Your comments regarding Win 10 [combined with apparent myopia re 8 / 8.1] ....you can have it.
And I'll keep it, too! As I said, Win 8.1 works exactly like Win 7 with Start8 installed... no Metro, no glitches, no pain. It just works... faster and better than 7 ever did. Oh, and I'm not the only one who like Win 8.1. RND is one who comes to mind, but I recall Phoon and the-Monk as being others.
As for Win 10, it wouldn't exist without Win 8 being created first.... 10 is just a 'dressed up' version of 8.1, but with a fugly UI and nasty looking icons, that are nauseating at best. Given than my other issues with 10 were fixed, which is most unlikely, Stardock would have to remedy both the UI and icon replacement issue before I'd consider installing it on any machine of mine.
As for MS "Not" mining personal usage and data????? Can you categorically 100% say that its not? Put it this way, I wouldn't be betting my 'lefty' on it.
When several tech writers/experts say they've discovered data mining elements deep within the core, and that they're not able to be turned off without rendering the whole OS useless, I tend to 'prick my ears up'... and without a denial from Microsoft, I tend to believe it to be so. What does MS do with all that data [same question could be asked about Google], feched if I know, but it is being gathered and I'm not comfortable with that.
Then there's the 'walled garden' aspect of Win 10. Apple has been making bucket loads from that very concept, and with MS constantly losing market share to Apple, a similar business model was enabled to compete in today's market. The Win 10 'service' is MS' answer to the 'walled garden, and while it may not be so obvious yet, eventually it will become more and more a closed system... where some of our favourite software titles could disappear because certain developers lost favour with MS and other 'more pleasing' ones who 'toed the MS line' were found.
Sorry, no offense is intended here, but this is purely business for Microsoft, and anyone who thinks Win 10 is customer/user driven is either naive or deluded. Given it is a 'free' OS, MS has to recoup the capital invested in 10's development, so it built in features beneficial to itself.... ie, data mining; OS based advertising; core components that cannot be deactivated.
And the 'Cloud' [storage and etc], they can shove it! I don't care who or what created the concept, I neither want or need it, so why would I want an OS [I neither like or trust] that'll largely depend on it as time goes on.... after all, it has become a 'service', right?
There, I've said all I'm going to about 'piggy' Win 10 here. It started off as a hardware based thread and I hope to see it continue more along those lines.