer. Keep in mind my brother has a PC that is running windows that has more bloat and malware then you would think possible at this time (I think why he kept using his son's) that was about the same in hardware (1060, am4 3600ish, 8 gigs of ram sort of machines). The mint PC was clearly better, and when their child started to point out how much more time my brother spent on his Linux computer then his own my brother just happened to "spill" a whole glass of water directly into his son's computer. Then he hid the PC away and just blamed it not working on the "bad software" that it was running, and how it was a "trash" machine anyway. (I did get it back eventually, replaced the board and shipped it back to my nephew who is now using it again).
So the point of the story is this, would you if you had to deal with users (and lets assume you are not related to them) like this put Linux on their machines or just not want to deal with them and put a ripped and custom windows on it?
In contrast, I set my nephew up with Linux Mint, and he is now slowly converting the rest of his family to open source solutions.
My understanding is that they keep having conversations about privacy news, and he keeps knowing a solution, which sometimes is Android or Linux based. So now his parents will ask me "Is it true the XY protects against YZ and is free?"
Because some people still require windows for what ever reason and also it's fun to resist corporate bullshit by spitting in their face.
Personally I switched to Bazzite for my gaming rigs and Mint for everything else, but I wont judge anyone who wants to stay on windows despite the hostility microsoft has for its user base and I say more power to them.
Those who stand defiant in the face of overwhelming odds are exactly the sort of folk I like.
How is continuing to use their product (thus being farmed for telemetry and other revenues) defiant in any way?
The reality is you and others are afraid of change. There is no windows-only program I can't run. Your defiance is futile and you're the only one suffering, not Microsoft.
I get it but let me give you an example of the sort of thing Linux is dealing with:
I have a nephew who wanted a PC, and had a small budget (they where 11 at the time and I was not going to let them pay) so I used some parts around and made a not so bad mint machine. It worked very well but can not play fortnight (not an issue with mint or the hardware) or other such anti-cheat games. The child was ok with it but his parents got mad at me as to why I would not just "be normal" and put a real operating system on the machine. They tried to tell my nephew that he should not use his PC until they can bring it to someone that can "fix" it by putting windows on it (they are kinda asshats). Lucky for my nephew the place they took the PC said the same thing I did and that it would not run as well with windows on it, but would do it if they wanted (they said no when they got the cost).
So the PC gets used and is enjoyed (it was the nephews birthday present from me), and used by his father as much as him. But all this time I am getting constant complaints about the "weird stuff" I forced on them, and that one day they will get him a "real" computer. Keep in mind my brother has a PC that is running windows that has more bloat and malware then you would think possible at this time (I think why he kept using his son's) that was about the same in hardware (1060, am4 3600ish, 8 gigs of ram sort of machines). The mint PC was clearly better, and when their child started to point out how much more time my brother spent on his Linux computer then his own my brother just happened to "spill" a whole glass of water directly into his son's computer. Then he hid the PC away and just blamed it not working on the "bad software" that it was running, and how it was a "trash" machine anyway. (I did get it back eventually, replaced the board and shipped it back to my nephew who is now using it again).
So the point of the story is this, would you if you had to deal with users (and lets assume you are not related to them) like this put Linux on their machines or just not want to deal with them and put a ripped and custom windows on it?
In contrast, I set my nephew up with Linux Mint, and he is now slowly converting the rest of his family to open source solutions.
My understanding is that they keep having conversations about privacy news, and he keeps knowing a solution, which sometimes is Android or Linux based. So now his parents will ask me "Is it true the XY protects against YZ and is free?"
It's been a pretty cool thing to watch.
The kids can be alright.